When Bekir, a 40-year-old entrepreneur, visited the grave of a family member in the western province of Bursa last year, he noted that some of the tombs appeared neglected. Although specialising in events and logistics, Bekir was inspired to set up a gravesite maintenance service, employing musicians who couldn’t find work during the pandemic.
“I go to my ancestors’ graves and chat with them whenever I feel off. So this isn’t purely financially-motivated for me. I’m interested in the spiritual part of the business,” Bekir said.
Visits to cemeteries are an important religious and cultural ritual in Turkey, and grave maintenance services have become increasingly big business in recent years. Companies in Bursa offer package details for the maintenance of loved ones’ graves if they are unable to visit themselves. Planting flowers, refreshing the earth on the graves and cleaning tombstones are standard services, while prayers and an imam’s visit are available on demand. Relatives can also offer prayers via graveside video calls.
Bekir went further, with a service attaching QR codes to gravestones and thus allowing visitors to access detailed biographies and photographs of the deceased. A comments section on the business’s website allows for visitors to leave comments about deceased people whose graves the company has cleaned, allowing for a digital memorial.
“We just added to the practices that existed, we wanted to improve them,” Bekir said. “So we made a user-friendly website and switched to using QR codes.”
Bekir’s company serves Bursa and the southern Marmara region, and he explained that businesses like his were common in cities where residents have left for Germany, Belgium or other European countries where Turks work. However, a significant portion of their clients still live in the city where the graves are located.
“People who suffered the loss too recently, who haven’t come to terms with the passing of their loved ones, some people who are afraid of cemeteries or people who can’t handle visiting the grave of a child or parent usually employ us,” Bekir said.
Grave maintenance services have become increasingly popular in different cities across Turkey, and demand seems to have increased consistently among consumers. Many customers have left photos and positive comments on the companies’ social media pages and websites, and even recommend the services to others.
“They were only a phone call away,” said local politician Feridun Pehlivan. “They gave us the necessary information once we identified the gravesite. We’ve worked with them regularly on a weekly or monthly basis for the past year, and you can go ahead with them without worries. They show you their meticulous work with videos and photos they take after they’re done.”
Graves have a place in daily life in Turkish culture and serve as memorials and prompts of remembrance, according to Bursa Uludağ University sociology department faculty member Berkay Aydın.
“I find that graves are the projection of history and culture, they’re permanent cultural signatures. They hold society and communities together by offering them a reason to perceive and remember their history. In this context, grave maintenance is a socially important construct,” Aydın said.
Graveside visits carry weight socially, and not just religiously, the expert said, adding that ancestors’ tombs are visited on important days, a ritual like sharing dinner as a family.
Grave maintenance services are proof that a sense of responsibility still exists in society, Aydın said, noting that the service encompasses both secular and conservative viewpoints. It has become more widespread in a time when inter-city migration has become common.
“This is really a sign that society hasn’t surrendered entirely to capitalism, this is what I make of the maintenance of values, because capitalism is intrinsically at odds with tradition. It wants you to consume, watch the show and leave. So the end result is society’s adaptation and upgrade rather than societal change,” Aydın said.
İbrahim Gürses, a theology professor at Bursa Uludağ University, told Inside Turkey that Islam was particularly keen on keeping a connection between the dead and the living. It is a Muslim tradition to greet the dead while walking past a cemetery, to remind the living that they will one day have to account for their actions in the afterlife. This is why Islam places cemeteries inside cities, allowing the dead and the living to remain in the same neighbourhood.
“Cemetery visits restore our history in our spiritual worlds. For instance, you can visit your dad’s grave to say ‘I’ve forgiven you dad, you are in the place where I’m headed too,’ if you had unresolved issues about your father. This helps you make peace,” Gürses said.
He continued, “Life and death are like lovers, you can’t separate them. We can’t live as if death isn’t a reality. People who are alienated from the idea of death either deny it or they throw themselves at it. Life and death are the two sides of a pair of scissors, you can’t open them too wide.”