A competition was held in Hungary after which the phrase "he digs professionally" really does sound like a compliment.
On 5 September, in the town of Nyergesújfalu, the ninth national championship among gravediggerstook place. 19 teams gathered at the cemetery — a total of 38 professionals with shovels and pickaxes.
The task was as concrete as could be: working in pairs, dig a grave by hand measuring 2 metres in length, 80 centimetres in width and 1,6 metres in depth. The judges assessed speed, accuracy of dimensions and quality of work.
After a hot summer, the ground turned out to be so hard that some participants had to make active use of pickaxes. The winners, however, were not deterred by this.
Róbert Nagy and László Kis managed it in 1 hour 21 minute and received the main prize — 200 thousand forints.
The winner himself summed up the tournament's sporting philosophy with utmost simplicity: in a competition the main thing is speed, while in real work you also have to worry about beauty.
The organisers explain that the championship is held in all seriousness: it is meant to showcase the skill of cemetery workers, draw attention to the profession and somewhat remove the taboo surrounding the topic of death.
But from the outside, it is still hard to shake the feeling that this is the only world championship where the spectator especially does not want to hear:
— Next! 😄
