The differences between Protestants and Catholics do not only refer to the work ethic, which Max Weber identified as the main driver of the success of the capitalist system in countries dominated by the first group. These differences also refer to grave culture, the "Protestant" or rather American clearance of which we will see in Olsztyn.
TheOlsztyn Municipal Cemeteries Board has announced the creation of quarters styled after those seen in the United States. The simple American tombstones will be realized in the cemeteries on Dywitach Street in Olsztyn. The new minimalist tombstones are to have a unified character, and apart from personalities and religious symbols will not stand out.
The goal of such a burial? To achieve maximum simplicity and stop the race to miss the prettiest tombstone. The Olsztyn American-style cemetery is being built with urn burial in mind. The first design was created with 1,700 such tombstones in mind. The sloping slabs are to be one meter long and sixty centimeters wide. The quarters will also vary in color.
There is no point in speculating about the success of such a tombstone form before it is realized. Whether the simple American-style form will appeal to Olsztyn residents will probably be found out in the next few years.
This is how the new cemetery section in the Olsztyn cemetery is to look like
© Press materials of the Municipal Cemeteries Department in Olsztyn
polish funebris pump
The appearance of a simple, unified tombstone formula is not a leftist fad from the West pushing out traditions like Halloween in the imaginations of church dignitaries or conservative defenders of morality, but a real response to what has been happening in the space of Polish cemeteries for several years.
Shabbiness, carelessness, concretism and mercantilism are just a few epithets that describe the reality of cemeteries in Poland. The annual observance of All Saints' Day has become, in the popular mind, a race for the prettiest decor, a competition in the number of candles per square meter of granite slab or the issue of at what price for flowers the commemoration begins. Also asking for vengeance to heaven is the total disorder in the form of sidewalks and the immediate surroundings of cemetery monuments, instead of a coherent, uniform formula we have a patchwork, which is neither interesting nor aesthetically pleasing.
An example of the surroundings of a Polish cemetery
photo by Albert Górniak, © CC BY-SA 3.0.jpg
In this generalization, one can fall into certain traps of thinking, but the creation of American quarters in the Olsztyn cemetery is worth taking as good coin and carefully observing the public reaction. It also remains to hope that simplicity will prevail, in this case, as in no other less is more.
Dutch mushroom and Swedish forest
In the case of American-style burial, there is no controversy so far (there will probably be more popularization of this formula). There are, however, tombstones and cemeteries today that can cause real controversy.
One such idea is a coffin made of mycelium, which is ultimately supposed to speed up the decomposition of the body, as well as be less oppressive to the environment. The author of such an idea is Dutch designer Bob Hendrikx. The idea behind this design was the need to be absorbed by nature, rather than separated from it as in conventional tombstones. Mushroom burial may sound extravagant, but who knows if we won't encounter it in the future in Poland as well.
Mushroom coffin by Dutch designer Bob Hendrixk
© Bob Hendrixk
It's also hard not to recall Skogskyrkogården, a cemetery located in Stockholm. What stands out above all is its "forest part," in which small tombstones rise slightly above the ground, surrounded literally by a forest. Small ornaments in the form of lamps and bushes and, above all, forest cover give a mystical character, which is in vain to be found among Polish records.
Skogskyrkogården
Photo: Holger.Ellgaard, © CC BY-SA 3.0
Both examples far removed from American simple plats can help us imagine how varied a commemoration's setting and its architecture can be. Examples, including in Poland, of how to bid farewell to the dead with dignity can be multiplied. Columbaria and urn fields are also such a solution. One can only quietly hope for the popularization of silent commemorations.
