The Merry Cemetery : When death is a funny affair

Who ever said that all cemeteries must be, and look like sad, grey and creepy places?

Ioan Toaderu loved horses, but
he says from beyond the grave:
One more thing I loved very much
To sit at a table in a bar
Next to someone else's wife-

Well, there is a little community in the Romanian region called Maramures, that decided to adopt a cheerful attitude in front of death and donate to these places a mix of art, colors and funny epitaphs.

This strange and yet funny practice started almost one hundred years ago, when a tombstone sculptor and artisan called Ioan Stan Patras decided to stop carving traditional wooden crosses and give to his creations a new and fresh touch
Perhaps he was not aware of what he was doing at the time but he left behind an incredible cultural treasure. He also modified the perception of death in many places of Maramures County.

In time he carved more then 700 wooden crosses, deciding to adopt a special type of blue created just for this purpose and giving a symbolic meaning for every other color that you can find: Green stands for life, Red for passion. What about Black? Imagine, it's not that hard :)

Not convinced that simple colors can give to this place a better and funnier aspect, he then started to carve on crosses some life scenes with darkly comedic representations of the way the person died or his/her characteristics while alive. You can find the paint of a man hit by a truck or another holding the bottle of vodka that took him to the grave. Strange but funny, isn't it?

Still, the best part of this colorful cemetery is represented by the epitaphs written on the tombstones! Texts full of irony and sarcasm, that praised or criticized the life of the dead one, or the way he/she left this world.

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If you are fascinated about this and you get the chance to visit this beautiful region of Romania, don't miss this place! It is located in a village called Sapanta and the entrance is less than 2 Euro.

Thank you Steemers!!
@andrupetria