#133 A prayer for all the souls

Sicilian graveyards and superstitions

Hello friend,

I don’t want to be macabre but there are so many stories, tears, and tragedies in the faces of the tombs in a Sicilian cemetery. Each gaze follows me as I walk by. They seem to be calling out, wanting to tell me their stories, but I can never know their complete histories. There are too many, and the past disguises many things.

Since coming to Sicily, I’ve become more acquainted with death. The end of life is part of every day, and the rites associated with mortality are tinged with superstition and religion. The ceremony of death in Sicily makes transience almost mundane.

Bereavement notices aren’t published in small, neat columns in the births and deaths section of the daily newspaper. Instead, they are printed on large rectangular posters with the deceased’s name in bold print at the centre.

They are decorated appropriately with religious images from the Virgin Mary and the crucified Jesus Christ to Saint Padre Pio. The posters are on noticeboards, billboards, light poles, or walls beside other public notices and advertisements for cinemas and kitchen appliances. 

Mortality is as important as anything else in the rumour mill. The biggest news on the local grapevine is who has died and the details of the funeral service.

Elderly housewives meet one another on their way to and from the supermarket, repeating the same news until it is dispersed into the ether as efficiently as if by radio. This is how the news of deaths and funerals is circulated around the local communities of Sicily.