Cemeteries are filled with history, mystery and a host of weirdness. Many people find great pleasure in just taking a stroll around a cemetery on a beautiful fall day. Just about any internet search for this strange combination of words, cemetery pleasures, will bring a reader a list of blog articles written by seemingly sane people who report they have spent more than one afternoon aimlessly strolling amidst the graves of a well-manicured cemetery in which no one they know was buried. (Although, we discovered that this practice has resulted in a writer being reunited with a long lost relative or friend. In at least one case, a blogger revealed that he had stumbled across a friend he had not even known was dead. And when he reported his finding on a social media outlet, it soon became the talk of his small town. Dozens of people, it turns out, had managed to miss the news of this young man’s death in an a hunting accident some 12 years before.)
Cemeteries, surprisingly, are more than just places where people assemble, after a main funeral of a loved one, to hear a pastor continue briefly upon the main themes of his service and then to offer yet another round of condolences and hugs to the closest family members and friends of the deceased. It is also much more than a place where families hold their solemn (usually rather brief) gatherings on special holidays and anniversaries in honor of their dearly departed ancestors. And, of course, it is much more than a special, quiet place that grieving loved ones can attend on those afternoons when the thoughts of their loss – even years after the fact – are just too much for them to endure without a visit. For more on how people commemorate and honor loved ones, see our article on Memorialization.
Yes, cemeteries are much more than that. And some of the “more” is downright strange. We offer a few of the more interesting examples in the remainder of this article.
Partying at a Grave Plot
In a well read social media public forum, a young lady (well, the account claimed to be that of a young lady. No one can know for sure who owns it) relatively recently asked a strange question. She wanted to know what rights she had to the plot she had just purchased for herself in a local cemetery. Commenters quizzed her further about what exactly intended to do on her plot and she eventually revealed her specific plans. Strange indeed.
“The spot is on a beautiful piece of property with a great view of the ocean. I’d like to sun bathe out there on nice days, and maybe even take a grill out there and invite a few friends over for a little socializing.”
Though it’s unclear whether this woman ever made good on her idea, the commenters seemed “weirded out” by it. For more on the types of grave markers and headstones you might encounter, see Headstone vs Grave Marker: Key Differences Explained. Many suggested that she might not be entirely serious, that the whole appearance of her post might be a hoax, and she did not directly respond to those suggestions. Others said she should be arrested if she attempted to do any of that on her cemetery plot, that cemeteries are sacred, wholesome places and that partying on a plot should be illegal.
While it is unlikely that local laws directly address one’s specific use of a cemetery plot, it is highly likely that a contract the woman signed with the cemetery itself would likely address what is appropriate behavior for the plot and what is not. The more rational and reasoned responses to the woman strongly advised her to discuss her plans with a member of the cemetery’s management and ask if she would be in violation of the property owner’s policies. If not, then, she should feel to proceed as she planned – so long as she took into account that visitors to surrounding graves might not appreciate seeing her bikini clad body sunbathing near their loved one’s grave. (Though several commenters said, without a doubt, their male relatives who were deceased would certainly appreciate her spending a few hours in such a state near their graves. And still others said they would bring along some refreshments if they were to ever get an invitation to one of the woman’s graveside cookouts.)
In general, from a perspective of decorum, sunbathing, cooking, and partying in general, are probably not the best activities for a typical grave yard or cemetery. But, in this day of cemetery weirdness, if there’s no objection from cemetery management or from the families of those resting comfortably in nearby graves, well, it’s a free country. To each his own, many would say. Live and let live!
Running and Biking at a Cemetery
Many cemeteries today – especially those in areas that have a year-round, tropical climate that is conducive to outside exercise enthusiasts – have a strange set of signs readily viewable to visitors upon their entry to the “park.” (We put that word in quotations because that is actually what many cemetery marketing departments have decided is most attractive, and that decision has led to this strange scenario that we are about to describe.) “No bike riding, rollerblading, skateboarding or jogging allowed on park property.”
It seems strange that exercise enthusiasts might think it fun and entertaining to jog, roll or ride through a cemetery. Yet, the prevalence of signs against the practice indicates that they do indeed. The lush, tropical landscape of many cemeteries is probably a factor that contributes to this, of course.
