The places where it is ‘illegal to die’, and the real reasons
It sounds like a joke, but it is true: there are places in the world where dying has been officially “banned”.
Of course, no law can stop nature. But these unusual rules usually have a serious reason behind them, from full cemeteries to frozen ground.
Longyearbyen, Norway
The best-known example is Longyearbyen, a small town in Norway’s Arctic Svalbard islands.
According to The Guardian, burials there have been banned since 1950. People discovered that bodies in the local cemetery were not decaying, because the ground is permanently frozen. Scientists even found traces of the virus behind the 1918 Spanish flu in some of the remains.
Today, people who are seriously ill are usually flown to mainland Norway for care.
Itsukushima, Japan
The island of Itsukushima, also called Miyajima, is a holy place in the Shinto religion. To keep the island pure, both dying and giving birth there were banned until 1868. There are still no cemeteries or hospitals on the island.
Delos, Greece
In ancient times, the Greek island of Delos was sacred to the gods. The historian Thucydides wrote that in the 5th century BC, dying and giving birth were forbidden there. People close to death were taken to a nearby island instead.
Towns with full cemeteries
Several modern towns have “banned” death for a much more practical reason: they ran out of space to bury people. The Guardian lists:
- Lanjarón, Spain, in 1999
- Biritiba Mirim, Brazil, in 2005
- Cugnaux, France, in 2007
- Sarpourenx, France, in 2008
- Falciano del Massico, Italy, in 2012
In most cases, the mayor’s order was a protest. Local leaders wanted a new cemetery but could not get permission, so they used a funny rule to make headlines.
It often worked. In Cugnaux, the former mayor told The Guardian that the town received permission for its cemetery a few months after the story spread around the world.
Sellia, Italy
In 2015, the mayor of Sellia, a small hillside town in southern Italy, went a step further. Worried about an ageing and shrinking population, he signed an order saying that dying was prohibited.
The real aim was to get residents to attend health check-ups. Those who refused could face a fine of €10 a year, and about 100 people signed up for checks after the story made the news. Mayor Davide Zicchinella admitted to The Guardian: “You cannot order an impossibility by law.”
Not real crimes
It is important to be clear: nobody is punished for dying. These rules are symbolic, or they limit where people can be buried.
But they do show how small communities can use a little humour, and a lot of publicity, to solve real problems.
Sources
Featured image: Longyearbyen, in Norway's Svalbard islands, seen from the mountain Hiorthfjellet. Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized). Source
