One of Transylvania’s most beautiful and most beloved traditions is held on the 1st of November: Luminația, or The Illumination.
Almost synonymous with the Day of the Dead, Luminația is a tradition in which graves are decorated with candles and flowers, during the day as well as during the evening, creating a dreamy view of candlelight in darkness over Transylvanian hills.
The Day of the Dead is technically celebrated on the 2nd of November, but preliminaries take place one day earlier.
It was originally a Roman-Catholic custom, but has been adopted by many factions of multiethnic Transylvania.
In the Middle Ages, after All Saints’ Day mass, people would spend the afternoon in the cemetery, remembering their loved ones and praying for their souls.
In popular culture, it is said that the limit between the spiritual and material world dissolves – as happens at several astronomical points of the year, such as solstices.
In Cluj-Napoca, a free concert of Luigi Cherubini’s Requiem will be held in the evening in one of the Central Cemetery’s most beautiful crypts, at 18:30.
