(in Part I, I will explore cemeteries in general, in Part II, I'll talk about my own experiences with them. Please keep in mind as you read that I've attempted to keep this post neutral and applicable all of mankind in it's fallen state, but in the following post I will speak as a Christian on what graveyards mean to me. As a follower of Christ, death holds no power over me and I don't fear it. To further prove this, I have included some verses from the Bible at the end.) Ah, cemeteries. The perfect setting for a horror movie. The ultimate Halloween party location. Described adequately with such adjectives as 'creepy', 'spooky', and 'eerie'. But why do the places where we bury our dead have a reputation like this? What's with our culture and death?
It's not like this everywhere, you know. In Europe, cemeteries are regarded more as pleasant places to take afternoon strolls, not so different from any other park or green space (if a little more solemn). In much of Latin America, cemeteries are respected, spiritual places that are honored and cared for (this is best seen on the Dia de la Muerte if ever you are interested).
Here in North America on the other hand, children are afraid to enter graveyards and teenagers lurk around them at night, thinking they are tough for picking it as a hangout and desecrating graves with graffiti, etc. All of our most horrifying movies feature at least one cemetery... preferably on a cold dark night, shrouded in mist. The general feeling in graveyards is one of unease and fear... and a desire to get away from it all.
I don't know if you've ever taken a stroll through a cemetery, but if you have, you've probably felt something noteworthy about the experience -- something different from all the other spaces and places that fill our lives. After all, graveyards are the final resting place for many of our dead. People say their last goodbyes there, sometimes returning year after year to leave flowers or say a few words.
Whether the grounds are finely manicured or left to the weeds, graveyards exist as the place where the living contemplate the mysteries, traumas and heartbreaks associated with death.
In North America, graveyards are unpleasant places to go and people who go there without reason are thought to be strange and likely troubled in some way. I am one such person, and when my dad found out that I liked them, he compared me to Harold from the movie Harold & Maude. Perfect. But why are so many people afraid of graveyards? Is it the thought of all those decaying bodies under the dirt or the idea of a bony arm emerging from the soil to grab your ankle and pull you into the underworld? Or is it something deeper?
For a cat, graveyards may just be another place to sleep away the afternoon, but to the (unbelieving) human, they represent the mystery and the outrage of mortality. Like it or not, we're all going to die. You may think you've accepted that fact, but it's an issue humanity has struggled with since the beginning of time. Unable to avoid it, we've tried to figure out what lies beyond it's doors. Will we live forever in a golden paradise, be reincarnated as a goat or simply cease to exist? We've pined for understanding in the shadows of the pyramids and stared into the blinking eyes of guillotined heads, hoping to glimpse something other than the emptiness of nonexistence.
Biologically, fear exists as a response to stimuli that threatens our survival. We're programmed to fight or run from anything that might cause death, and we approach death itself with the same attitude. We flee from it every day by distancing it from our thoughts and lives. In many parts of the world, we've handed the duties of interring the dead over to mortuary professionals, which limits our intimacy with death.
An excellent example of our culture's understanding of cemeteries is a story my dad told me just the other day from his high school years...
One day he and his friends ate lunch in the cemetery across the street from their school for no particular reason other that it was uncrowded and sunny over there. That afternoon they were all called to the principal's office, and after questioning them about there reasons for their earlier foray, the principal forbid them from ever returning while attending his school.
Now, why would he deem it necessary to take such drastic action? Why was it so disturbing that young people would choose to spend there time in such a place?
We're a race that instinctively fears death, yet we work to maintain hallowed spaces where the dead are memorialized and at least partially preserved. There's also thousands of years' worth of superstitions, folktales and ghost stories to add to the excitement.
We've poured a lot of sacrament, superstitions and fear into our graveyards, which makes for quite a powerful atmosphere. Not only do graveyards play on past memories of loss, they also invoke potentially potent themes of supernatural terror. It's not just horror movies that contribute to this frightening reputation. Cemetery preservation groups and historical societies sometimes get in on the action with haunted tours.
In more extreme cases, people actually suffer from coimetrophobia, the fear of graveyards. The conditions involves a heightened, unrealistic fear of graveyards that actively interferes with a person's life. But unless walking past a cemetery makes your heart rave or the words "graveyard shift" make you faint, your fear probably doesn't qualify as a phobia.
For the most part, the only things you really have to fear in graveyards are collapsing tombstones and monuments. Besides that, living, breathing humans are responsible for more graveyard assaults than all the vampires, zombies and ghouls combined.
"Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." - Thessalonians 4:13-14
"Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." - Hebrews 2:14-15
"Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling." - 2 Corinthians 5:1-2
"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
"The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death." - Isaiah 57:1-2
Stay tuned for Part II!
