Many in Krakow spent the night in the Blonie meadows after a service Thursday that drew a million people to the place where John Paul celebrated several Masses during his visits to the city. John Paul studied for the priesthood and served as bishop and archbishop in Krakow.

On Friday, people in the meadow sang along with the hymns from the service in Rome as they watched on huge television screens, and applauded the homily by the celebrant, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

In Warsaw, sirens wailed for three minutes to announce the start of the funeral to the capital. Stores and schools closed, major newspapers did not publish, and pictures of the pope with black ribbons hung in windows everywhere.

In John Paul II's small hometown of Wadowice, 15,000 people gathered in front of his baptismal church wept as they watched his coffin carried into St. Peter's Basilica for burial. An orchestra played his favorite song, ''The Barge.''

Word spread by text message and television for people across Poland to turn out their lights for five minutes at 9:37 p.m., the time the pope died Saturday.

People packed Warsaw's Pilsudski Square where the pope celebrated Mass before a million people during his first visit to Poland as pope in 1979. Others gathered in the Old Town in front of Saint Ann's Church to watch the funeral on television screens.

''The pope was an extraordinary person and did great things,'' 18-year-old high school student Janek Chorzewski said as he watched the funeral start. ''We should follow his example.''