All Saints Day | 1st November | All Hallows’ Day | Hallowmas | All Souls Day | Vlog 34

All Saints Day | 1st November | All Hallows' Day | Hallowmas | All Souls Day | Vlog 34

Support us on Patreon / Stephen and Yhana YouTube Channel

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All Saints Day | 1st November | All Hallows’ Day | Hallowmas | All Souls Day | Vlog 34

The 3rd August 2020 – 3rd August 2021 was Stephen and Yhana‘s first year on YouTube – To celebrate they are sharing one video a day across all of their favourite social media platforms – Facebook Page, Twitter and Website, as well as a daily shout out on their youtube community page. – So please check often incase you missed any of their videos during that first year.

They have also published their very first youtube almanac – Which was released 3rd august 2021.

The book will be available to buy via Amazon shortly – Although you can get a free signed copy by signing up and supporting their journey on Patreon

All Patreon‘s will get a regular mention on YouTube and on their channel publications – As your support is very much appreciated and will help to purchase filming equipment and trips to historical sites, so they can keep their films coming.

Stephen and Yhana - History and Adventure Hunters Almanac - OUT NOW
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac – OUT NOW

All Saints Day | 1st November | All Hallows’ Day | Hallowmas | All Souls Day | Vlog 34

All Saints Day | 1st November | All Hallows’ Day | Hallowmas | Vlog 34

A big welcome to our 34th Vlog, A history of All Saints Day, filmed on location in Maldon, Essex on the 1st November – This film is in memory of my Roman Catholic Grandfather – John Kuta – The film includes a look at his life and his time spent in a Nazi Labour Camp during World War II

All Saints Day

Yhana and I started our trip today in Church Street, Maldon because not only did we want to visit Maldon Cemetery to pay our respects to my Grandfather, Yhana’s Great-Grandfather but we also wanted to re-visit a few locations around the town that are connected in one way or another to our family story

So our first stop was St Mary’s Church, where a few of our forebears are buried.

Many of these locations Yhana has never visited, so It was a new adventure for her.

It’s the 1st November, All Saints Day and being that my grandfather identified himself as Roman Catholic, although baptised Greek Catholic and in keeping with family tradition we intend to light some candles next to his graveside.

My grandfather John Kuta, was born in 1924 in Komarno, Galicia. Which is an Eastern European territory that existed between 1770 – 1918, at the time of his birth. Komarno was a Polish town, I will tell you a little more about this as the story progresses.

Under the St Mary the Virgin, Church extension is buried my 2x great-grandmother Charlotte Anna Newman, who was born Charlotte Diskett on the 19th July 1866 in Compton Valence, Dorset. She moved to Essex with her first husband Charles Barrett, a soldier for Colchester (my 2x great-grandfather.) Sadly he died very young and is buried in Colchester. But Charlotte is buried alongside her second husband Frederick. Its a shame though, that this new extension was built right on top of their burial. Charlotte died in Spital Road, Maldon on the 23rd April 1935.

Firstly, A little about all Saints da

All Saints Day, also known as All Hallows’ Day, or Hallowmas, is a Christian celebration in honor of all the saints from Christian history. In Western Christianity, it is observed on November 1st by the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, the Lutheran Church, and other Protestant denominations. The Eastern Orthodox Church and associated Eastern Catholic churches observe All Saints Day on the first Sunday following Pentecost.

The Christian festival of All Saints Day comes from a conviction that there is a spiritual connection between those in Heaven and on Earth. In Catholic tradition, the holiday honors all those who have passed on to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a national holiday in numerous historically Catholic countries. In Methodist tradition, All Saints Day relates to giving God earnest gratitude for the lives and deaths of his saints, remembering those who were well-known and not. Additionally, individuals throughout Christian history are celebrated, such as Peter the Apostle and Charles Wesley, as well as people who have personally guided one to faith in Jesus, such as one’s relative or friend.

Whilst watching the video you will see us wander down Fitches Crescent, which is not far from St Mary’s Church and The Promenade. It is here that my grandfather John lived with my grandmother Rosie May. Every time I visit this street, its always a trip down memory land for me as I stayed here as a small boy and have a lot of very early memories of the place.

My grandfather’s hands were placed into a machine and the Nazi’s broke them.

For many years I have been piecing together the life of my grandfather John Kuta or as he was known in Poland – Jan Kuta, Or in the Ukraine Iban Kyta and France Jean Kuta – My grandfather was associated with all these places and moved around a lot, not always through choice. As a result his story is a complicated one

He was a Pole, born on the 21st January 1924, his family fled Poland just a few weeks before the Russians / Ukrainians invaded in the late 1920’s and settled in Bethune, France.

His ordeal was not over, as the Nazi’s invaded France in 1940.

And he found himself on the wrong side of Nazi Germany whilst fighting and protesting against them.

On one occasion – My grandfather was arrested in Hamme, Belgium.

He was then transferred to Morbach concentration camp via Detmold Court House, Germany.

Morbach is classed as a french camp although now located close to its border in Germany. It is a subsidiary camp that belonged to Natzweiler-Struthof, a camp infamous for human experiments. (Please forgive my pronunciation of the German words)

He was transported to his prison on 5th November 1942 at 11.09 am

He was sentenced to 8 weeks on two separate occasions, but may easily have been held longer.

He was forced two work hard manual labour and on one occasion didn’t comply so my grandfather’s hands were placed into a machine and the Nazi’s broke them.

On his release he would have had no money.

And probably walked 446 kilometres = 277.132 miles home to Bethune, through dangerous war ravaged France.

He was sent to a labour camp on two occasions

Whilst home in France, his family worked tiresomely as farmers, for three years they lived on a diet of Turnips as food was scarce and monopolised by the Germans.

