The Merry Cemetery

In Săpânța, Romania, the crosses are blue.

Wooden, hand-carved, and painted with a scene from the life beneath: a weaver at her loom, a shepherd with his flock. A few lines of verse follow.

Some are tender. Some tease.

The woodcarver Stan Ioan Pătraș began them in 1935. His colours had meanings:

• green, for life
• yellow, for fertility
• red, for passion
• black, for death

All of it set against blue, for hope.

He made over 800 before dying in 1977. His apprentice, Dumitru Pop, took over the workshop.

To be remembered with a smile is not to be remembered lightly.