It really can’t stay (Baby it’s cold outside)The corpse has got to go away (Baby it’s cold outside)This funeral has been (Been hopin the frost would thin)So very nice (Oh, no the ground is frozen in ice!) Fun fact, the top five deadliest months in the U.S. are also months with significant snowfall. January holds the number... Continue Reading →
The International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories estimates there are around 700 pet cemeteries in the United States. This number is likely much higher since many pet cemeteries are informal and never registered. Unlike human cemeteries, the regulations for animal burial are much looser and so pet cemeteries are easily forgotten or abandoned. Such... Continue Reading →
No, Stephen King, not THAT pet cemetery. The residents of these burial grounds might not be able to sit, but they do stay. Humans have extended funeral rituals to their furry family members for millennia and animal graveyards often mirror human ones. These are the largest, oldest, and most famous, plus one that is fading from memory. The oldest... Continue Reading →
Does the idea of wandering through the cemetery by the light of the moon send shivers up your spine? Do the rows of tombstones seem to hide restless and jealous spirits? Maybe you watch your step, careful not to disturb the dead by treading on their graves. Many people hold their breath while driving past a burial... Continue Reading →
The human experience is a constant negotiation between civilization and nature. We are ultimately animals, products of our biology and the environments that shaped our evolution, and yet we work hard to conquer and control nature. Our greatest weapon we have invented in the war against nature is culture, which we wield in the face... Continue Reading →
On the surface (and about six feet below it) cemeteries seem pretty straightforward. Pick a plot, dig a hole. Coffin goes in, gravestone goes on top. But people still have internment-based inquiries, as evidenced by Google autocomplete results. So over the next few weeks, I will be answering the questions that the public ask Google... Continue Reading →
Cemetery, graveyard, churchyard, boneyard, potter’s field, burial ground, final resting place, necropolis, marble town. There are so many different terms for the places where we bury our dead that the differences between them become blurred. Google Book’s NGram Viewer allows us to see how often some common terms for burial places have been published in... Continue Reading →
As long as we have been aware of our own mortality, humans have transferred their fear of death onto the dead. Stories of ghosts and spirits risen from the grave have been passed down through centuries, and even today many shudder at the thought of passing by a graveyard at night. Later, with the dawning... Continue Reading →
Learning to ‘read’ a cemetery is like learning to read a foreign language. Depending on the social, cultural, and historical context of the burial ground, the symbols and information conveyed will represent much different ideas. Even when we look back to a culture that spoke the same language and held the same religion as the... Continue Reading →
Playing Marbles for Keeps 