I learned something new today! About two minutes ago I had no idea that a graveyard and a cemetery had different definitions; I was under the impression that a graveyard was simply a smaller cemetery. So, because Wikipedia has taught me so well this morning, I think I will do a blog post on the history of the cemetery and how it came to replace the graveyard in the 1800s. Lucky you guys.
Another Fun Fact: Googling “Shift from graveyards to cemeteries” gets a lot of bad jokes about cemetery employees working the graveyard shift haha.
| Traditional graveyard - notice how cramped it is! |
First off, I was very interested to learn that the English term “graveyard” is actually derived from two Anglo-Saxon words: “graf” – pit and “yairden” – open area or garden.1 Graveyards are usually characterized by their proximity to the place of worship – i.e. the church – and plots are marked with gravestones.1 While it is tradition within Christian faiths to be buried as close as possible to the church, it is an expensive ritual which many of the poorer classes could not afford. Due to a lack of funds to be buried within or under the churches, the concept of a graveyard was formed so that peasants could at least be near their place of worship.
While Graveyards work well within small towns or villages, having so many decaying bodies so close to where you eat, sleep and worship can certainly be considered an issue of public hygiene! More significantly, are issues of mass death, population increases and quite simply, space. Here is one example of why the graveyard is no longer the major type of burial ground seen across Europe and North America today:
1. The bubonic plague that swept Europe multiple times over the centuries had devastating effects on the European population; approximately 1/3 of Europe is thought to have been wiped out in the 1300s’ outbreak! Imagine 43 million people worldwide being packed tightly together close to where the living dwelled.3 It’s no wonder the Europeans could not stop the spread faster – that and the fact that they killed all the cats who were helping to keep the rats at bay...
After the devastating effects of the plague in the late middle ages, the population began to rise again, and it continued to rise up to the industrial revolution. Around this time it finally occurred to the public that maybe, just maybe having huge amounts of dead right next to every aspect of daily life was a bad thing! So, we see the shift toward cemeteries (hooray!)
| Ross Bay Cemetery - Located in a public park, and not a church in sight! |
A cemetery is defined by the Oxford dictionary – via Wikipedia – as “A burial-ground generally; now esp. a large public park or ground laid out expressly for the interment of the dead, and not being the ‘yard’ of any church”2 In other words, people were being buried in much the same way as in traditional graveyards, but in much more open areas, separated from living quarters and places of worship.
Another little fact about this shift from graveyard to cemetery burial was an increasing resentment held by avid Christians to less-than-committed individuals being allowed burial in the same Christian graveyard as them!2 I thought that was interesting because it really shows how seriously people take their burials. Considering that these people were angry to be buried among people of the same belief system and community as them makes it so much easier to understand why people get upset about being buried in cemeteries today among people of a multitude of faiths!
References
1. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveyard#Burial_in_graveyards_after_the_19th_century
2. 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemetery
3. 3. http://books.google.ca/books?id=GKoS6pB_3RQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=lindberg+reformations&source=bl&ots=XUT2IfsKoC&sig=LmvXfbzqe7UDwXdPZDlyyZPmRX8&hl=en&ei=ZKOUTdCJEMTTiAKxhsicCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
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