The only happy graveyard in the entire world.

This is here to let you know about (or maybe know more) about the only Happy Graveyard in the world. It may sound strange, but this place really exists. It is placed in the village of Sapanta, Maramures County, Romnia. The graveyard has over 800 graves. All of them have a picture representing the dead person in a very important moment or a very usual moment of their life. The pictures are carved in wood by the Romanian sculptor Ioan Patras. They use bright colors and a blue called Albastru de Sapanta (Sapanta Blue), which almost looks like the popular Albastru de Vorone (Voronet Blue), whos name comes from the Moldavian monastery where it was invented. Also on the grave there are carved the lasts words the dead wanted his friends wanted to know. Usually these lasts words have a sense of humor. However they are written only in Romanian and have many grammatical errors.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Spna: The Happy Cemetery

Spna is a village about 15 kms west of Sighet, smack up against the Tisa river in the far north of Romania. When I first came to Maramure in 1990, the streets in this village were lined with cearga - furry raw sheep wool blankets - for sale, hanging from every house' fence along the road that leads to Sighet. Within weeks of the end of Communism, these villagers were doing business big time. In 1990, right after the fall of Ceaucescu and the Communist Party in Romania, the peasants of Spna had their own reading on freedom. After annoucement of a federal tax on home brewed brandy - the uica so central to Maramure existence - the villagers

of Spna blockaded the main road to Sighet and effectively revolted in defense of their

beloved tax-free home brew.

After a couple of

weeks the government backed down, and the villager's favorite hooch was safe. Yes, Maramure folk - the moroani - love to drink. And yes, they may even drink themselves to death, and how well they know it. Presently the most unique attraction in Spna is the "Happy Cemetery." Originally begun by a peasant grave carver named Stan Petras in the 1930s, and carried on today by the Pop family, the cemetery has become one of the most popular tourism attractions in rural Romania, with tour buses pulling up and unloading foreigners hourly. We were lucky - we visited on a religious holiday just as the villagers were coming from a Church

service.

The grave markers in the

cemetery in Spna are carved and painted with scenes of the deceased accompanied by a poem describing their fate in Maramure dialect. About half of them have two painted sides one showing the deceased as they were in life, and the other showing either the way they died or illustrating some quirk that made them the talk of the village. A good woman is celebrated on side A:

But everybody in the village knows about her B side... she obviously made an impression on the village that would not go away even after she had left this mortal coil...

The most interesting of the carved grave markers celebrate the fickle nature of death: machines just happen to blow up, planes accidentally fall out of the sky, cars just naturally tend to hit people:

And drink. The poetry of the grave markers is wry and reflects the way village opinion saw the deceased during their lives. People in Maramure drink a lot of home brew, and some drink more than others. It's a hard country with few pleasures, and from the few fruits they can coax from the poor mountain soil they brew plum and apple brandy.

Tavern keepers are also well represented in the other side. This one apparently drank himself to a deathly white paleness on his road to the afterlife. Or else the artist had run out of beige paint.

Trains are a particular danger. After a walk around the cemetery you simply don't want to go near a train. They kill in all sorts of ways. You can get all dressed up to go out and still manage to find yourself slammed by a locomotive:

From the evidence on some of the grave markers it seems that Romanians have been experimenting with the notion of extreme sports long before the arrival of cable television. Note to self: definitely do not try roller skating along the railroad tracks. Ever.

Or you can simply be walking along the tracks and suddenly find yourself crushed to death. The look on this poor fellow's face says it all. Oops!

The poem accompanying this gravestone said something along the lines "And now my children are in the hands of God / Which is probably better than being in my hands" The laws of Darwinsim are always a bitter pill to take. And speaking of bitter pills: the Romanian attitude towards visiting the hospital:

Ever notice how many people go to the hospital and then die? Lesson: Don't go to the hospital! Some of the markers date back to earlier times and reflect historical realities. This one is of a shepherd cruelly killed and beheaded by Hungarian Gendarmes during WWII.

Friendly fire incidents among the Border Guards are also a nuisance.

