To Sannat and back again

November 18

I decided to knock the cemeteries in Sannat and Munxar off my list today. I walked the 45 minutes to Sannat. For those of you that are paying attention, it's the town the Ta Cenc cliffs are in. And double bonus for those of you who are REALLY paying attention - anyone notice that just about all of the towns here are about 45 minutes walk from each other? Yeah, I think that's on purpose.

In any case, as I walked to Sannat I thought of the Dr. Seuss book, "And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street." There's a line I like, "Marco keep your eyelids up and see what you can see." I decided to keep my eyelids up and stake out the horizon for the cemetery so that I wouldn't end up like I did in Zebbug walking in the wrong direction. Paying attention paid off as I saw it in the distance on the left, and of course I had never noticed it there before. It saved me a lot of time and energy to go there directly rather than to head to the town Centre and then figure out where I was heading.

The cemetery was larger than those in Zebbug and Nadur with the tombstones spaced out quite a bit. The first thing I noticed was that one of the tombs was open as if there was going to be a burial. I took some photos of it, and by the way, I'm totally over worrying about taking photos in the cemeteries now. As I made my way through I also couldn't help but notice that one of the tombs in a row was backwards, with the cross and words in the opposite direction of all of the others. A woman who had been praying in the cemetery was about to leave so I asked her if she happened to know why it was backwards. The grave said the person was from Munxar so I wondered if perhaps they were buried like that because they were from another town. She explained that it was actually one of the oldest tombs in the cemetery and that at the time, they had anticipated that the tombs of that row would face the other way. Nothing more than that. She said that Munxar doesn't actually have a cemetery and that both towns share the space there.

We talked briefly though I sensed she would've been open to more conversation but the woman with her seemed anxious to leave. She did tell me that, like many here, she spent 10 years in Australia from 1960 - 1970. She pointed out one of the graves to me, saying that it belonged to the family of the man who is currently the archpriest of Sannat. She said her own family is there as well and she tries to go as much as possible during November.

After speaking with her, I introduced myself to a man named Lawrence and asked him about the open tomb. He confirmed that there would be a funeral that very evening. He took me over to the tomb and pointed out that the wife had died in May of this year and that the husband just passed away as well. I said I was surprised they could open the tomb because it hadn't been two years yet. He said, "ah but here, we bury three deep!" He pointed inside the tomb and said there are 2 others below but because it's sealed off it is safe to bury one more. The problem would be if the third one on the top hadn't been inside for 2 years yet. Aaaaah.

He said that at the Sannat cemetery they have mass every day at noon for the month of November. He said he goes every day normally so in November it's just a matter of going at the cemetery rather than at the church. I asked if he goes on the first Sunday of the month when the cemetery is open and he said the Sannat cemetery is open every Sunday. I told him I must've been mistaken, as the woman in Zebbug said they are only open the first Sunday of the month and he said "Zebbug, Zebbug. We all have different customs."

He pointed to the plaque on the chapel and translated the inscription for me, showing me that the cemetery was built in 1936. He showed me the original boundaries of the cemetery and how small it used to be. The plaque went on to read that it had been expanded in the early 90's to its current size. He then said "here is something interesting for your studies. This row of 10 tombs used to be reserved for the babies." He explained that back 50 years ago the infant death rate was so high that they had the whole row reserved just for the infants. I asked if they had to be baptised to be buried there and he said yes. If they aren't baptised then they must be buried in the government cemetery.

He asked if he would see me at the funeral later and made sure to let me know where everyone gathers to walk up to the church. He said that the man who died was the father of a priest and so he imagined there would be a lot of people. He also said maybe I could take some pictures of the procession and I confessed that I had yet to do so. He left and I looked at my watch to discover it was already 3pm. I took about 5 minutes to think about what to do next. I could either spend some time in the cemetery and then arrive at the gathering place a little early but NOT be dressed appropriately OR I could haul ass to get back to Victoria and change. I knew that if I went back to Victoria I would run the risk of missing the procession...but if I was going to go to the burial in the cemetery I didn't want to be the only one not wearing black. Decisions, decisions.

I opted for the haul ass version of the plan, double timing my walk back to Victoria and making it in 25 minutes instead of 45. Of course, the result was that I arrived into my apartment unbelievably hot and sweaty as the afternoon sun seemed to be burning directly onto me as I made the attempt. I threw my hair up, jumped in the shower, raced to dry off and throw on black pants and a black shirt and then sped out of there. I got back to the church in Sannat at 4:10 and unfortunately, as I predicted, missed the procession.

The church was packed with each of it's 34 pews full. I didn't see Lawrence at all though I admittedly couldn't see all the way to the front of the church. When the mass ended I processed up with the mourners to touch the coffin and get a prayer card. Bertu, the undertaker, was at the front handing out cards and said hello to me as I passed him. I followed the procession to the cemetery to watch them place the coffin inside and again got to watch the caretakers seal the limestone and recover the tomb with the marble. I was really grateful that I had been in the cemetery earlier and had asked after the open tomb so that I could attend this funeral but I was also disappointed in my choice to change my clothes as I'm not sure it was really worth it to miss the gathering procession. Of course, it was a lesson learned and you never know when a social faux pas will be your downfall so I guess I can't beat myself up too badly.

On the way back I stopped at Kilena's store and found it totally decorated to brimming with Christmas trees and holiday decorations. Inside Kilena was noticeably absent but I met her son who normally works as a statue maker. She'd told me about him before, offering to take me to his shop to see his work. I introduced myself and he said she'd told him about me as well. He said he'd be happy to take me to his shop sometime and gave me his card with his information on it. He's also on Facebook! Ha. On the way home I stopped off at Anna's shop again to say hello though by the time I left at 7 pm my lower back was groaning at the realization that I'd been standing/walking/running since 1. I thought back to the days when I worked retail and stood for 8 hours at a crack and thought about what a whimp I'd turned into...but then I remembered I'm not 20 anymore either and decided it was totally okay for me to admit defeat and sit down for the rest of the evening.