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In 1999, the city of Lanjarón, in southern Spain, signed an unusual decree that symbolically prohibited residents from dying on weekends. The measure was adopted after the municipal cemetery reached capacity and sought, with humor, to draw attention to the problem.
With approximately 4 thousand inhabitants at the time, the municipality in the province of Granada faced difficulties in carrying out new burials. Faced with urgency, the city council decided to use creativity to alert the regional government about the need to acquire new land for burials.
The decree, signed by then-mayor José Rubio, recommended that residents “take extreme care with their health” and avoid passing away, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, until the administration found a solution. “We kindly ask that no one pass away until we have a dignified space for our dead,” the text stated.
Symbolic Measure Gained Community Support and International Repercussion
The proposal was met with good humor by the local community and received extensive coverage in the international press. According to the U.S. newspaper Deseret News, the goal of the measure was to provoke public reflection and pressure for a quick solution.
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Lanjarón was not the only city to adopt this type of approach. In Brazil, a similar case occurred in 2005, in the city of Biritiba Mirim, in the interior of São Paulo. There, the then-mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva enacted a symbolic law that made it “illegal” to die, also due to lack of space in the local cemetery.
The Brazilian problem was exacerbated by environmental restrictions, which prevented the construction of new cemeteries in urban areas or near water sources. With the repercussions of the measure, state and federal authorities began to discuss legal alternatives.
After Years of Impasse, Brazilian Municipality Gained a New Cemetery
Only in 2010, after a series of mobilizations and the review of regulations by the National Environmental Council (Conama), a new cemetery was authorized in Biritiba Mirim, located in the Jardim Takebe neighborhood, with capacity for up to 12 thousand burials.
These cases reveal how symbolic and ironic measures can generate real political impact when it comes to essential public services, such as health and funeral infrastructure. Both cities used humor as a tool to raise public awareness and accelerate administrative decisions.
The information was released by the portal Correio24Horas, based on reports from the time and archives of international outlets. The episodes continue to be remembered as unusual examples of governmental action in the face of local crises.
