Monday, May 31, 2010

Christian Cemetery

It was a coincidence that I decided to visit a Christian Cemetery on Memorial Day, but it was a beautiful day and a great experience. In Atyrau, the Muslims and Christians have separate cemeteries and they are different with the Muslim Cemetery enclosing there dead in brick wall and the Christian Cemetery has irons fences or none at all. You had to be careful not to step on a pile of dirt (presumably a dead person) in the Christian Cemetery. Some of the head stones had pictures of the people. There was even small tables and chairs around for what I don't know. The Russian Orthodox cross is also different. It is also known as Crux Orthodoxa, Byzantine cross, Eastern cross, Russian cross, Slavic or Slavonic cross. A three-barred cross in which the short top bar represents the inscription over Jesus' head, and the lowest (usually slanting) short bar, placed near the foot, represents his footrest. This cross existed very early in Byzantium, and was adopted by the Russian Orthodox Church and especially popularized in the Slavic countries. Small garage piles were everywhere, but nothing that unusual here. Great experience and certainly memorable.






1 comment:

Anastassiya said...

It is so sad to see all this garbage right on the graves...
Some people install tables and benches to be able to 'remember' the person who died, usually with alcohol and some snacks. I personally do not support this tradition...