And many of the graves show the happier moments of village life, with poems declaring sentiments like "In my life I loved to sing / And always bought a round / And paid the fiddler well/ But now i'm dead and gone"

In Maramure the concept of being "oamnenii bunii" - good folks - is the motto for the approved behavior. And this means being a hard worker and a hard partier: drinking, singing, dancing, dying.

This is the soul of the Maramures region. The peasants up here have held off all of the twentieth century's interlopers - they maintain their Greek-Orthodox church traditions, their thick country dialect, their bewildering fiddle music, their hard drinking ways, and their tradition-bound ideas about life and death. They are some of the toughest, most moral people you will find in Europe today. Let them lift a glass or two in peace. Like the song says Aa beau oamenii buni "That's how the good folk drink/ They drink from Saturday until Monday."

Close to the Ukrainian border in northwest Romania, the Happy Cemetery dates back to 1935 and contains about 800 headstones. The Happy Cemetery in Sapanta, also called "The Folk Art Museum", is a fresco of community life, unique in the world, where the dead are celebrated with humorous poems recalling their lives. The headboards are sculptured from wood and the primitive painted images reflect the most important or best-known times of the deceased. They are the creation of sculptor Stan Patras, the successor of several generations of wood artists who have passed their trade from father to son. After Stan Patras death, his apprentice took over the work. The epitaphs show the sense of humor of Romanian peasants; often ironical, depicting part of the deceaseds life in an anecdote. Folk rhymes, carved into wood, describe the deceaseds problems, foibles, perhaps his or her occupation. On each cross the dead person is painted in bright colors in an important moment of his or her life. Crosses are painted mostly in blue, the symbol of hope and freedom. The overall impression one gets from the Happy Cemetery is the realization that life will be remembered and cherished, even in death.

The Happy Cemetery of Sapnta

By Alex in Travel on Jul 25, 2010 at 2:19 pm

What Happens When You Die

Evidence suggests death isn't the terminal event we think robertlanza.com Ads by Google

Who says that cemeteries have to be all drab and morbid? Take a look at these colorful and "happy" cemetery in Sapnta, Romania:

Originally begun by a peasant grave carver named Stan Petras in the 1930s, and carried on today by the Pop family, the cemetery has become one of the most popular tourism attractions in rural Romania, with tour buses pulling up and unloading foreigners hourly. [...]

The grave markers in the cemetery in Sapnta are carved and painted with scenes of the deceased accompanied by a poem describing their fate in Maramures dialect. About half of them have two painted sides one showing the deceased as they were in life, and the other showing either the way they died or illustrating some quirk that made them the talk of the village.

The Happy Cemetery from Sapanta

September 27th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

The Sapanta cemetery is known worldwide, thanks to the great folk artist that was Stan Ion Patras, sculptor, painter and writer. The Happy Cemetery is a cemetery in the village Spna, Maramures county, famous for the colorful tombs crosses, the naive paintings representing scenes from the life and occupation of persons buried there. On some crosses, there are even lines that are mentioned, often, with a humorous tone, the persons concerned. The Cemetery has its origin in some crosses sculpted by Ioan Stan Patras. Thus, in 1935, Patras carved the first epitaph and since the 1960s, the whole cemetery was populated with about 800 such crosses,carved in oak wood, becoming an open air museum of nature and a unique tourist attraction. Thanks to vivid colors (blue background or ultra-marine) and colorful paintings with figures in white or yellow, in which red, yellow and green are in a very small proportion, the crosses have a maximum contrast, but also harmonious. To this colors is added the relief which is artistic, well done, with good distribution of the volumes in space. The chronicles written, sometimes very funny, made the cemetery from sadly to cheerful, being unique in the world. In the Happy Cemetery, the tourist receives one of the most beautiful lessons about life, from the local people. Their ancestors, presumed death as a beginning, not an end. This faith is preserved until today.

Dacia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search This article is about a historic region in Central Europe. For the Romanian automobile maker, see Automobile Dacia. For other uses, see Dacia (disambiguation).

