02/11/2004 00:00
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By Humphrey Carter DESPITE the wind and the rain, 150'000 people visited the Palma cemeteries, and thousands more across the island, over the past three days to mark the All Saints religious holiday.

The Mayor of Palma, Catalina Cirer, joined the many thousands yesterday morning on a visit to pay her respects to the dead at Palma's main cemetery and said that the weather had failed to deter people from taking part in the religious holiday.

During her visit to the cemetery she made special trips to the area set aside in honour of “the victims of freedom”, the firemen's vault and the old and new burial sites.

The mayor was joined by a large number of local councillors and other dignitaries for the traditional ecumenical, multi-religion service at 12.15 at which the Anglican Church in Majorca was represented by lay-preacher Dr. George Giri.

FLOWER SALES
Not only have the cemeteries been busy, but so too have the flower stalls in Palma. They have seen sales triple over the past three days - a welcome surge in turn-over at a time when they are having to fight off growing competition from super and hypermarkets which, along with illegal traders, have taken nearly a third of their trade away. Flower sellers, accused of trying to cash-in on the religious holiday and bump up their prices, have denied the claims, explaining that the prices are only slightly higher because they buy-on better quality flowers especially for the important religious festival. Some traders claim that, in order to compete this year they have decided to cut their profits instead of putting up their prices. Some flower sellers claim that the number of people going to the cemeteries on All Saint's day is steadily falling and that too is having a negative effect on trade.

OPERATION
Over the long weekend, extra police were involved in a major traffic control operation in an attempt to keep traffic flowing freely to and from the cemeteries, especially Palma's main cemetery in calle Jesus, and to control parking. The EMT public bus service yesterday ran special services to and from the cemetery in an attempt to discourage people from driving, especially as this year the parking area on the site of the fairground is closed for work on the green belt park. In keeping with tradition, the armed forces will honour their dead this morning with flags being flown at half-mast at all military bases.