Gravestone Symbology-FYI

Subject: RE: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 03:26 PM

Yes! I'd love to know more about them, Phillipa.

Subject: RE: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: Philippa
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 02:49 PM

I thought the skull and crossbones on graves were simply a mortality symbol. You sometimes find them along with a bell and an hour glass (man's life is short). There are some old graves with these symbols in County Fermanagh, Ireland and even in the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Anyone care to discuss various symbols - hands, etc. found on Jewish gravestones?

Subject: RE: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 01:04 PM

Thanks, Dr. John. I will look into both the Society and the books. I really am not trying to be gruesome, just love old cemeteries and reading the inscriptions. When I lived in New England, the thing for unscrupulous people to do, was to steal gravestones, take them to NYC and sell them for beaucoup bucks as coffee tables. That really PO'd a lot of us, esp. the families of the deceased! Art: too true!**BG**

Here's a little something I wrote up for my mom one time about the cemetrey in Mystic, CT:

From a letter to my Mom, 4/26/93; Mystic, CT "Jerusha and I have been walking everyday at an old cemetery. It is so interesting!
There is one stone with Chinese characters written on it and, in English, it says, "we are one in God's heaven". There are many little children's graves from the sixteen and seventeeen hundreds; as well as many of ships' captains and soldiers of all wars.
Huge, peaceful trees lend their serenity and protection amid great, broad expanses of green grass, while the Mystic River, broadened into a wide delta, slowly wends its was to Long Island Sound.
The dirt roads are paved with clam shells dropped, from high on the wing, by hungry seagulls. Great drooping tree branches offer cool shade from a not very bright sun.
Small hawks, raccous gulls, brash ravens, articulate mockingbirds, and robins trill, whistle, mimic, and wax poetic, lifting one's spirits no matter the day's weather or events.
Majestic headstones proudly proclaim the hoped for immortality of each family through whatever claim to fame they may have -- even the humble, abiding love stated for one another.
I've seen vaults with monuments to soldiers who died while trying to escape the Rebel prisons of the South; babies who drowned or died of "the fever"; women who literally gave their all to carry on the husband's name through death in childbirth; couples who have their stones mounted, but no death dates etched in -- they are still alive! Talk about early retirement! The old stones are my favorites. Each one tells a story, allows me a glimpse of a life gone by -- its struggles, hopes, and joys.
I think of the graveyard as nature undisturbed; I guess because all of the people in it are so deep and quiet! Ha! Ha!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 12:29 PM

Thank you Dr.
Rick

Subject: RE: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: Doctor John
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 12:08 PM

Rick. Gruesome subject coming up. I think when the graveyards were full, they dug 'em up when the bodies were reduced to bones and kept just the skull and thigh bones, storing them in a charnel house which might have been a crypt below the church. Perhaps waiting for judgement day as a sort of compromise. ("Resurection of the body ... etc). The rest was thrown away. I think this is where the skull and cross bones comes from. Kat, can I interest you in the Church Monuments Society. I can't do a blue clicky thing but a search engine should find it. I'm not paid honest! And you might find something of interest. For those into this horrible subject try: The English Way of Death by Julian Litten and "The Fireside Book of Death" by Robert Wilkins. Strong stomachs needed. Dr John

Subject: RE: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 11:24 AM

Interesting Kat.
I wonder if anyone can tell me what the Skull and crossbones on a grave stone signifies. On many trips through England and Scotland over the years I've seen this on quite old gravestones (1600s to 1700s) and have asked many people what it means. I've gotten dozens of different answers, but most of the time, just a shrug. The most common answer has been "plague victim", but somehow that doesn't seem like the final word on it to me. Anyone know for sure.
Rick

Subject: RE: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 11:13 AM

And the stone, itself, means that there is, most likely, a dead thing a few feet down. ;-)

Art

Subject: Gravestone Symbology-FYI
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 12:37 AM

Since a lot of us are into the old songs and such, I thought you all might enjoy thei list, sent to me from a genealogy digest I subscribe to from Nova Scotia. I used to love the old cemeteries when I lived in New England. The kids & I often would go there to eat lunch and take a walk round reading the inscriptions, some so tragic, while others were full of romance.

Anchors & Ships = Seafaring Profession
Arches = Victory
Arrows = Mortality
Bouquets = Condolences, Grief
Buds = Renewal of Life
Bugles = Resurrection, Military
Candle,snuffed = Time, Mortality
Coffin = Mortality
Crossed Swords = High ranking military person
Darts = Mortality
Doves = The Soul, Purity
Father Time = Mortality, Grim Reaper
Flowers = Brevity of early existence, Sorrow
Flying Birds = Flight of the soul
Fruits = Eternal Plenty
Garlands = Victory in Death
Imps = Mortality
Hand of God chopping = Sudden Death
Handshake = Farewell to earthly existence
Hearts = The soul in bliss, Love of Christ
Horns = The Resurrection
Hourglass = Swiftness of Time
Lambs = Innocence
Picks & Shovels = Mortality
Portals = Passageway to the eternal journey
Roses = Brevity of earthly existence
Sheaves of Wheat = Time, The divine harvest
Shells = The pilgrimage of life
Suns = The resurrection
Thistles = Remembrance
Tombs = Mortality
Trees = Life
Trumpeters = Life
Willows = Earthly Sorrow
Winged death`s Head = Mortality
Winged effigies = The flight of the soul