Dacian Kingdom
independent kingdom

1st century BC2nd century

At the height of Burebista' power, his kingdom stretched from the

Black Sea to the Adriatic and from the Balkan Mountains to Bohemia.[1]

Capital Government Historical era - Established - Disestablished

Sarmizegetusa Regia kingdom antiquity 1st century BC 2nd century

History of Romania

This article is part of a series

Prehistory Dacia Dacian Wars Roman Dacia Thraco-Roman syncretism Early Middle Ages Middle Ages History of Transylvania Foundation of Wallachia Foundation of Moldavia

Early Modern Times Principality of Transylvania Phanariotes Danubian Principalities National awakening Organic Statute 1848 Moldavian Revolution 1848 Wallachian Revolution United Principalities War of Independence Kingdom of Romania World War I Union with Transylvania Union with Bessarabia Greater Romania Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina World War II Communist Romania Soviet occupation 1989 Revolution Romania since 1989 Topic Timeline Military history

Christianity

Romania Portal vde

History of Moldova

This article is part of a series

Antiquity Chernyakhov culture Dacia, Free Dacians Bastarnae Early Middle Ages Origin of the Romanians Tivertsi Brodnici Golden Horde Principality of Moldavia Foundation Stephen the Great Early Modern Era Phanariots

United Principalities Bessarabia Governorate Treaty of Bucharest Moldavian Democratic Republic Sfatul rii Greater Romania Union of Bessarabia with Romania Moldavian ASSR Moldovenism Moldavian SSR Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Soviet deportations Republic of Moldova Independence of Moldova War of Transnistria History of independent Moldova

Moldova Portal vde

See also: Dacians and Dacian language In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks - the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range. Dacia was bounded approximately by the Danubius river, in Greek sources Istros (the Danube) or, at its greatest extent, by the Haemus Mons (the Balkan Mountains) to the southMoesia (Dobrogea), a region south of the Danube, was a core area where the Getae lived and interacted with the Ancient Greeks Pontus Euxinus (the Black Sea) and river Danastris, in Greek sources Tyras (the Dniester) to

the east (but several Dacian settlements are recorded in part of area between Dniester and Hypanis river (the Bug), and Tisia (the Tisza) to the west (but at times included areas between Tisza and middle Danube). The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus corresponds to modern countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as smaller parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Ukraine. Dacians and Getae were North Thracian tribes.[2] Dacian tribes had both peaceful and military encounters with other neighboring tribes, such as Celts, Ancient Germanics, Sarmatians, and Scythians, but were most influenced by the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The latter eventually conquered, and linguistically and culturally assimilated the Dacians. A Dacian Kingdom of variable size existed between 82 BC until the Roman conquest in 106 AD. The capital of Dacia, Sarmizegetusa, located in modern Romania, was destroyed by the Romans, but its name was added to that of the new city ( Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa) built by the latter to serve as the capital of the Roman province of Dacia.

According to Herodotus History (book 4) account of the story of Zalmoxis (or Zamolxis), the Getae (speaking the same language as the Dacians, according to Strabo) believed in the immortality of the soul, and regarded death as merely a change of country. Their chief priest held a prominent position as the representative of the supreme deity, Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them [216]
The father of history, Herodot, mentions the Dacians in his works as "the bravest and fairest of all the Thracians". He also says that "the Thracian people is the most numerous one in the world; the Thracians have several names, according to their specific regions, but their habits are more or less the same". At the peak of their power, the Thracians controlled over half the Europe and some territories in the Middle East. In some writings, the Dacians are also referred to as the Getae. The territory of Dacia, the Getae's country, was roughly that of today's Romania, Hungary and parts of Bulgary and Ukraine. During the reign of king Burebista (1st century BC), the western border advanced to the Constanta lake, situated in today's Switzerland. The Dacians were a warrior people, and their polytheist religion saw death as a liberation. Their belief in the supreme god Gebeleizis made them fearless on the battlefield, and this virtue was passed on even after the old religion was replaced by the cult of Zalmoxe. As with other hiperboreean peoples, true life only began after death, where they would meet with their god. The Dacians cheered at the funerals, but cried when a child was born, weeping for the life he was going to have. This education and their beliefs meant that the Dacians were not afraid of death, and thus they were fearsome warriors in the eyes of any ancient civilization.