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For two days each year, one week after Orthodox Easter, families gather in cemeteries across Moldova to eat lunch over the graves of departed loved ones.

Often wearing their best clothes, the families bring food, drink and favorite treats to share together as they celebrate the life of their dead relative. Prayers are said, candles are lit, a glass of wine poured for the deceased and placed on their tombstone, symbolically keeping the dead part of living family life.

Italian photographer Carlo Gianferro documented this “lively” and spiritual Moldovan tradition in 2010, where “The dead do not speak but watch from above, participate and thank.”

Via Messy Nessy Chic