|
Halloween
Tradition #3 - Visit an Old Cemetery
 We
always visit an old cemetery
during the Halloween season.
While visiting a cemetery can be a spooky experience for
some, its also very
peaceful and calming. It also gives you a chance to
reflect on life, our lost loved ones and our own mortality.
Personally, we love the old cemeteries that are so hard to
find nowadays. We don't like the "plaque in the ground,
looks like a park" type, we like the kind that has old
headstones, crypts and mausoleums.
My wife was lucky enough to grow
up back east and lived just down 2 blocks down the street
from the town cemetery. It is a large, cemetery with small
rolling hills, lots of trees, hundreds of headstones and
monuments, including her family's section. She liked to go
there as a young girl to read the tombstones or read a good
book and just be alone for a while. It was her private
escape. As a teen, she and her friends would go there all
year long to hang out. But on Halloween night they always
went for ghost stories, hide and seek and generally just to
scare the wits out of each other. To this day, it's hard to
keep her away from a good cemetery!
Since no one we know personally is buried at our local
cemetery, we pick a grave at random and honor that person by clearing the
area of over growth, brushing off the headstone and placing a
bouquet of fresh flowers. Our local cemetery has been around
since the "old west" days so there are some very interesting
headstones there that are very old.
As a tribute to those who have gone before us, we like to recite a
short poem like "Walking
Among Different Graves" by Gwendolyn Golden.
Different people, different names
Yet, the same story follows all
Death has claimed the life
So many headstones
Beautiful flowers blooming wildly
Death is silence upon the grave
Ghost Stories
 If
we go in a group to a cemetery at night, sometimes we sit in a circle and
take turns telling ghost stories. After all what better
place could there be than a graveyard? We bring some pillar
candles in glass holders so we can light them and make a
circle to sit in or place them on top of some of them
tombstones to light our area. We then take turns telling a
ghost story that we've heard, either real or made up. By the
time we are done, we are all a bit on edge. Even adults can
get scared, you know!
Check out the
Halloween Ghost Stories web site for lots of creepy
ghost stories. They have long stories by some known and
unknown authors, poems, urban legends. There's plenty of
stuff there to use or to give you ideas on what to make up
for a ghost story!
There is also a wonderful article published
at the Halloween Online site that has tips and suggestions
for the best way to
tell a ghost story.
Gravestone Rubbings
Gravestone rubbing is a
technique used to make a paper print transfer of the carving on a
gravestone. There are some truly beautiful and interesting
old headstones and taking a rubbing is a unique way of
duplicating its face and has actually become an art form. We
frame and hang up some of our better rubbings as house
decorations for Halloween.
Before attempting to make a rubbing, make sure you get
permission from the care taker first, do your research to
learn how its done and
never do anything that could damage or harm a gravestone. We
never take a rubbing of a stone if it is badly worn or
crumbling as it could damage the stone even more.
You can use
black stick charcoal and large sheets of tracing paper,
which can be found at any arts and crafts store. Some people
like to use loose charcoal powder and a stiff brush but we
find that the stick form works best for us.
Cemetery Etiquette
Always show respect! If you decide to visit a
cemetery, make sure that it is a public cemetery and that
you know its rules of operation. Only go during its posted
visiting hours and never disturb any grave site. If it is a
private cemetery, get permission before entering.
The people
buried here deserve your respect! Take pictures, do
rubbings, walk around and look at the tombstones, but never
take anything and never disturb anything! A cemetery can be
a very peaceful place to connect with death as well as life,
so treat it with the respect that it deserves! |
