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A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death people are burial or otherwise entombed. The word cemetery (from Greek language κοιμητήριον ) implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Ancient Rome catacombs. The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard.
The intact or cremated remains of people may be interred in a grave, commonly referred to as burial, or in a tomb, an "above-ground grave" (resembling a sarcophagus), a mausoleum, a columbarium, a niche, or another edifice. In Western world, funeral ceremonies are often observed in cemeteries. These ceremonies or rites of passage differ according to culture practices and religion beliefs. Modern cemeteries often include crematoria, and some grounds previously used for both continue as crematoria as a principal use long after the interment areas have been filled.
In most cultures those who were vastly rich, had important , were part of the nobility or were of any other high social status were usually buried in individual inside or beneath the relevant place of worship with an indication of their name, date of death and other biographical data. In Europe, this was often accompanied by a depiction of their coat of arms.
Most others were buried in graveyards again divided by social status. Mourners who could afford the work of a stonemason had a headstone engraved with a name, dates of birth and death and sometimes other biographical data, and set up over the place of burial. Usually, the more writing and symbols carved on the headstone, the more expensive it was. As with most other human property such as houses and means of transport, richer families used to compete for the artistic value of their family headstone in comparison to others around it, sometimes adding a statue (such as a weeping angel) on the top of the grave.
Those who could not pay for a headstone at all usually had some religious symbol made from wood on the place of burial such as a Christian cross; however, this would quickly deteriorate under the rain or snow. Some families hired a blacksmith and had large crosses made from various put on the places of burial.
Instead of graveyards, completely new places of burial were established away from heavily populated areas and outside of old towns and city centers. Many new cemeteries became owned or were run by their own corporations, and thus independent from churches and their churchyards.
In some cases, were exhumed from graveyards and moved into Ossuary or catacombs. A large action of this type occurred in 18th century Paris when human remains were transferred from graveyards all over the city to the Catacombs of Paris. The bones of an estimated six million people are to be found there." Paris' Secret Underworld ". CBS News. September 27, 2004
An early example of a landscape-style cemetery is Père Lachaise in Paris. This embodied the idea of Sovereign state- rather than church-controlled burial, a concept that spread through the continent of Europe with the Napoleonic Wars. This could include the opening of cemeteries by private or joint stock companies. The shift to municipal cemeteries or those established by private companies was usually accompanied by the establishing of landscaping burial grounds outside the city (e.g. extramural).
In Britain the movement was driven by dissenters and public health concerns. The Rosary Cemetery in Norwich was opened in 1819 as a burial ground for all religious backgrounds. Similar private non-denominational cemeteries were established near industrialising towns with growing populations, such as Manchester (1821) and Liverpool (1825). Each cemetery required a separate Act of Parliament for authorisation, although the capital was raised through the formation of joint-stock companies.
In the first 50 years of the 19th century the population of London more than doubled from 1 million to 2.3 million. The small parish churchyards were rapidly becoming dangerously overcrowded, and decaying matter infiltrating the water supply was causing . The issue became particularly acute after the cholera epidemic of 1831, which killed 52,000 people in Britain alone, putting unprecedented pressure on the country's burial capacity. Concerns were also raised about the potential public health hazard arising from the inhalation of gases generated from human putrefaction under the then prevailing miasma theory of disease.
Legislative action was slow in coming, but in 1832 Parliament finally acknowledged the need for the establishment of large municipal cemeteries and encouraged their construction outside London. The same bill also closed all inner London churchyards to new deposits. The Magnificent Seven, seven large cemeteries around London, were established in the following decade, starting with Kensal Green in 1832.
Urban planning and author John Claudius Loudon was one of the first professional cemetery designers, and his book On the Laying Out, Planting and Managing of Cemeteries (1843) was very influential on designers and architects of the period. Loudon himself designed three cemeteries – Bath Abbey Cemetery, Histon Road Cemetery, Cambridge, and Southampton Old Cemetery.Melanie Louise Simo (1988) Loudon and the Landscape, p. 283.
