Slovakian Brothers Win Title in Central Europe Grave Digging Championship

Grave diggers gathered in Slovakia to compete for the title of fastest grave digger in central Europe.

Earlier this year professional gravediggers in Hungary gathered to test their skills in the first ever National Grave Digging Championship. The winning pair faced off last week against nine other teams from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia to compete for the title of Central Europe’s fast gravediggers.

With only shovels and picks, each team had to dig a grave to exact specifications (5 feet deep, 6.5 feet long, and 3 feet wide) as quickly and neatly as possible with a 5-member jury judging their work. The champions, brothers from a village in Slovakia with 15 years in the business, dug the winning grave in a mere 54 minutes.

The event took place in the Slovakian city of Trencin as part of the International Exhibition of Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services. In many crowded cemeteries, graves must be dug by hand rain or shine (or snow) because they’re too crowded for machinery. The competition was intended to bring funeral companies together and show people how difficult the job is.

Winners Ladislav and Csaba Skladan, representing Peter Pastorok’s funeral services in Kalná nad Hronom.

via The Guardian