Eventually he ended up in a Polish displacement camp in Essex, England, it is believed he arrived in 1945.

My Grandfather, Jan Kuta was one of those people that lived on the edge and survived more then most of us ever could. I never knew my Grandfather, he died just a few months before I was born. I would have been his first Grandson and like my sister before me I imagine he would have been a Godsend to us. Everyone that talks of him, always do with admiration and love, he was a “Nice” man and respected by everyone that knew him.

Jan Kuta was born on the 18th January 1924, in Katarynice, Lviv, Poland. He was one of four known children born to Michal and Katarzyna Kuta.

Jan was born during a time of difficulty right at the beginning of the second polish republic. A time of interwar which started with the recreation of independent Poland (1918) and ended with the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the onset of the Second World War. During the second polish republic, Poland was often chaotic and for some an unsafe place to be. Jan’s family especially lived in a region of Poland which boarded with Ukraine, a piece of land disputed and fought over by more then one country for over two hundred years.

John hardly spoke of what happened in Germany, in Poland upon the borders of Ukraine. All I can

guess is that the memory he had, was to heart breaking to remember.

John was taken from us on the 23 February 1878, at 44 Fitches Crescent, Maldon. He past away

suddenly through Cardiac Arrest and Ischaemic Heart Disease, he was 54 years old.

No age really, and a great loss to the family he left behind.

John’s ashes were laid to rest at London Road, Cemetery, Maldon where his memorial still remains

today.

A small reminder of brave, amazing man.

  • Published: 1 November 2020
  • Location: Maldon, Essex
  • Duration: 16:37
  • Photography – Stephen Robert Kuta / Yhana Kuta
  • Written by – Stephen Robert Kuta

Music –

  • In Love and War by Edward Joe Myers
  • An Ode To All Mothers by Howard Harper-Barnes
  • Amazing Grace by Sven Karlsson

Music Licensed by Epidemic Sound

All Saints Day | 1st November | All Hallows’ Day | Hallowmas | All Souls Day | Vlog 34

​Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac

Stephen and Yhana - History and Adventure Hunters Almanac - OUT NOW
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac – OUT NOW

Support us on Patreon / Stephen and Yhana YouTube Channel

Become a Patron!

On the 30th of January, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). In the following weeks, the virus quickly spread worldwide, forcing the governments of affected countries to implement lockdown measures to decrease transmission rates and prevent the overload of hospital emergency rooms.

The United Kingdom implemented lockdown on the 16th of March, 2020 and from this date and up until the 3rd August, 2021 the UK had suffered three national lockdowns which all included Restrictive measures on border controls, closing of schools, markets, restaurants, nonessential shops, bars, entertainment and leisure facilities, as well as a ban on all public and private events and gatherings. In between these lockdowns we saw tier systems and heavy restrictions on how we all lived our lives.

We all decided on different approaches on how we spent that free time as many people were on Furlough as their businesses were shut, only key-workers carried out their working duties. Although I continued working as a key-worker, I still had a lot more free time as Yhana was not at school.

Both Yhana and I spent those first few months experimenting with tiktok and photography, we explored our home village of Great Leighs and took some incredible photographs as spring and eventually summer took hold.

Tiktok was a short-lived adventure for us, although we enjoyed it all the same — tiktok like so many Social Media platforms had exploded during the pandemic but none more so then YouTube.

In 2020 alone YouTube had more than 9 billion views globally

66% of people used YouTube to develop a new hobby in 2020, and a whopping 94% of people in India used YouTube to learn to do things themselves, Whilst Globally, 82% used YouTube to the same. What were they learning to do, exactly?

• Views of beauty tutorials increased nearly 50% in 2020.

• There was a 90% increase in bike maintenance and repair videos.

• Daily views of videos with “raising chickens” in the title increased 160%.

• Videos related to learning guitar saw 160 million views from mid-March to mid-April.

• Videos about container gardening saw 6 million views in the same period.

• There was a 215% increase in daily uploads of videos related to self-care.

• There was a 458% increase in daily views of videos about making sourdough bread and a 200% increase in daily views of recipe videos for bubble tea.

• Videos of how-to videos for home haircuts also spiked in April.

Even though these giant increases in YouTube views began as early as March 2020, it took Yhana and I up until August of that year to begin our own channel, and Yhana’s encouragement certainly helped on that matter.

So it began, 3 August 2020 – We went out and filmed our very first video. To be honest I wasn’t sure what our plan would be for our channel, I had a rough idea of what kind of content I would like Yhana and I to make and as a historian I looked at the channel as a way to record at least one year of our life, not just any year either, but our life during the Covid-19 Pandemic. So for me, it was a great way to record a piece of social history.

This book in front of you developed from that period of our lives also, and is a showcase / diary / almanac of all the videos we created, many of the photographs we took, the treasure hunts we went on and some of the incredible finds we discovered just a short walk from where we lived. In truth, those finds would never have been discovered if it wasn’t for lockdown.

So for prosperity, social history, a window into our lives during the Covid-19 pandemic and a transparent visual look at what its like to create a YouTube channel in that first year including channelytics, descriptions of videos, thumbnail artwork, viewer comments and more.

We have written this full guide, our first joint book –

Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac.

Stephen and Yhana - History and Adventure Hunters Almanac - OUT NOW
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac – OUT NOW

The book is available to buy through Amazon and via all good bookshops.

LINK BELOW –

RECEIVE A FREE SIGNED COPY BY SIGNING UP AND SUPPORTING OUR JOURNEY ON PATREON.

Support us on Patreon / Stephen and Yhana YouTube Channel

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