Throughout Greece, in the smaller villages which are its heart, death is never far away and still embraced as a part of life without any effort to alienate the aged or the memory of the dead.
White marbled cemeteries sprinkle the landscape as regularly as the small villages, never more than a short walk from a town centre, often occupying a prominent position. In coloured contrast to the white marble adorning the homes of the dead, the widow dressed in black is as equally ubiquitous.
Almost regardless of temperature, punishing heat or shivering cold, the widow can been seen regularly attending the memory of the dead throughout the Hellenise. Attended candles, fuelled with olive oil, keep the flickering light of the dead alive in many roadside-shrines, cemeteries and homes.
Greece has not yet modernised to the extent of forgetting the importance and dominance of death and its impact on the individual - those that have passed and those left behind.
Still in Greece the priest is a respected figure, and himself, like the widow dressed in black, is often seen in social places, as part of the normal run of life. The local priest is master of the bell, which, when rang, fills the air of all villages, calling and regulating time in rural Greece. The rings of the funeral bell are particularly compelling, with its erringly regular slow beat, informing all within hearing of death.
The symbolic nature of light, whether candle or sun, can often be overlooked. The sun's reappearance each day is a matter of physical law, viewed scientifically. Viewed spiritually, it can be perceived as a powerful symbol of resurrection, rejuvenation and re-birth.
Never is the night so cold as shortly before the day's rising, with only the slight flicker of a candle illuminating the darkness in a Greek cemetery. The sun's re-emergence, shining upon the graves laid to face it, is symbolic of the triumph in physical death of the spiritual, re-energising and renewing all which its rays fall upon.
The music from the song, "My Heart Is In The Highlands", suggested this video on a Greek cemetery, after the singing was edited out to leave just the solemn and regular music of the organ. The video, although solemn in nature, is not meant to be pessimistic, morbid or gloomy, but emphasises the onset of a new light, which ought to be cause for optimism, hope and rejuvenation amid the decay of physical death.
Graves are often laid facing east for this reason. The video was shot in two parts; one at dusk with the shooting made mostly in a westerly direction with the fading light.; and the second half, after a brief lapse into black, is shot mainly facing an easterly direction, to capture the new light at dawn and what it can represent, along with the other symbols of Greek Orthodox Christianity.
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3:43My Heart's In The Highlandsby jusjackie14,793 views
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