The Metropolitan Burial Act 1852 legislated for the establishment of the first national system of government-funded municipal cemeteries across the country, opening the way for a massive expansion of burial facilities throughout the late 19th century.
In the United States, Rural cemetery became recreational areas in a time before public parks, hosting events from casual picnics to hunts and carriage races.Blanche Linden-Ward (1989). 9780874211603, University Press of Colorado, Utah State University Press. . ISBN 9780874211603
Urban cemeteries were more sanitary (a place to safely dispose of decomposing corpses) than they were aesthetically pleasing. Corpses were usually buried wrapped in cloth, since coffins, burial vaults, and above-ground crypts inhibited the process of decomposition. Nonetheless, urban cemeteries which were heavily used were often very unhealthy. and crypts often needed to be aired before entering, as decomposing corpses used up so much oxygen that even candles could not remain lit. The sheer stench from decomposing corpses, even when buried deeply, was overpowering in areas adjacent to the urban cemetery. Decomposition of the human body releases significant pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses which can cause disease and illness, and many urban cemeteries were located without consideration for local groundwater. Modern burials in urban cemeteries also release toxic chemicals associated with embalming, such as arsenic, formaldehyde, and mercury. Coffins and burial equipment can also release significant amounts of toxic chemicals such as arsenic (used to preserve coffin wood) and formaldehyde (used in varnishes and as a sealant) and toxic metals such as copper, lead, and zinc (from coffin handles and flanges).
Urban cemeteries relied heavily on the fact that the soft parts of the body would decompose in about 25 years (although, in moist soil, decomposition can take up to 70 years). If room for new burials was needed, older bones could be dug up and interred elsewhere (such as in an ossuary) to make space for new interments. It was not uncommon in some places, such as England, for fresher corpses to be chopped up to aid decomposition, and for bones to be burned to create fertilizer. The re-use of graves allowed for a steady stream of income, which enabled the cemetery to remain well-maintained and in good repair. Not all urban cemeteries engaged in re-use of graves, and cultural taboos often prevented it. Many urban cemeteries have fallen into disrepair and become overgrown, as they lacked endowments to fund perpetual care. Many urban cemeteries today are thus home to wildlife, birds, and plants which cannot be found anywhere else in the urban area, and many urban cemeteries in the late 20th century touted their role as an environmental refuge.
Many urban cemeteries are characterized by multiple burials in the same grave. Multiple burials is a consequence of the limited size of the urban cemetery, which cannot easily expand due to adjacent building development. It was not uncommon for an urban cemetery to begin adding soil to the top of the cemetery to create new burial space.
Monumental cemeteries are often regarded as unsightly due to the random collection of monuments and headstones they contain. Also, as maintenance of the headstones is the responsibility of family members (in the absence of a proscribed Perpetual Care and Maintenance Fund), over time many headstones are forgotten about and decay and become damaged. For cemetery authorities, monumental cemeteries are difficult to maintain. While cemeteries often have grassed areas between graves, the layout of graves makes it difficult to use modern equipment such as ride-on lawn mowers in the cemetery. Often the maintenance of grass must be done by more labour-intensive (and therefore expensive) methods. In order to reduce the labour cost, devices such as are increasingly used in cemetery maintenance, but such devices can damage the monuments and headstones. Cemetery authorities dislike the criticism they receive for the deteriorating condition of the headstones, arguing that they have no responsibility for the upkeep of headstones, and typically disregard their own maintenance practices as being one of the causes of that deterioration.
Garden/rural cemeteries were not necessarily outside city limits. When land within a city could be found, the cemetery was enclosed with a wall to give it a garden-like quality. These cemeteries were often not sectarian, nor co-located with a house of worship. Inspired by the English landscape garden movement, they often looked like attractive parks. The first garden/rural cemetery in the United States was Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, Massachusetts, founded by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1831. Following the establishment of Mount Auburn, dozens of other "rural" cemeteries were established in the United States – perhaps in part because of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story's dedication address – and there were dozens of dedication addresses, including the famous Gettysburg Address of President Abraham Lincoln.
