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Archiver > CEMETERY > 1997-08 > 0870729161


From: Angus Robinson <>
Subject: RE: Burial Traditions
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 1997 16:12:41 -0500


As a little boy (72 yrs old now) I was told in no uncertain terms to
NOT to walk on a grave. My mother compared it to stepping on the
belly of the person buried there. We had to step OVER the grave
or walk around. Visiting the family cemetery was done several
times a year. Flowers would be placed in the urns on each side of
the main family stone. There were also foot stones on which the
names of the buried person was inscribed.
Another little known fact, many of the Southern Civil War
statues face north as a last act of defiance. I remember the pride
that showed on peoples faces when they told someone that their
relative, perhaps a grandfather, great uncle, or father, served in
the Confederate Army. The mortality rate was so bed that many
families lost every son on the battlefield, sometimes as many as 6
sons. When that happened that immediate line ended. These were
people whose great-grandfathers fought for the same freedom in
1775-1778 - an effort to choose the flag they wanted to serve
under but they had no idea their grandchildren would be forced to
fight again in an effort to regain the freedom they thought they
had acquired in 1776. Can we fault them? I doubt it for this reason,
unless we can think as they did we'll never know why they did what
they did. Have a good day and Keep Looking UP.
Angus Robinson


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From: [SMTP:]
Sent: Monday, August 04, 1997 10:09 AM
To:
Subject: Re: Burial Traditions

i am from the midwest and we were told it meant "disrespect for the dead
"to walk on them. an old saying. "would you like to be trod on"?
we just knew and to this day i will not walk on a grave and if there is no
marker there i watch the row's well!
viola.

----------
> From: ChrisTina Leimer <>
> To:
> Subject: Burial Traditions
> Date: Monday, August 04, 1997 9:41 AM
>
> >Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 13:10:36 -0500
> >From: "Linda De Long-Ohmie" <>
> >To: <>
> >Message-ID: <>
> >Subject: Re: Burial traditions
> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> >Thank you! What length and width is a plot? When walking between rows
how
> >far from the headstone should one stay?
>
> >It seems as though there should be a set of guidelines (the general
layout
> >or rules)
> >displayed at the entrance of each cemetery. -Linda
>
> This message implies that one should not walk on a grave. I grew up in
the
> Midwest and was taught that walking on graves was disrespectful. In
talking
> to someone at the national cemetery association recently to find out
about
> general cemetery dos and don'ts, I asked about not walking on graves. The
> man sounded like he'd never heard of this before and said, how else could
> cemeteries be maintained if graves are not walked on. Made sense to me,
but
> I'm still a little uneasy about walking across them, and don't if I don't
> NEED to.
> Tina
>

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