Periodically we can read that at some point in the globe, the authorities forbade local residents to go to the other world. We checked how true such news corresponds to.

Classic examples of such "prohibitions" in popular sources relate to British parliament (supposedly then funeral expenses will have to be covered by the state), the Norwegian city Longyir (in the conditions of permafrost, the body does not decompose, and their smell can attract white bears) and the Brazilian town Biritiba-Mirin (crowded cemetery). However, in recent decades, according to the Russian media, new cases of the introduction of dragon measures have been recorded. For example, in 2012 the information came from Italy - there were allegedly in one village too Problems With a cemetery. In December 2019, it spread news The fact that the inhabitants of a French commune were forbidden to die on weekends and holidays. And in May 2020, a ban on death from coronavirus supposedly Touched Already a whole Mexican state Verakrus.

The oldest example of such a restriction is given by historians: on the Holy Greek Island of Delos (the homeland of Apollo and Artemis) it was forbidden to be born and die. As for the latest history, it turns out that this is far from all reports about such behavior by the municipal authorities. On September 25, 1999, the mayor of the Spanish town of Lanharon (Granada Province) Jose Rubio Alonso issued a decree in which he forbade 3870 citizens to choose an “eternal vacation” until the government makes the necessary efforts to acquire land. Yes, there was the same problem as in some cases higher - the place ended. And there is no doubt - the decree existed, and the mayor even with pleasure with him Posed:

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

A similar way to protest against higher authorities three years later I used it The mayor of the Spanish town of Darro - near the same Granada. The reason was again territorial, and 7 million peset was required to eliminate it (about $ 44,000). In Darro, too, everything was without conflicts - each violated ban already had its own place in the cemetery, and later the municipal council of Granada provided the appropriate grant.

The decrees of municipalities of the aforementioned Italian village were absolutely real Falchiano-del Massiko And the French commune La-grill. Only in the second case, the authorities wanted to draw attention to another problem - the plight of health care in the region. However, not everywhere such a form of protest works quickly: in the Brazilian town Biritiba-Mirin The land had to wait five years.

The ban on death in the commune Falchiano-del Massiko

As for the Norwegian town of Longyir, things are not at all as the media usually present with him. In the unofficial capital of the Arctic Archipelago, Spitsbergen (Norwegian Svalbard) It was not forbidden to die. However, all the inhabitants of the town have an address on the Great Earth and go to the continent in case of illness, pregnancy, or just the onset of old age, when a person may need care. If the city dweller still overtakes a sudden death on the island, then, indeed, he will not be buried in the coffin due to eternal permafrost. However, the old cemetery in the town was preserved, and in 1998 it The researchers visitedwhich have removed samples of genetic material Spanish - The virus, who killed tens of millions of people a hundred years ago.

And finally, the most famous ban is to die - within the walls of the Royal Westminster Palace, which has been occupied by the British parliament for many centuries. In March 2013, the British legislation commission compiled an unofficial documentIn which she answered popular questions on “strange” laws of foggy Albion. This is what was said there on the topic of interest to us:

“Information about death in parliament seems to be based on the idea that each dead in the royal palace has the right to state funeral. Neither we nor the employees of the House of Commons were able to find traces of such an act. According to the 1988 crowners law, the coroner of the royal court is endowed with the authority to investigate deaths in the royal palace. However, the funeral at the expense of the state is not mandatory.

At least four deaths occurred on the territory of the Westminster Palace:
- Guy Fox and sir Walter Raili were executed in The old palace court (The current palace was built after Fire 1834);
- Spencer Persival, the only murdered British Prime Minister, shot in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812;
- sir Alfred Bilsson He lost consciousness and died in the lobby of “yes” (a special corridor through which the members of the parliament passed, voting in the affirmative. - Approx. Ed.) The House of Commons, casting their vote for the law on sugar in 1907.

None of these people received state funeral. The funeral of Spencer Persival were private at the request of his widow. "

The general conclusion of the British commission regarding the existence of such a ban is negative. Nevertheless, summing up, we can say that history really knows cases of legislative restriction on death, although in our time such actions are usually a provocation, a form of protest of the municipal authorities against a state of one or another infrastructure. They do not carry any unpleasant legal consequences for violators. At the same time, very famous examples about the British parliament and the North Norwegian town are fictional.