The cost of building a garden/rural cemetery often meant that only the wealthy could afford burial there. Subsequently, garden/rural cemeteries often feature above-ground monuments and memorials, , and Columbarium. The excessive filling of rural/garden cemeteries with elaborate above-ground memorials, many of dubious artistic quality or taste, created a backlash which led to the development of the lawn cemetery.
Typically, lawn cemeteries comprise a number of graves in a lawn setting with trees and gardens on the perimeter. Adolph Strauch introduced this style in 1855 in Cincinnati. While aesthetic appeal to family members has been the primary driver for the development of lawn cemeteries, cemetery authorities initially welcomed this new style of cemetery enthusiastically, expecting easier maintenance. Selecting (or grading) the land intended for a lawn cemetery so that it is completely flat allows the use of large efficient (such as ride-on mowers or lawn tractors) - the plaques (being horizontally set in the ground) lie below the level of the blades and are not damaged by the blades. In practice, while families are often initially attracted to the uncluttered appearance of a lawn cemetery, the common practice of placing (sometimes in ) and increasingly other items (e.g. small on children's graves) re-introduces some clutter to the cemetery and makes it difficult to use the larger . While cemetery authorities increasingly impose restrictions on the nature and type of objects that can be placed on lawn graves and actively remove prohibited items, grieving families are often unwilling to comply with these restrictions and become very upset if the items are removed. Another problem with lawn cemeteries involves grass over-growth over time: the grass can grow over and cover the plaque, to the distress of families who can no longer easily locate the grave. Grasses that propagate by an above-ground stolon (runner) can cover a plaque very quickly. Grasses that propagate by a below-ground rhizome tend not to cover the plaque as easily.
Many scientists have argued that natural burials would be a highly efficient use of land if designed specifically to save endangered habitats, ecosystems and species.
The opposite has also been proposed. Instead of letting natural burials permanently protect wild landscapes, others have argued that the rapid decomposition of a natural burial, in principle, allows for the quick re-use of grave sites in comparison with conventional burials. However, it is unclear if reusing cemetery land will be culturally acceptable to most people.
In keeping with the intention of "returning to nature" and the early re-use potential, natural cemeteries do not normally have conventional grave markings such as . Instead, exact GPS recordings and or the placing of a tree, bush or rock often marks the location of the dead, so grieving family and friends can visit the precise location of a grave.
As with graves, the niches may be assigned by the cemetery authorities or families may choose from the unoccupied niches available. It is usually possible to purchase (or pay a deposit) to reserve the use of adjacent niches for other family members. The use of adjacent niches (vertically or horizontally) usually permits a larger plaque spanning all the niches involved, which provides more space for the writing. As with graves, there may be separate columbarium walls for different religions or for war veterans. As with lawn cemeteries, the original expectation was that people would prefer the uncluttered simplicity of a wall of plaques, but the practice of leaving is very entrenched. Mourners leave flowers (and other objects) on top of columbarium walls or at the base, as close as they can to the plaque of their family member. In some cases, it is possible to squeeze a piece of wire or string under the plaque allowing a flower or small posy to be placed on the plaque itself or clips are glued onto the plaque for that purpose. Newer designs of columbarium walls take this desire to leave flowers into account by incorporating a metal clip or loop beside each plaque, typically designed to hold a single flower stem or a small posy. As the flowers decay, they simply fall to the ground and do not create a significant maintenance problem.
Today, it is not unheard of to discover groupings of tombstones, ranging from a few to a dozen or more, on undeveloped land. As late 20th-century suburban sprawl pressured the pace of development in formerly rural areas, it became increasingly common for larger exurban properties to be encumbered by "religious easements", which are legal requirements for the property owner to permit periodic maintenance of small burial plots located on the property but technically not owned with it. Often, cemeteries are relocated to accommodate building. However, if the cemetery is not relocated, descendants of people buried there may visit the cemetery. The "ancient right" of the graveyard is that descendants of those buried on private property have – in many states – an implied easement "in gross" to visit that cemetery. The boundaries of this right, in terms of how frequently descendants (and in a few states other interested people) may visit and for how long, vary by state. In a few southern states, this is provided by legislation; in more states, it is protected by common law decisions. In some states, the right is not yet established by either statute or cases, although it seems likely that in an appropriate challenge most, maybe all, states will recognize at least limited rights of access. See Brophy, supra.
