Ritual

The following article was originally published in the July 2024 issue of Roqueta, Menorca's English-language magazine.

In an obscure corner of the harbour of Mahón, on the north side, there is a cemetery, surrounded by a white wall, and only accessible from the water, or a staircase which has a rather obscure entrance not far from ‘little Venice.’ It is known by some as the ‘Cementerio Inglés,’ or more properly, the Anglo-American Cemetery. It dates back to the late eighteenth century and is the resting place for those who could not be interred in the local cemeteries that were for Roman Catholics at the time - Protestants, including Anglicans.

It is a sort of physical chapter of a history book of Menorca, because the majority of those whose graves are within are from the United States Navy in the early-to-mid nineteenth century. A lot of them died from drowning, because sailors did not learn to swim. The US Navy, which was operating to protect its own ships as international trade expanded, had established a training base in Menorca. The US Navy’s first admiral, David Farragut, whose father had been born in Ciutadella in 1775, visited Menorca in 1868, but thereafter the cemetery fell into disrepair. It was the late Jim Maps who in 1965 drew attention to the cemetery’s decline, and from 1977 occasional visits by passing American naval ships contributed to its upkeep. I’m sure that the American sailors who were given the duty of painting the walls greatly appreciated the historical connection! The Spanish government helped to restore the cemetery in 2008.

Every year in early June, with only interruption from the pandemic, there is a ceremony at the cemetery to honour those interred there. It is organised by the Madrid Council of the Navy League of the United States, which combines the occasion with the commemoration of Admiral Farragut in Ciutadella, where there is a statue of him. As Anglican chaplain, it has been my privilege to participate in these ceremonies, together with officials from the US Consulate, other US officials, the Spanish Navy, and the Spanish Army, which now has primary responsibility for the cemetery (and keeps the key!). The pandemic disrupted this practice, but it has resumed. This year a small group of us gathered on 7 June, to say a few words on behalf of those interred there, to read Psalm 23, and to say some prayers on their behalf. I am always mindful that we stand amidst the graves of young men (and one wife) who set out to serve their country as seamen at a time when travel was considerably slower than it is today, when a tour of duty could last years, when the probability of it being a one-way trip was not insubstantial, even in peacetime, and when news of the demise of a family member could take rather a long time to reach home. We were also acutely aware that we stood in respectful memory of servicemen on the day after the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

It is a reminder that ritual forms an important part of human life, something about which I have written before (as recently as May, for example). The passages of life, such as birth, coming-of-age, marriage, parenthood, employment transitions, and ultimately death, all merit some sort of recognition, whether religious or not. In Spain, this attachment to ritual finds various ways to be fulfilled. The Spanish approach to life tends to be to celebrate, and while the approach to death is often decidedly pragmatic and phlegmatic, the season upon which we are just embarking, that of Menorca’s Fiestas, is an expression of communal solidarity and joy. These are rituals of celebration of identity and connection - and there is variety, even within this small island. For example, the opening Fiesta of Sant Joan in Ciutadella has a very different ‘feel’ from the Fiesta of Sant Jaume in Es Castell, or the concluding Fiesta of Mahón.

As those who have an association with the church of Santa Margarita in Es Castell will know, we are not averse to immersing ourselves in the spirit of Menorca’s Fiestas, and since the day of our patron saint (Margaret of Antioch) falls within the days of celebration of Es Castell’s Fiesta, for the past ten years or more (pandemic notwithstanding) we have arranged our own mini-fiesta to celebrate what in the church is known as our patronal festival. In 2023, we were very happy to be joined by our Bishop, David Hamid - and fortunate, too, because later in the year he announced plans to retire at the end of February 2024.

When it comes down to it, almost all of what we do in the church has some sort of ritual in it. Whether it is a weekly Sunday or weekday service, we do tend to follow broadly similar structures of worship; weddings look like weddings (of course), baptisms, whether infant or adult, tend to follow a set pattern, and funerals tend to have a common format, although there is plenty of latitude to allow for the celebration of individuality in each life. Having said that, we don’t do exactly the same thing every week! For example, I keep a record of the hymns that we use in worship: over a ten year period we have sung more than 400 different hymns, some of them once, some of them twenty times. I believe that it was my father whom I first heard using the expression, ‘Variety is the spice of life.’ It is possible to have variety within the setting of observing rituals, whether of worship, or secular and social activity.

Perhaps the place of ritual within our lives is to help us deal with the inevitability of change. Nothing really stays the same, whether it’s the world around us, or the state of our minds and bodies. That’s why we balk when someone suggests something like making a radical change to our Christmas festivities!

Going back to the Anglo-American Cemetery: I really do hope that the memory of those interred within it continues to b celebrated for years to come, out of respect for them, and as a reminder of their place in the history of Menorca. And I wish all of us the very best of the Fiesta season in Menorca.

For anyone who would like more information about the Anglo-American cemetery, there is a rather nice little Wikipedia article that describes it and its origins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Cemetery,_Menorca