Liberia and Italy: the Days of the Dead

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Pascale Harter introduces two tales of how we remember and care for the dead, from two very different settings. In Monrovia, Gabriella Jozwiak finds that the Liberian national holiday called Decoration Day is the time to spruce up the family vault - but sometimes tending the graves gives way to partying in the graveyard. In Rome, a centre of world power and of the Catholic faith for so many centuries, Alan Johnston ponders the great names to be found among those resting in the city's non-Catholic cemetery - a place where people of all faiths and none, from all over the world, are joined in "a great international community of the dead". Producer: Polly Hope. Photo: Cleaning, repainting and clearing graves in Monrovia's Wein Town cemetery on Decoration Day 2014. (c) Gabriella Jozwiak