There is also the practice of families with large estates choosing to create private cemeteries in the form of burial sites, , , or on their property; the mausoleum at Fallingwater is an example of this practice. Burial of a body at a site may protect the location from redevelopment, with such estates often being placed in the care of a trust law or foundation. In the United States, state regulations have made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to start private cemeteries; many require a plan to care for the site in perpetuity. Private cemeteries are nearly always forbidden on incorporated residential zones. Many people will bury a beloved pet on the family property.
This process is known as khashf. During famines and outbreaks of epidemics huge numbers of people would die and many tribes faced difficulties in digging new graves because of the difficult weather. In the past, some Arab winters lasted for more than six months and would be accompanied with much rain and fog, impeding movement. But due to tribal rivalries many families would guard their cemeteries and put restrictions on who was buried in them. Across Baha, burial grounds have been constructed in different ways. Some cemeteries consist of underground vaults or concrete burial chambers with the capacity of holding many bodies simultaneously. Such vaults include windows for people to peer through and are usually decorated ornately with text, drawings, and patterns. At least one resident believes that the graves unique in the region because many are not oriented toward Mecca, and therefore must pre-date Islam.
In some regions flowers are put out at specific times called Decoration Days.
Preparation of the grave usually begins before mourners arrive for the burial. The cemetery caretakers fill the grave after the burial, generally after the mourners have departed. Mechanical equipment, such as , are used to reduce labour cost of digging and filling, but some hand shovelling may still be required.
In the United Kingdom the minimum depth from the surface to the highest lid is . There must be between each coffin, which on average is high. If the soil is free-draining and porous, only of soil on top is required. Coffins may be interred at lesser depths or even above ground as long as they are encased in a concrete chamber.Local Authorities Cemeteries Order 1977 Before 1977, double graves were dug to and singles to . As a single grave is now dug to , old cemeteries contain many areas where new single graves can be dug on "old ground". This is considered a valid method of resource management and provides income to keep older cemeteries viable, thus forestalling the need for permanent closure, which would result in a reduction of their work force.
One issue relates to cost. Traditionally, a single payment is made at the time of burial, but the cemetery authority incurs expenses in cemetery maintenance over many decades. Many cemetery authorities find that their accumulated funds are not sufficient for the costs of long-term maintenance. This shortfall in funds for maintenance results in three main options: charge much higher prices for new burials, obtain some other kind of public subsidy, or neglect maintenance. For cemeteries without space for new burials, the options are even more limited. Public attitudes towards subsidies are highly variable. People with family buried in local cemeteries are usually quite concerned about neglect of cemetery maintenance and will usually argue in favour of public subsidy of local cemetery maintenance, whereas other people without personal connection to the cemetery often argue that public subsidies of private cemeteries is an inappropriate use of their taxes. Some jurisdictions require a certain amount of money be set aside in perpetuity and invested so that the interest earned can be used for maintenance.
Another issue relates to limited amount of land. In many larger towns and cities, the older cemeteries which were initially considered to be large often run out of space for new burials and there is no vacant adjacent land available to extend the cemetery or even land in the same general area to create new cemeteries. New cemeteries are generally established on the periphery of towns and cities, where large tracts of land are still available. However, people often wish to be buried in the same cemetery as other relatives, and are not interested in being buried in new cemeteries with which there is no sense of connection to their family, creating pressure to find more space in existing cemeteries.
A third issue is the maintenance of monuments and headstones, which are generally the responsibility of families, but often become neglected over time. Decay and damage through vandalism or cemetery maintenance practices can render monuments and headstones either unsafe or at least unsightly. On the other hand, some families do not forget the grave but constantly visit, leaving behind flowers, plants, and other decorative items that create their own maintenance problem.
