Peruvian Cemeteries (Saturday, December 30th, 2017)

Our next stop was a cemetery in the town of Cuzco.  

Everything you could need for maintaining or decorating a grave is available right outside the cemetery.  Peruvian people believe that their deceased loved ones still require care and food, so they they typically visit the graves of their loved ones weekly and leave flowers and food.  They believe that feeding the soul is very important.

After looking through the shops, we made our way into the cemetery.

Burial plots in Peru are not purchased, they are rented.  In order for the body to remain in the cemetery, the family must make a annual rent payment for the plot.

Only rich people are buried in the ground, and they never have a headstone, they have more of a monument to mark their grave.

Many of the monuments even have a basement.  I think these are family burial sights with access to all of the graves.

All other people are buried above ground in these stacked graves. 

There was some sort of ceremony going on in the cemetery while we were there.  It wasn't a funeral, so we're not sure what it was.

Older family members often are not able to properly maintain the graves of their family members, especially graves that are up high, so they hire young boys to do the work for them.  Using lime juice and a damp rag, this young man polished the brass on this grave.

When a loved one dies, their grave is decorated with things that they loved during their life.  The grave below is the grave of a local restaurant owner.  Her grave is decorated with an entire restaurant inside.

We really enjoyed walking through the cemetery and learning about the customs of the Peruvian people.  I loved how the graves tell a story about the person who has passed and helps you understand them just a little bit better.