Should we maintain Graveyards?

[Nadia Castle]

Okay, so I've recently started doing a lot of walking for the sake of not getting fat(ter) and to get away from the house. The best places to walk near me are through a lot of villages, and that usually involved walking through graveyards belonging to old churches in the area.

So I was walking through one today and some of these graves were old, going back as far as the early 18th century. The giant ones rich people got were still easy to see and easy to read, but as I walked through, I actually tripped over a smaller one that had half sunk in the ground. There were lots of tiny, very old gravestones that had sunk into the ground, been left unreadable through weathering, or become so covered in moss that you would never know what was underneath.

I actually felt sort of bad that people are buried there but with no way of seeing who they were. I mean even if there is no relatives left they were still a unique person, surely their burial marker should be respected. But then I wondered if interfering with them is somehow like disturbing the dead. Or even if looking after the dead should matter so much when the living have problems.

It's made me curious as to what other people think. Should we make the effort to maintain graves and gravestones or should we just let what happens to them happen?

 

[krazykidd]

Ehhhh. I personally think it's a waste of time and money . But i also think , funerals are a waste of time and money. So i'm definately not in the majority . Once someone is gone they're gone .

 

[soren7550]

Yes, because graveyards are truly for the living, and a graveyard that has fallen into disrepair will upset mourners more than they already are, and a rundown graveyard will attract no tourists.

Capatcha: buy some time
... you're staring to frighten me, Capatcha.

 

[jesse220]

I think the only people who really gain anything from the gravesites are the friends & family, so if they're unwilling or non existant, what's the point? Something I've. Been wondering is should we really continue to bury people anymore? We've got a billion odd years left until our planet is out of the goldilocks zone, at some point we're going to run out of space. I would rather we stop now than let it get to the point where there's more ground covered by graveyards than cities.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

It's made me curious as to what other people think. Should we make the effort to maintain graves and gravestones or should we just let what happens to them happen?

Neither, we should get rid of graveyards all together, they're an expensive waste of space. We should just cremate everyone.

 

[Esotera]

We shouldn't have graveyards at all, there's a massive shortage of space and it's an incredibly inefficient way of dealing with our dead. This is leading to a shortage of space because no-one is going for a cremation or eco-friendly alternative.

We should make an effort to maintain existing graveyards though...although I'm tempted to say it should mostly be the responsibility of families.

 

[Muspelheim]

Well, no, I'd say I'd prefer if my grave was allowed to crumble with time. Nothing last forever, and it all becomes all the more special for it. Leaving one's grave to the winds of time feels rather hopeful. Yes, it looks much less tidy, but such is time and our fleeting moments in it.

Yes, it might sound stupid and romantic, but... Honestly, a human being's dust might as well be the time to be romantic, otherwise we might as well stuff our dead into the sausage mill for maximum efficiency.

I find the more usual, modern graveyard system rather unpleasant, tell you the thruth. Hidden at the city outskirts, with simple, similar granite headstones standing at attention in perfect rows, the grass perfectly trimmed like a football field. It's sterile and... Rather dishonest, somehow. It sometimes feels like an effort to hide it, as if the builders are afraid people won't be able to cope and break down on their way to work.

However... I did hear about one occasion when a child, somehow, managed to get herself crushed beneath a headstone when it tipped over. Since parents has a tendency to think that the entire world should be child-safe, it'd probably be best to at least make sure the graves aren't unstable or dangerous (asking that, perhaps, children shouldn't be playing around headstones is another option, but you're likely to get a mugfull of Hipsterdad coffee in the face if you suggest that).

 

[Queen Michael]

To be honest, I think graveyards are worth the effort to maintain. Yeah, you could reason that There Are More Important Things To Think About, but I think they do serve a psychological need for people.

 

[sweetylnumb]

Okay, so I've recently started doing a lot of walking for the sake of not getting fat(ter) and to get away from the house. The best places to walk near me are through a lot of villages, and that usually involved walking through graveyards belonging to old churches in the area.

So I was walking through one today and some of these graves were old, going back as far as the early 18th century. The giant ones rich people got were still easy to see and easy to read, but as I walked through, I actually tripped over a smaller one that had half sunk in the ground. There were lots of tiny, very old gravestones that had sunk into the ground, been left unreadable through weathering, or become so covered in moss that you would never know what was underneath.

I actually felt sort of bad that people are buried there but with no way of seeing who they were. I mean even if there is no relatives left they were still a unique person, surely their burial marker should be respected. But then I wondered if interfering with them is somehow like disturbing the dead. Or even if looking after the dead should matter so much when the living have problems.

It's made me curious as to what other people think. Should we make the effort to maintain graves and gravestones or should we just let what happens to them happen?

You know whats worse? the fact that after a set amount of time, most graveyards in highly populated areas are cleared of gravestones, and people are just buried on top of previous occupants. I mean think how many people there are in the world and how many gravestones there are. It doesn't add up, even factoring in cremation and lack of burial. Personally i think i'll just be buried under a tree or something, at least then i'm contributing to something with my death and wont be buried under layers of younger corpses when all my relatives die.

 

[Just_A_COMS_Major]

First, I'd like to preface this reply by mentioning that this is my first official act on these forums, and I did not read every reply fully. If I repeat something or if something I do is incorrectly done with respect to the norms of the forum, I apologize. I think it is absolutely necessary to maintain graveyards. Whether or not the people buried there had visitors to the grave is irrelevant. The point of each grave, whether extravagant or modest, is to recognize a life that was once part of this world. As gravestones sink or wear away, there ought to be someone to restore them to respectful condition and position. Aside from that, I think the grounds need to be well-maintained (grass cut, weeds pulled, etc.), and perhaps a program can be established so that once a year, each grave can get a nice bouquet of flowers. They don't have to be incredibly fancy, just fresh, pretty, and there. After all, wouldn't it be nice to know that our graves won't have to suffer after we're gone if something gets started now?

