2. The Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in the village of Săpânța, Maramureş county, Romania. It is
famous for its colourful tombstones with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic
manner, the people who are buried there as well as scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery
became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.
3. The gravestonesin Sapanta’s Cimitirul Vesel, or “Merry Cemetery”are brief glimpsesinto the
livesof the people they immortalize.Over 1,000 blue wooden crosseshave crowded into this
cemetery, each illustrated with a bright, colorful picture and a darkly-humorouspoem.
4. One gravestone tells the tongue-in-cheek story of a mother-in-law who took the long road to
death. The rhymes are written in a local dialect, but a translation is provided courtesy of Peter
Hurley and the Sapanta - Eurotrip album.
5. There’s no point in hiding secrets in this small town in Maramures, so people’s lives are
captured honestly in their epitaphs, with none of the sanitizing that happens at many modern
funerals. Flaws accompany the deceased into the afterlife — whether it’s a drinking habit or
an adulterous relationship.
6. shared within European societies – a belief that views death as something indelibly solemn.
Connectionswith 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 (see also Zalmoxianism).
