catspaw49

Actually, they do have tours of the cemeteries such as Rosehill, Calvary, etc in Chicago to look at the tombs of the famous and infamous such as George Pullman (of "Pullman" railcar fame who was so hated by his workers, and so afraid of being dug up by them and his body desecrated that he had them bury him 20 ft down with alternating levels of lead, cement and railroad ties to foil any attempt to dig him up. Also such greats as Louis Sullivan (the architech sic- sorry, I'm on painkillers and the spelling is suffering) etc. I was always brought up in the Irish tradition of death as a saddness of passing but more importantly, a celebration of the persons life. Many of the graveyards reflect that and have works of art/monuments (rather than just plain tombstones) in honor of those passed on or to celebrate a family's fortune/status. Some of the works truely belong in fine art museams.

Some people do consider it morbid, but I see it as "folk" art of each era to mark individuals passing on.

John OSh