From time to time you can read that in some part of the world the authorities have prohibited local residents from going to the next world. We checked how true such news is.

Classic examples of such “prohibitions” in popular sources concern British Parliament (allegedly then the funeral expenses will have to be covered by the state), a Norwegian city Longyearbyen (in permafrost conditions, bodies do not decompose, and their smell can attract polar bears) and a Brazilian town Biritiba-Mirin (crowded cemetery). However, in recent decades, according to the Russian media, new cases of the introduction of draconian measures have been recorded. For example, in 2012, information came from Italy - there were allegedly also problems with a cemetery. In December 2019 it spread news that residents of a certain French commune were prohibited from dying on weekends and holidays. And in May 2020, a ban on death from coronavirus allegedly affected already the entire Mexican state of Veracruz.

The oldest example of such a restriction is given by historians: on the sacred Greek island of Delos (the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis) it was forbidden to be born and die. As for recent history, it turns out that these are not all reports of such behavior on the part of municipal authorities. On September 25, 1999, the mayor of the Spanish town of Lanjarón (Granada province), José Rubio Alonso, issued a decree prohibiting 3,870 citizens from choosing “eternal rest” until the government made the necessary efforts to acquire land. Yes, there was the same problem here as in some cases above - we ran out of space. And there is no doubt that the decree existed, and the mayor was even happy with it posed:

The reader may have a natural question: what will happen if you break the ban? How to punish a person who has passed on to another world? Less than a week has passed since Lanjaron appeared the first offender is a 91-year-old man, who, according to the mayor, thus “wanted to make it clear that his loyalty to the opposition party to the mayor is higher than their personal friendship.” However, no sanctions were applied: the old man and 4-5 other “criminals”, as an exception, were buried on the territory of the local cemetery, after which the necessary land was finally acquired and the decree lost its relevance.

In a similar way of protesting against higher authorities three years later took advantage the mayor of the Spanish town of Darro - near the same Granada. The reason was again territorial, and 7 million pesetas (about $44,000) were required to eliminate it. In Darro, too, everything worked out without conflicts - everyone who violated the ban already had their own place in the cemetery, and later the Municipal Council of Granada provided a corresponding grant.

The decrees of the municipalities of the above-mentioned Italian village were also absolutely real. Falciano del Massico and the French commune La Grel. Only in the second case did the authorities want to draw attention to another problem - the plight of healthcare in the region. However, this form of protest does not work quickly everywhere: in a Brazilian town Biritiba-Mirin I had to wait five years for land.

Ban on death in the commune of Falciano del Massico

As for the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen, things are not at all as they are usually presented in the media. In the unofficial capital of the Arctic archipelago, Svalbard (Svalbard in Norwegian), never it was not forbidden to die. However, all residents of the town have an address on the mainland and are sent to the continent in case of illness, pregnancy, or simply old age, when a person may need care. If a city dweller does suffer sudden death on the island, then, indeed, he will not be buried in a coffin due to permafrost. However, the old cemetery in the town has been preserved, and in 1998 it was visited by researcherswho extracted samples of genetic material spanish - a virus that killed tens of millions of people a hundred years ago.

And finally, about the most famous ban on dying - within the walls of the royal Palace of Westminster, which has been occupied by the British Parliament for many centuries. In March 2013, the UK Law Commission drew up an informal document, in which she answered popular questions about the “strange” laws of Foggy Albion. Here is what was said there on the topic of interest to us:

“The message about deaths in Parliament seems to be based on the idea that everyone who died in the royal palace was entitled to a state funeral. Neither we nor the House of Commons staff could find traces of such an act. Under the Coroners Act 1988, the Crown Coroner has the power to investigate deaths at the Royal Palace. However, funerals at state expense are not mandatory.

At least four deaths have occurred on the grounds of the Palace of Westminster:
— Guy Fawkes and sir Walter Raleigh were executed in Old palace courtyard (the current palace was built after fire of 1834);
— Spencer Percival, the only assassinated British prime minister, shot in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812;
- sir Alfred Bilsson collapsed and died in the Yes Lobby of the House of Commons while voting for the Sugar Duty Act in 1907.

None of these people received a state funeral. Spencer Percival's funeral was private at the request of his widow."

The general conclusion of the British commission regarding the existence of such a ban is negative. However, to summarize, we can say that history does know cases of legislative restrictions on death, although in our time such actions are usually a provocation, a form of protest by municipal authorities against the state of a particular infrastructure. They do not bear any unpleasant legal consequences for violators. At the same time, the very famous examples about the British Parliament and the northern Norwegian town are fictitious.