Cemeteries — especially old ones — can be amazing places for research, photography or other reasons. And all the while, you can pay respects to those who went before us.
This post is written in conjunction with the 30 Days of Writing, a blog challenge devised by Nicky and Mike at “We Work For Cheese.” I’ll be participating throughout the month of June. If interested, you can see my post with the details of the challenge.
Please note that some of these posts will be serious, some will be normal, and some will be an attempt at humor. This one is a little of everything!
Cemeteries.
Many look at cemeteries as a sad place. One where many people who have passed through life are buried.
Did you know, back when, cemeteries were places of celebration? People would picnic in cemeteries and town events would be held there. And it’s how it should be. When you go to a cemetery, you can celebrate those who have already left us. Sure, it can be sad. But it can also be a good place — one where you remember the good times.
I was brought to this old cemetery through geocaching. It was an overgrown cemetery with some historical people and I never would have found it without the game.
But man cemeteries seemed to be long forgotten. The ones that aren’t active anymore and have the old and amazing tombstones. Hundreds of years have passed for some of these cemeteries and, unless they were famous, there are many people buried throughout the world who likely have nobody who visits their graves anymore.
I have a lot of hobbies in which I participate. One of them is based around cemeteries, the other sometimes involves cemeteries.
The first is with the website Find A Grave.
Many people use this site to help with research about family or whatever else. The site has a large database of cemeteries and photos. What I do, is when local cemeteries get requests for photos of graves, I like to try and get out and go get them for the people seeking the photos. It’s actually been a little while since I’ve done it as my other hobbies have distracted from this one.
But, I love this one because when you’re searching for the headstones, you can learn about things. You can see the stones and different aspects of the burial grounds.
My other hobby in which cemeteries sometimes appear is geocaching.
For those who don’t know, geocaching is a technology-based treasure hunt, using a GPS.
From Geocaching.com:
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.
Geocachers will hide caches all over. In fact, there are nearly 1,800,000 active caches placed around the world. And there are more than 5 million geocachers playing the game.
But, back to cemeteries.
Cachers like to find old cemeteries and hide caches near them. Often, geocachers will do research about these long-forgotten cemeteries and take you there for a certain reason. Maybe because there’s people buried there who fought in the Revolutionary War. Or a famous athlete is buried there. Or someone else. I’ve learned a lot in cemeteries through geocaching and for that, I’m thankful.
Arlington National Cemetery is a place where you can lose yourself in the history and be moved by everything this cemetery stands for.
Finally, cemeteries can be some of the most powerful places to visit.
Take for example Arlington National Cemetery.
I don’t know how many of you have visited there, but during a trip to visit friends in Washington D.C. last year, I spent a combined six or so hours in Arlington National spaced out over two days. From the changing of the guard to staring at all the headstones, it was one of the moving things I’ve ever seen. To know how many of these people have given their life for the United States is something that, for those of us who are Americans, should be thankful for.
Cemeteries, though places where people are buried when life on Earth ends, are not places to be afraid of, rather places to remember and honor those who have gone.
Take a walk through a local old cemetery and look at the headstones. Even if it’s people you might not know, be related to or know anything about, you can still pay respects or at least look around and know that you might be one of the only people to see these names over a given time.
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I agree with you, they are terrific places to visit. my husband and I also have this hobby of checking out the cemetery,especially if we are in a small town/city. I’d love to go to Europe where the history there extends back so much further. It seems essential to honour the dead .
Wendy recently posted..Cemeteries
I like checking out old ones more than the active ones. Less of a chance to run into people mourning or a funeral etc. The old ones really have so much history, too.
Both of those hobbies sound like a lot of fun, and very interesting. One of the other bloggers, Katherine, also does the geocaching and had mentioned it on her blog. While I had an idea of what it was, I didn’t know exactly. Thanks for the explanation!
Nicky recently posted..Someone Told Me There’s A Girl Out There With Love In Her Eyes And Flowers In Her Hair
Geocaching can be a totally fun hobby. I’ve found a few in Montreal and hope to eventually find more up there. The main ones we found were on Mont Royal. I bet you could find a bunch of ’em near you!
When I started caching, I was uneasy about the cemeteries. I got over that fear pretty quickly. I have JuneNY to thank for that. She has done a great service in finding quite a few older cemeteries in our area. Others have contributed as well, speaking of doing the BSLS series, and seeing Little Cross at the beginning. Little Cross was probably a very beautiful tribute some time ago. It still has some of that hidden treasure charm to it though. One thing I’ve noticed, is that a lot of the older sites have no walls, gates or fences. Newer ones seem like a prison. I think that echoes your sentiment about how people used to see things differently. Unfortunately, the gates and walls are needed to keep vandals out, but at the same time, gives it a dark and eerie feeling. My Grandmother is buried in the Plains, where Beth has a cache. I go visit every once in awhile. But, its tough to not feel like I’m visiting a prisoner behind those gates.
I don’t really like to find caches in or around active cemeteries. The older ones work — as long as they aren’t just thrown down. I like to know why I am bring brought to older ones. The old cemeteries in our area have tons of history and I can spend a lot of time in them with photography etc.
As for the gates and such, it’s all property lines and the like. I don’t feel like I’m in a prison with them. It’s part of how things are nowadays.
Oh man, geocaching! I haven’t actually done it, but I got really interested in it a couple of years ago but didn’t have a GPS device.
Now that I have a smart phone with GPS, I can totally get into that.
You should definitely give it a go, Mike. If you want any info, let me know. I’d be more than happy to help!