GAA and graves

So it has now been decided that the neighbouring counties of Meath and Louth will meet in the Leinster Final of the 2010 GAA championship. This is monumental as it is 50 years since Louth were in a Leinster Final and now it is against their greatest rivals. July 11th promises to be a great day but there is a clash of events. Yes, the "blessing of the graves" aka "cemetery Sunday" is on the same day. Now this is truly a clash of two religions, one Catholic, one sport. The interesting and fortunate thing is that the local parish priest is a major football fan, so the feeling locally is that he might have some of the blessings earlier in the morning or even the night before. I am somewhat disappointed as I find the blessing of the graves one of the most interesting days of the year. Whereas in some countries they have biggest vegetables competition, or the best Victoria sandwich or the best knitted jumper, the blessing of the graves is the " I can dress smarter than you and decorate our grave more lavishly" competition. I am blessed with seven highly entertaining sisters in law ( yes 7 !) Truthfully I could refer to them as the 7 dwarfs as they are alot shorter than I am but needless to say I would never be able to specify which one is grumpy so will have to leave them as a group. MIL expects everyone to show up on the second Sunday in July every year and that they should be appropriately attired. One daughter in particular pulls out all the stops and always shows up in a new designer outfit with stilettos. One year however, probably because she arrived in a new Mercedes, she decided to come along in white cropped jeans and nautical accessories, smart casual but still had costs alot. MIL kept her head down as she approached but once the poor victim arrived graveside slowly raised her gaze until she met her eyes and said "Oh it is you....I didn't think a daughter of mine would come to the blessing looking so casual!" The other dwarfs giggled in sheer delight as previous to this our victim had always won the fashion section of the day. When it comes to grave decoration, I have very strict rules 1. No carnations, 2.No fake flowers, 3. No solar lights .Unfortunately these are the exact steps followed by various local families, who also try to compete in the fashion section with disastrous results on both fronts. My elegant lily, cream rose and orchid spray definitely won the best on the in laws grave year one,but the competition has been very fierce since then with one sister in law going as far as to have her daughter qualify as a florist !This year ( recession in full flow)I reckon the flowers will be even bigger but I plan to go for a "Small but perfectly formed " approach, an approach which unfortunately I can't take on the fashion front: more of a "built for comfort not for speed" approach there!Will let you know how it goes x