On the other hand, cemetery authorities are well aware that many old graves are forgotten and not visited and that their re-use will not cause distress to anyone. However, there may be some older graves in a cemetery for whom there are local and vocal descendants who will mount a public campaign against re-use. One pragmatic strategy is to publicly announce plans to re-use older graves and invite families to respond if they are willing or not. Re-use then only occurs where there are no objections allowing the "forgotten" graves to be re-used. Sometimes the cemetery authorities request a further payment to avoid re-use of a grave, but often this backfires politically.
A practical problem with regard to contacting families is that the person who initially purchased the burial plot(s) may have subsequently died and locating living family members, if any, many decades later is virtually impossible (or at least prohibitively expensive). Public notice about the proposed re-use of graves may or may not reach family members living further afield who may object to such practices. Therefore, it is possible that re-use could occur without family awareness.
Some cemeteries did foresee the need for re-use and included in their original terms and conditions a limited tenure on a grave site and most new cemeteries follow this practice, having seen the problems faced by older cemeteries. Common practice in Europe is to place bones in an ossuary after the proscribed burial period is over.
However, even when the cemetery has the legal right to re-use a grave, strong public opinion often forces the authorities to back down on that re-use. Also, even when cemeteries have a limited tenure provision in place, funding shortages can force them to contemplate re-use earlier than the original arrangements provided for.
Another type of grave site considered for re-use are empty plots purchased years ago but never used. In principle it would seem easier to "re-use" such grave sites as there can be no claims of desecration, but often this is made complicated by the legal rights to be buried obtained by the pre-purchase, as any limited tenure clause only takes effect after there has been a burial. Again, cemetery authorities suspect that in many cases the holders of these burial rights are probably dead and that nobody will exercise that burial right, but again some families are aware of the burial rights they possess and do intend to exercise them as and when family members die. Again the difficulty of being unable to locate the holders of these burial rights complicates the re-use of those graves.
As historic cemeteries begin to reach their capacity for full burials, alternative memorialization, such as collective memorials for cremated individuals, is becoming more common. Different cultures have different attitudes to destruction of cemeteries and use of the land for construction. In some countries it is considered normal to destroy the graves, while in others the graves are traditionally respected for a century or more. In many cases, after a suitable period of time has elapsed, the headstones are removed and the now former cemetery is converted to a recreational park or construction site. A more recent trend, particularly in cities, involves constructing high-rise buildings to house graves.
Cemeteries in the US may be relocated if the land is required for other reasons. For instance, many cemeteries in the southeastern United States were relocated by the Tennessee Valley Authority from areas about to be flooded by dam construction. Cemeteries may also be moved so that the land can be reused for transportation structures, St. Johannes Cemetery Relocation. Accessed July 13, 2009. public buildings, "Remains in 19th century graves downtown ID'd as soldiers". The Tucson Citizen, April 17, 2009. Accessed July 13, 2009. or even private development. "Cemetery Relocation Battle Ongoing". Platte County Citizen, July 4, 2007. Accessed July 13, 2009. Cemetery relocation is not necessarily possible in other parts of the world; in Alberta, Canada, for instance, the Cemetery Act expressly forbids the relocation of cemeteries or the mass exhumation of marked graves for any reason whatsoever. This has caused significant problems in the provision of transportation services to the southern half of Calgary, as the main southbound road connecting the south end of the city with downtown threads through a series of cemeteries founded in the 1930s. The C-Train line running to the south end eventually had to be built directly under the road.
In Singapore, burials are limited to 15 years before graves are exhumed. This has led to a preference of cremation over burial among Singaporeans.
Locating and identifying individual graves in an abandoned cemetery may be hard due to Lithophyte or lichens overgrowing on the Headstone markings. In some cases, it may be difficult because the tombstones have been vandalized.
The legend of , as romanticized by Wade Davis in The Serpent and the Rainbow, is not exceptional among cemetery myths, as cemeteries are believed to be places where witches and sorcerers get skulls and bones needed for their sinister rituals.
In the Afro-Brazilian urban mythos (such as Umbanda), there is a character loosely related to cemeteries and its aura: the Zé Pilintra (in fact, Zé Pilintra is more related to bohemianism and night life than with cemeteries, where the reigning entity is Exu Caveira or Exu Cemitério, similar to Haitian Vodou Baron Samedi).[10]
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