Family

We were in the UK for All Souls day so i missed the chance to blip this on the relevant day.

It is a French tradition that on All Souls Day you visit the graves of your family members and leave chrysanthemums, the French flower of remembrance. Come the day itself, cemetrys everywhere are a blaze of colour.

It isn't just a tradition though but fulfills a neccessary duty. In France it is incumbent upon families to maintain graves in an acceptabe condition. Failure to do so allows the local authority to remove the grave if it becomes in a bad condition. Once contacted, assuming they can track someone down, you have a short time to improve things or the grave is removed. However, this is not as bad as it may seem as obviously some graes become derelict because relatives have died off. So what happens is that the remains are removed to a graveyard where the local authority look after them, which, for those who know their family line is coming to an end, mens you know your final resting place will be looked after.