May the Force Be With You

(Photo by Dayna T via the Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

Gee, and I thought he died long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...although to the civilized world I suppose Indiana is far enough...

The Merry Cemetary

The town of Săpânţa in Romania has an interesting way of remembering its deceased. Rather than the usual somber stone grave markers; the headstones are colorful wooden carvings, complete with poetic verses describing the lives of the deceased. Dubbed the "Merry Cemetery", it has become a national tourist attraction.

Below is the headstone of the carpenter whose carvings inspired the creation of the cemetery:

His Epitaph is as follows:

Since I was a little boy
I was known as Stan Ioan Pătraş
Listen to me, fellows
There are no lies in what I am going to say
All along my life
I meant no harm to anyone
But did good as much as I could
To anyone who asked
Oh, my poor World
Because It was hard living in it

While some tombstones depict scenes from the life of the deceased, others depict the manner in which the person died, including this one of a three year old killed by a car:

Or a sixteen year old electrocuted by a crane:

Which, as the photographer Michael Foord points out, is not very merry at all. (You can see the entire album of photos he took here.)

I suppose though that a life is better remembered in cheerful color, than in some barren gray slab of rock.