What’s so funny about death?! After all, it’s no laughing matter, right? The ritual trappings of death in our western culture demand solemnity, as we lay to rest the recently expired and speak only of the best qualities of their earthly existence.
Honoring the Deceased with a Smile
However, not so solemn for the villagers of Sǎpânța, a small town in northwest Romania’s Maramures region. They embrace the humor and warmth in honoring life’s final act, as I found out on a visit to the burial grounds around the town’s church. Merry Cemetery is an affectionate, sometimes downright funny, collection of headstones that illustrates and comments on the lives of the deceased and, in some cases, their causes of death.
In the Maramures region, which extends into western Ukraine, residents maintain many of the old rural traditions and crafts dating back to the Dacians of pre-Roman times, who once ruled a vast area of Eastern Europe. Nestled in the Carpathian Mountains, three-fourths of the region is forested, so wood serves as the main construction material: hence, wooden churches and wooden headstones. In fact, UNESCO named six famous and spectacular wooden churches of this region collectively as a World Heritage site.
Merry Cemetery’s over 800 carved and brightly colored oakwood markers attract busloads of tourists to wander among them, smiling and sometimes laughing out loud. Scripts on each tombstone are in Romanian (one of the five Romance languages), and sometimes individual words seemed familiar. Fortunately for us, our Romanian guide Nic translated the epitaphs. But the scenes depicting habits, qualities, and cause of demise of the dearly departed needed no translation.
Depicting Life and Death on a Headstone
For instance, on one board a man faces forward as if he’s crossing the street, while next to him, a truck and driver heads his way, indicating the means of his unfortunate demise. Another tombstone shows a man seated on a chair in his house next to a table with a bottle of vodka, suggesting his affinity with those spirits was his undoing.
Not all the wooden headstones (quite an oxymoron) depict tragedies. A husband honors his wife with a likeness of her standing in her home wearing an apron with a babushka around her head for being a good housekeeper and giving him many children. On another, a housewife beats a rug draped over a fence, while a housewife milks the cow on a nearby marker. On the other hand, menfolk shear the sheep, tend their orchards, farm the fields, dance to two fiddlers, or are honored for their service by the church.
The Crucifixion particularly caught my eye for its mixed appropriation of time periods. Two soldiers in mid-twentieth century olive green European uniforms with long knife-tipped poles make cuts in Christ’s chest, while Jesus maintains a disconcerted stare about the entire event.
Creating an Artform
I came across the grave of Stan Ioan Pǎtraş, the carver who created this art form in 1935 at the age of 27, after having carved crosses for the church since he was 14. He devised a series of symbols using colors to define their meaning. For example, while green stands for life, yellow for fertility, and red for passion, blue (known as Sǎpânța blue) represents hope, freedom, and sky. Two successive generations continue the work using Pǎtraş’ style since his 1977 passing.
The most hilarious marker shows an aproned woman with a finger raised in admonition standing next to a behatted man looking like he’s wringing his hands. The inscription reads:
Under this heavy cross
Lies my poor mother-in-law
Three more days should she have lived
I would lie, and she would read (this cross).
You, who here are passing by
Not to wake her up please try
Cause’ if she comes back home
She’ll scold me more.
But I will surely behave
So she’ll not return from grave.
Stay here, my dear mother-in-law!
Put Romania on Your Travel List
An under-the-radar fascinating country, Romania is filled with natural wonders––the rugged, majestic Carpathian Mountains in the north and the valleys surrounding them, ancient castles, Roman ruins, quaint towns, attractive cities, friendly residents, and a long history that‘s still alive in how rural people carry on the “old ways.” Check out my two other stories about this country: The Painted Churches of Bucovina and An Amusement Park in a Romanian Salt Mine to appreciate the riches of this southeastern European Country.
If You Go
Getting There:
From Major U.S. Airports to Bucharest or to Cluj-Napoka: All flights make one stop in Europe, usually London, Paris, or Frankfurt
From Bucharest to Cluj-Napoka:
By Air –– 50 minutes, from $142
Combination train/bus–– 6 hrs, 56 mins, $38
By car–– 5 hrs, 29 mins, 256 miles (412 kms)
From Cluj-Napoka by car to:
- Maramures region––2-½ hours. 1 more hour north to Sǎpânța
Travel Agent: Compass Travel Romania—Andrei Nicolau, Managing Partner • www.tours-of-romania.com • Telephone: +40-722-576456