 

[jesse220]

First, I'd like to preface this reply by mentioning that this is my first official act on these forums, and I did not read every reply fully. If I repeat something or if something I do is incorrectly done with respect to the norms of the forum, I apologize. I think it is absolutely necessary to maintain graveyards. Whether or not the people buried there had visitors to the grave is irrelevant. The point of each grave, whether extravagant or modest, is to recognize a life that was once part of this world. As gravestones sink or wear away, there ought to be someone to restore them to respectful condition and position. Aside from that, I think the grounds need to be well-maintained (grass cut, weeds pulled, etc.), and perhaps a program can be established so that once a year, each grave can get a nice bouquet of flowers. They don't have to be incredibly fancy, just fresh, pretty, and there. After all, wouldn't it be nice to know that our graves won't have to suffer after we're gone if something gets started now?

Of what comfort are flowers to the dead? Flowers & gravesites aren't for the deceased they're to help ease the grief of the loved ones. I'm not trying to be a jerk but if you're dead, you're either not aware of them being there or you're busy getting on with your after-life whether it be heaven, hell, valhalla, nirvana, reincarnation or other.

 

[TehCookie]

It's up to the relatives to maintain the graves, but there should be a groundskeeper if it's a used graveyard. I think graveyards have a lot of historical value. My local one is tiny and has graves from the early 1800's to modern ones and it's interesting to see the difference. There's another abandoned one which is interesting because in the very back there's a huge monument surrounded by a circle of smaller tombstones all belonging to the same family. Graveyards a way of remembrance, not only for your loved ones but for people in the future. Especially if you get one of the huge markers to say I was here.

 

[FPLOON]

We should just cremate everyone.

Does that mean my ashes can be thrown into space afterwards? It can symbolize my ascend into the heavens... or that my ashes would take up space on Earth and no one wants that...

OT: If I learned anything from watching Futurama (R.I.P once again) is that graveyards should be in space... (Problem solved... *uses a Problem Solver stamp of approval on a random gravestone*) As far as the graveyards still on Earth... Eh... You better off having a graveyard of all of your (dead) relatives in your (other) backyard... so that you can always visit their graves without wasting any (extra) gas money...

 

[clippen05]

We shouldn't have graveyards at all, there's a massive shortage of space and it's an incredibly inefficient way of dealing with our dead. This is leading to a shortage of space because no-one is going for a cremation or eco-friendly alternative.

We should make an effort to maintain existing graveyards though...although I'm tempted to say it should mostly be the responsibility of families.

Please elaborate on that massive shortage of space... seriously I just can't wrap my head around that comment. You act like there's no room for cities and crops and the world is coming to an end because of it. That's simply not true. Just look on google maps for gods sake; the amound of undisturbed land, obviously is less than before modern civilization, but is still extremely plentiful.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Graves are there for the benefit of the bereaved. If they want to have them maintained, that's fine. But I have no problems with clearing old graves that are of no benefit to anyone anymore.

 

[Esotera]

We shouldn't have graveyards at all, there's a massive shortage of space and it's an incredibly inefficient way of dealing with our dead. This is leading to a shortage of space because no-one is going for a cremation or eco-friendly alternative.

We should make an effort to maintain existing graveyards though...although I'm tempted to say it should mostly be the responsibility of families.

Please elaborate on that massive shortage of space... seriously I just can't wrap my head around that comment. You act like there's no room for cities and crops and the world is coming to an end because of it. That's simply not true. Just look on google maps for gods sake; the amound of undisturbed land, obviously is less than before modern civilization, but is still extremely plentiful.

In the UK at least we have very little spare space in existing graveyards and a lot of people who are going to die in the next few decades due to a much higher population. It's also fairly hard to build new cemeteries in an accessible location within towns as most of it is built up, we can't just dump bodies in national parks, and a lot of land is protected from development. Basically the land isn't in the right places and can be put to better use than as a dumping ground for dead bodies.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Well, from a practical point of view, I'd say that we don't need graveyards anymore, seeing how we have better ways to deal with our dead (ex. cremation).

But the romantic in me kind of likes graveyards. They give a sense of harmony and purpose, "circle of life" and stuff like that. There's just something very poetic about that...

 

[OneCatch]

We shouldn't have graveyards at all, there's a massive shortage of space and it's an incredibly inefficient way of dealing with our dead.

Tbf, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. Thanks to mad old William Price [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Price_(doctor)] for setting the precedent which legalised cremation again. Otherwise we might have ended up with a rather hideous and unsanitary pyramid necropolis [http://londonparticulars.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/thomas-willson-and-the-pyramid-of-death/] in central London.

OT: I'm not bothered either way. A move towards full cremation is more practical, but graveyards and cemeteries that already exist are fine. Kempt or unkempt is down to the relatives of those there and the organisation responsible for the plot.

Lets just not put the Cappuchins in charge of it. They have some weird attitudes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Friars_Minor_Capuchin#Cimitero_dei_Cappuccini:_The_Capuchin_Crypt] to respecting the dead.

Please elaborate on that massive shortage of space... seriously I just can't wrap my head around that comment. You act like there's no room for cities and crops and the world is coming to an end because of it. That's simply not true. Just look on google maps for gods sake; the amound of undisturbed land, obviously is less than before modern civilization, but is still extremely plentiful.

Check the first two links I posted. On the scale of the world there's plenty of space, but burial would (and did) rapidly become a problem for modern urban centres.