THE MERRY CEMETERY, ROMANIA

The Merry Cemetery (Romanian: Cimitirul Vesel) is in the village of Sapanta, Maramure county (then in Austria-Hungary). It is famous for its colourful tombstones with naive paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the persons that are buried there as well as scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum. It was called like this by he tourists coming here in the sixties.
The unusual feature of this cemetery is that it diverges from the prevalent belief, culturally shared within European societies -a belief that views death as something indelibly solemn. connections with the local Dacian culture have been made, a culture whose philosophical tenets presumably vouched for the immortality of the soul and the belief that death was a moment filled with joy and anticipation for a better life.
The cemetery's origins are linked with the name of Stan Ioan Patras, a local artist who sculpted the first tombstone crosses. In 1935, he carved the first epitaph and, as of 1960s, more than 700 of such oak wood crosses came into sight.
The founder, Stan Ioan Patras was born in 1908 in  Sapanta commune, in a family that had a long tradition in wood sculpting. Even from his youth he was attracted to sculpture, painting and poetry and at the age of 14 he started to sculpt oak crosses.
In 1935 Stan Ioan Patras, then an anonymous sculptor, started to carve onto the tombstones small poems written in the first person: ironic poems, with grammatical errors very close to the archaic language the locals spoke. At the beginning he carved only 10 tombstones a year using oak as the base wood.
By 1936 he had already perfected his style: the tombstones became narrower, he started to paint relief figures on them using bright colours obtained from natural pigments. The main colour he used was blue, a special blue named by experts Sapanta blue. The other colours were also symbolic in their unique way: Green - life, Yellow - fertility, Red - passion, Black - death.
This cemetery takes part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2004 and was classified in 1998 as the first in Europe and the second in the world, after  the « Valley of the Kings » in Egypt.




Inscriptions

Since I was a little boy
I was known as Stan Ioan Patras
Listen to me, fellows
There are no lies in what I am going to say
All along my life
I meant no harm to anyone
But did good as much as I could
To anyone who asked
Oh, my poor World
Because It was hard living in it


Now I will tell you a good one
I kind of liked the plum tuica
With my friends at the pub
I used to forget what I came for.

Guadaloupa : Cemeteries at the seaside

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LA GUADELOUPE

The tour of the cemeteries in Guadeloupe led us from the marine cemeteries in Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre - Anse Bertrand, Baie-Mahaut, Bouillante, Gosier, Port-Louis, Sainte-Anne, Saint-François- to the cemetery of the capital Pointe-à-Pitre.

Constants : the tombs are in black and white tiling, sometimes it looks like the tiling of the bathroom, and the poorest are enclosed by shells. These shells -lambis- are used sometimes as music instruments or for cooking. Many candles, new one or from the last All-saints-day, redden the graves.

Anse Bertrand, at the north of Grande-Terre, was a refuge for the Caribbean Indians who were fleeing from the first settlers. Then their sons let the place to the settlers who came for growing the cotton and the cane sugar. In 1790, there were 12 cotton mills, 24 windmills and 21 sugar factories.

Port-Louis, at the north-west of Grande-Terre, was first called Pointe d’Antiques, then the town was given the name of the king Louis XIV. During the Revolution, it was called Port-Libre, and in the 19th  century it was Port-Louis again.

Morne-à-l’eau, in the heart of Grande-Terre, founded in 1847, is well known, in Guadeloupe for its crab feast on Easter (but we went in January), and around the world for its cemetery. In the old times, masters and slaves were not mixed but now you can find every kind of people, from the rich “békés” to the simple farmer or the woman who founded the communist party for Guadeloupe.
No marble, no granite, the most of the graves (1 800) are in black and white tiling, sometimes in cement.
Following the rites, 14 days before the All-saints-day, people start to clean, to paint the graves so that they are beautiful for the Day of the Dead. On the 1st of November, it is a feast:  bokits (1), pistachio-nuts (2) , sinoballs (3)  are sold, as in Mexico.

typical sandwiches from Guadeloupe
peanuts
sirup ice-creams

Pointe-à-Pitre, the capital, is situated at the west of Grande-Terre, on the Caribbean Sea.
This name is an anthroponomy. A man, Peter, a Dutchman from the Brazil, at the 17th century, would have come on this lost land, an have increased his job. He would have sold food, weapons… to the boats coming in the harbour. All the sailors went by “Pitre”, at la Pointe (the spit of the land). The name Pointe-à Pitre was officially given to this place in 1772.
The cemetery was created in 1807 following a strict map: a main street, secondary alleys, and squares, names of which come very often from a tree or from the “inhabitants”: square of the Policemen, of  the Angels (young children), of the Spirit (religious people), of Suicide, of Bad boys, or natural disasters, Cholera victims (1865), “Cyclonés” (cyclone in 1928).


Gosier: the name comes from the pelicans (big poach and big mouth), which were used to come and eat small crabs just in front of the town.
Here arrives the “Rum cup” from Saint-Malo.


The harbour of Sainte-Anne was the Headquarters of the Admiralty at the 18th century. There was also the shipping for rum and sugar. At the beginning of the 20th century: 34 sugar factories.
Beaches of white sand and a coral barrier. Lagoons and coconuts are the symbols of this village.

Baie-Mahault: the entrance door to Basse-Terre when coming from Grande-Terre. Here is the industrial area, Jarry Houelbourg, the economic heart for Guadeloupe.
Mahault is the name of a tree growings in this region, from the same family as the mangrove.

Bouillante, at the south of Basse-Terre, one of the oldest villages in Guadeloupe, was first called “ Guavas islet” when founded in 17th century.
The name Bouillante comes from the several hot water springs (176F), everywhere, even under the sea.

We visit first Morne-à-l’eau and Pointe-à-Pitre, then the marine cemeteries.