ALL SAINTS DAY IN GERMANY

 Friday, 1 November 2024

November 1 is the first holiday with the archive closing. We were told that it is a Catholic holiday and everythings would be closed for the day. However, we also found out that this Catholic holiday is really a very local day. Our supervisor in Frankfurt told us that it is NOT a holiday for him. We also learned that because the stores would be closed on this holiday in Detmold, many people would be driving to Hannover (1 hour drive) to go shopping!

I was told by our senior missionary, Sister Kelly (who is German by birthday but has been living in Tucson, AZ for many years) that we should try to visit a local cemetery on this day because it is a day not just for the saints and martyrs to be honored, but for families to visit the graves of their deceased family members and decorate the graves with beautiful flowers and wreaths. 

We decided to make a visit so we found the closest cemetery to our apartment and drove by. This whole area is full of woods and forests and fields so when we found the cemetery it was so beautifully situated. We parked the car and wandered around. We saw a few people who were obviously visiting family member's graves. Some were doing a lot to clean up and decorate with new foliage, wreaths, and flowers. 

Here are some of the pictures:

We were surprised to find that most of the graves were for people who had passed quite recently. Sister Kelly did tell us that many of the cemeteries in Germany are finding that they are running out of room even with burying four deep which means the most recent deaths are on the top and the others are below. When the fourth person dies, the bottom coffin is removed to make room for that person or they are now doing much more cremation and building walls to house the remains. 

We don't know the policies for this particular cemetery (Friedhof Detmold) but it was very serence and peaceful walking around for a little while. 

Because there were no stores opened we spent the day putting together the file cabinet to hold the printer and doing other things around the apartment. We are now at a stage where we are about done with adding things. (We did buy a new washer and dryer and there were young missionaries who were in need of them, so that was good. The new ones seem to work better.) 

Anyway, this is what the living room looks like today: 

Quite a liveable space for a year and a half! 

Now we can get to work!!