Each of us has our own relationship with the cemetery. Some go there every holiday, some only at Christmas, some admire or fear it from afar. This is largely influenced by how we grew up and how our parents felt about going to the cemetery.
Touching for the whole family
I couldn’t wait to go to the cemetery at Christmas. The beautiful sea of candles in the snowy forest always warmed the heart. Similar thoughts were shared by our readers, for whom it is tradition to light candles in the cemetery after Christmas dinner. I have been going there since I was a child and now also with my children. The practice has been passed down from generation to generation. Otherwise the cemetery car parks would not be full of cars on Christmas Eve: for many Estonians it is tradition to light candles in the cemetery during the Christmas period.
But to see the light of the candles you have to go to the cemetery in the dark. In a practical sense it’s not difficult, considering how dark it is in Estonia during the winter. At the same time, the idea of going to a cemetery in the dark (for example, the cemetery where I go, there wasn’t much street lighting before) can scare some people. Luckily there are a lot of people, which makes the cemetery seem much brighter.
A piece of family history
My family and I always take a little tour of the cemetery and visit the graves of the latest loved ones and the older ones. This means a rather long walk, as the graves are located in different areas of the cemetery, or blocks. Sometimes, especially if the graves are buried under snow, it takes longer to find the sites. As a child, at each grave, I could listen to the stories of my loved ones buried there, which helped me recall the memories associated with them.
More information on the “Let’s talk about death” website.
“Let’s Talk About Death” is an information site that has been supporting bereaved people and educating people about death for over a year. The page was born from a blog created by islander Maris Prisko about the loss of her sister. Maris felt she had to write it all down, with the mission that no grieving person should experience as much loneliness and lack of information as she did. Today, in addition to Maris and end-of-life advocate and islander Jane Kaju, readers themselves contribute to the site’s content. The topics of end of life, death and grief are explained by specialists in various fields, and ordinary people share stories of their experiences.
2023-12-26 12:27:26
christmas-walk-to-the-cemetery