A graveyard (from Anglo-Saxon graf "pit"; yairden "garden, open place")[1] is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones. It is usually located near and administered by a church.
Since the mid-19th century, the term cemetery has become a more popular label for most burying grounds.
Contents |
Graveyards were usually established at the same time as the building of the relevant place of worship (which can date back to the 8th to 14th centuries) and were often used by those families who could not afford to be buried inside or beneath the place of worship itself. In most cultures those who were vastly rich, had important professions, were part of the nobility or were of any other high social status were usually buried in individual crypts inside or beneath the relevant place of worship with an indication of the name of the deceased, date of death and other biographical data. In Europe this was often accompanied with a depiction of their family coat of arms.
Most of middle or low social status others were buried in graveyards around the relevant church again divided by social status. Families of the deceased who could afford the work of a stonemason had a headstone carved and set up over the place of burial with an indication of the name of the deceased, date of death and sometimes other biographical data. 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 metals put on the place of burial.
Various conditions in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century led to the burial of the dead in graveyards being discontinued. Among the reasons for this were:
As a consequence of these reasons, city authorities, national governments and places of worship all changed their regulations for burials. In many European states, burial in graveyards was outlawed altogether either by royal decrees or government legislation.
In some cases, skeletons were exhumed from graveyards and moved into ossuaries 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.
However in most places across Europe completely new places of burial were established away from heavily populated areas and outside of old towns and city centers. Many new cemeteries became municipally-owned, and thus independent from churches and their churchyards; however, even these were still segregated by the faith of the deceased to be buried there.
Thus cemeteries (certainly in their modern landscaped or garden cemetery form), rather than graveyards, became the principal place of burial for the deceased and continue to this day.
Even as far as the 20th century, permission was granted to many small towns and villages to continue using their local graveyards for burials. Many of these places had very small populations with few deaths every year, and had a much better record of public hygiene. Therefore they did not require the establishment of a new burial ground.
Thousands of graveyards still stand across the world today and are usually the place where the oldest graves of a community or part of a city can be found.
However, many churches, most notably in England, have sold their churchyards in part or in whole, with or without a graveyard still situated on it. Also in many cases in the late 19th century and 20th century, churches were forced to sell large portions of their churchyard in order for a road to be built or expanded. The loss of part (or all) of the churchyard, often also led to the removal and permanent loss of century-old graves and headstones. In some cases the human remains were exhumed and the gravestones transferred.
In other cases, the churches themselves removed the headstones in the graveyards, to recreate a park-like environment on the churchyard or simply to facilitate the seasonal cutting and removal of grass or weeds.
Scottish law prevents the clearance of graveyards, largely on the basis of how the title deeds are sold. In England, a plot is effectively bought on leasehold for 100 years. Graveyards may therefore be resold 100 years after the last burial and cleared of graves. However, in Scotland, titles to the burial plots (there entitled "lairs") are in perpetuity and therefore can never be moved.