Hungarian undertakers stage grave-digging championship

Undertakers in Hungary have found a way to infuse some fun into their morbid profession. They now have a grave-digging championship. 18 two-man teams battle to dig a precise, regulation-size grave as quickly as possible.

“I don’t think this is morbid,” the Hungarian Undertakers’ Association’s deputy chairman, Zoltan Juracsik, said to journalists at the national grave-digging contest at the wooded cemetery in Debrecen, Hungary’s biggest city after Budapest. 

This is a profession, and the colleagues who toil in competition today are proud and deserve our respect,” he said.

The local team came out tops finishing their dig in less than an hour while the opposing side needed almost an hour to dig theirs.
The graves were then judged on neatness and whether they complied with the regulation size: 200 cm long, 80 cm wide and 160 cm deep (7 feet by 2 feet 7 inches by 5 feet).

 It's not just a Hungarian thing however, the winning team wins a place in an international tournament against Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

 The contest is meant to improve the prestige of grave digging and attract young men to a job that must still be done by hand in crowded graveyards where mechanical diggers cannot fit.

 One of the competitors, Csaba Halasz, 21 entered the profession when he took up grave digging after high school, he is now a graduate with a degree in physical education but he has stayed in the business.

“This job chose me,” Halasz said. “It’s hard but it’s worth it. Relatives come and thank me every time. The profession just lured me in.”

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