Sunday, October 31, 2010

Spooky Field Trip

I thought this post would be a great one to save for Halloween.  My Russian teacher thought it would be fun to take us all to see a cemetery.  I wasn't that keen, as they aren't exactly my thing, but I had no good excuse to get out of it.  It turned out to be quite interesting.  Russians put a photo on the headstones, which is something I have not seen before.  Sometimes it's a small photo, and sometimes you will see large, elaborate carvings or statues of the person.  Also interesting:  Russian Orthodox bury their dead facing west, and they bring gifts, food and vodka on holidays, birthdays and anniversaries.  I took some photos of some of the more interesting plots.

 fake flowers are common, as is bringing food and vodka

 My teacher said that the pictures are often telling....notice he is standing by a car, talking on a cell phone with a beer in his hand....he died at a young age, so it's very possible that it was a car accident

 very large and elaborate statue

 the red stars signify a veteran

You get quite a bit of information from the headstones....this man was a pilot

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