Thursday 31 October 2013

1st OF NOVEMBER ALL SAINTS DAY

Halloween celebrating has got very fashion in Spain, but it's a modern celebration, tomorrow the "Dia de Todos los Santos", All  Saints'Day, the tradition is to go to the graveyard to visit the graves of family and friends.

Several days before, people start cleaning, painting and decorating with fresh flowers, if you have been in the surroundings of a cementry the last days, you might have seen people carrying ladders, buckets and flowers. Since there is not enough space in the ground of the graveyards, you have the "nichos",  and to reach the highest ones they need a ladder. There are some public ones, but it can be a long time to wait to get one, so people bring their own ones from home.

Lots of people travel a long way to go to their home town to look after the graves on this day, years ago I have seen places where they brougt the picnic to the cementry.

The Spanish "Camposanto" (Holy Ground) has always been respected, and lots of  them have or are beeing restored, in Granada it has the privilege to be situated just behind the Alhambra, actally you use the same parking. A route of the memory was made to visit the histrorical mausoleums, the art was a sign of power and wealth, many of the mausoleums are made by local artist, but also of national and international well known sculptors.

The guided visits show you the most significant art work, the San Jose Cementry is one of the most ancients in Spain, dates from XIX  and occupies 110 000 square meters,divided  in 19 patios, one of them has a chapel, La Ermita, in new romantic style, now restored ,where you can bury the ashes.



The photographs are from the cementry in Otura,  the little town where we live, but here and everywhere in Spain, you can sea the respect and the care for the deceased.




















Hope you get some good treats tonight, and the best is tomorrow beeing holiday, in Spain when you have a holiday together with a week end it's called "puente", bridge, and we use it to travel, see family and friends, discover something new, students go home to be with family, so be careful on the road.
Happy Hallloween !!!!!!

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