Last month I spent three weeks in Slovenia and Croatia and was there to see the run up to All Saints Day. All Saints Day is on the first day of November and a national holiday in these two Roman Catholic countries. It is of course the day after Halloween, but I saw no evidence of Halloween away from tourist hangouts. All Saints Day was definitely observed by all even if you were not religious. It originally was a day of recognizing early Christian saints and martyrs, known and unknown, but now has become a day to remember all those who have passed away, especially in your family. You may go to church for a special service but the main thing everybody does is make a visit to the graves of their family. I visited the large historic Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, Croatia and many people were there cleaning graves and setting out new memorial candles and flower arrangements in preparation for the holiday. The street markets in the towns and cities all over had vendors selling flower arrangements for the graves. It was all very interesting to check out and I am putting a few of my photos here. There were some very creative and beautiful arrangements.
As an extras sideline to this story, I asked one of the vendors where all the flowers came from. Were they grown locally or imported? She thumped her chest to tell me she had grown them herself on her farm and then showed me her blackened and cracked thumb from all her work tending and cutting the flowers. The term "green thumb" really has meaning to me now!
Remember you can click on the photos to make them bigger.
10 years ago, I was in Tahiti for All Saints Day. You might find it interesting to compare the flower arrangements of the two parts of the world. See my blog post for April 2012.
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| Flower arrangements for sale in Split, Croatia |
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| Dried flower arrangements in Ljubljana, Slovenia |
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| Moss covered wreaths in Zagreb flower market. Croatia |
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| Wreaths, the red fruit on them is rose hips. Zagreb, Croatia |
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| Autumn harvest arrangements, Zagreb, Croatia |
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| A very tropical flower arrangement on one of the graves at Mirogoj Cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia |
Aloha
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