Doh!
If all the world is truly a stage and we are but players, then there can be no tragedy without comedy. Some places manage to celebrate the lives of those passed. Even poke a little fun.
In Sapanţa, along the Ukrainian border in the Maramureş region of northwest Romania, there lives a relatively new tradition of greeting death with a smile. There the grave markers broadcast in vibrant colors miniature descriptions of the person whose body lies below.
Some of them are down right funny. Some are poetic. Some are clever. Some are just down to earth. But none of them are depressing or angsty. Sapanţa tends to celebrate the human that was and remind us all to consider how we, too, will be remembered after we’re gone.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Oh, how I envy thee! I’ve never made it so far from Bucharest :(
July 26th, 2007 at 9:00 am
These are most colorful illustrations….in many various ways! A wake has always been my favorite way to celebrate and remember some one who has passed. This celebration surpasses all cultures (if all cultures will allow, that is). Blessings is not about religion, but refers to wishes.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
It’s not “a relatively new tradition”. Maybe the cemetery is a new tradition, although as far as i know it started over 50 years old, so there’s hardly something new there. As for greeting death with a smile that’s an ancient habit ;).
July 26th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Yeah, Dacians are believed to have been merry in time of “grief”.
By the way: in the first days of my career, I mischievously translated “Cimitirul vesel” with “Gay Cemetery” in a brochure about Romania.
Huuge scandal ensued. :]
August 6th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
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