My Little Corner of the World: All Saints Day in Hungary

November 1st was a National Holiday - All Saints Day - a celebration of all Saints, especially those who don’t have a special day of their own. It’s a time when everyone puts flowers on and lights candles on their loved ones graves. Flowers are so much cheaper here, that most people can afford them, so the grave yards are beautiful day and night. Sister Weberg and I walked to the cemetery one morning to see the decorated graves in daylight.

Fall Colors and Flowers!

Beautiful Statues

Works of Art

All were beautiful!

A soldiers' grave.

On the actual holiday, we got together with our Debrecen group of missionaries for a potluck dinner and then walked to the cemetery to see the graves all lit up. It was a really nice night to walk around the peaceful cemetery. Although it rained for awhile, most of the time, it was just comfortably cool and misty. After walking around for a bit, and taking a few pictures,

we headed back to the front gate to return home. However, unknown to us, they had closed the cemetery! We arrived at the front gate at 8:00 p.m. and found it locked! The sisters said, “Guess we’ll just have to climb the fence”, to which I replied, “I’m not going to be able to do that.”:) So, we walked to another gate and found that it too was locked. We weren’t the only ones who were locked in - there were Hungarians locked in as well. The young ones just climbed the fence, like it happened every day. But there were older ones who couldn’t climb the fence any better than me. However, after being unsuccessful in finding an open gate, we finally decided we’d have to give climbing the fence a try afterall. From the ground, the fence didn't look too big, so I gave it a try as well. I was able to get up on the first slanted step of the fence and even swing my leg over so I was straddling the top bar. Trying to balance up on top, that fence seemed so much higher, and I began to wonder if I'd make it down the other side. Because the top bar was not a comfortable seat, it prodded me on to keep trying to go the rest of the way over. Elder D’Angina and Elder Greaves helped me make it the rest of the way. When I reached the ground, I was shaking so bad, I could hardly stand up. I said, “Well . . . . . that was awful!” There was just no other way to describe it! But, I was very grateful to not be locked inside the graveyard anymore. So, if you ever visit a graveyard in Hungary, check to see when they close!