A graveyard in Crete

I am still in Pano Gouves, on the north coast of the Greek island of Crete, where I have been looking after my father, who broke his hip two weeks ago. I won't go into the new skills I have been picking up here on that front (!), instead, I thought I would briefly pop back into genie mode and show you some images from a local graveyard in the village. I popped in yesterday to visit, ostensibly to track down the grave of a friend of my father, who died in 2014, to pay my respects.

The main church denomination here is the Greek Orthodox Church, and the graveyard in Gouves is just down the road from the main church building. For some insight into the local funeral traditions and customs surrounding death in Crete, visit www.livingincrete.net/bereavement2.html and www.completely-crete.com/funeral.html.

I particularly love this line in the latter site:

"Members of the Greek Orthodox religion believe that at the moment of death, the deceased receives a partial judgment and gets a glimpse of both heaven and hell - and is thereafter sent to one of them."

Here are the images...

 

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course commences Sept 11th 2017 - details at www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.