There are no statistics available to show just how often this weird practice has occurred in cemeteries in recent years, but many cemetery personnel report in news articles and online blogs that it is more common that a person might suspect. Fortunately, however, enforcement – at least based on anecdotal evidence is not difficult.
“We just put up the signs, and the issue is resolved,” one cemetery receptionist in a medium sized coastal city recently reported. “Sometimes, when the signs get faded we take them down for a while and try to decide if we should bother putting new ones up. Usually, the joggers and bike riders return fairly quickly, though. So we always get new signs made.”
It seems strange that a cemetery would have to remind its visitors that its a sacred, solemn place, not conducive to high energy exercise and work out pursuits. But at least its a good thing that, once advised of its impropriety, the fitness enthusiasts finally find their manners.
Grave Robberies
Though not nearly as common as they were in days long passed when people were often buried with valuable treasure at their side (this practice has probably become far less common thanks to rise of popularity and wisdom of the Christian tradition of “not taking it with you” when one dies), grave robbing still does happen in our modern day.
Only, in the majority of recent cases, the motive is psychological, rather than financial.
In one recent, fairly well publicized, example, a distraught 28 year old man in London attended his father’s funeral and then returned to the cemetery within hours to dig up the grave and take his father’s body home.
Neighbors near the cemetery reported a suspicious vehicle to the cemetery management on the day after the grave robbery occurred, and, when the cemetery groundskeepers investigated, they found the grave to be entirely empty. (The man had carefully covered the grave back with dirt, so, had the neighbors not seen him at the property, he might have gotten away with the theft entirely.)
Police began investigating the theft and quickly discovered an abandoned van just 2 miles from the cemetery. Inside was an empty casket. The same casket in which the man was buried, of course. (It’s interesting that the police called the cemetery personnel to the site to positively identify the casket as belonging to the missing deceased man. Did they think that another empty casket might be discovered in an abandoned van parked near the cemetery?) Detectives quickly connected the van to the man’s son, and a team of officers arrived at the mans house to question him. The man reportedly had a guilty expression upon his face from his first encounter and he quickly guided the officers to the home’s basement. Inside the basement police found the body of the man’s father stored neatly in a large freezer.
The man was arrested and charged with grave theft, and sentenced to some jail time. In his trial, his severe emotional distress over the loss of his father was mentioned as a reason for the crime. He had been very close to his father and intended to take very good care of him in his death; he even planned to offer the corpse three full means each day all served directly to the freezer.
As sympathetic as the court may have been to the man’s emotional troubles over the lose of his beloved father, judge and jury found his actions just too weird to be forgiven lightly. His sentence of 5 years in jail was considered a bit stronger than such a crime might have normally warranted.
Grave Guns
The man discussed above might be thanking his lucky stars that grave robbery is not nearly as big of a problem in today’s modern age as it once was, say, 100 years ago. Our final example of weird things people do in cemeteries involves grave guns that are installed in many caskets across the globe. Though there is no evidence that this practice has been used in recent years (though no one can be absolutely sure about that) experts warn that graves that are more than 75 years old, and in any part of the world, may be booby trapped with guns designed to trip and shoot an intruder’s face if he or she dares to open the casket.
In the days in which people were often buried with their precious valuable that were worth a great deal of money, the grave robbing business was a highly profitable and popular business. Many, in fact, considered it a victimless crime, and so law enforcement officials did not spend a great deal of time investigating the crime – when it was even reported. (In many cases, if a robber did his work under the dark of night in the days just after a deceased was laid to rest – when the ground had already been recently dug up – his crime could go undetected forever.)
Nevertheless, the thought of grave robbers was disturbing to many who intended to take a bit of their wealth with them to the grave, so entrepreneurs had some good success marketing their grave gun contraptions. Historians tell us that after just two of the guns went off in the face of unsuspecting grave robbers (one in Europe and one in the United States) the practice of grave robbing suffered a sharp decline in popularity. Neither of the men who were shot by a grave gun installed in a casket were severely injured, and it is uncertain whether the guns have ever recorded any victims, but they definitely instilled a fear that crippled the grave robbing trade.
It is very much uncertain how many grave guns were purchased and installed in the day when they were first introduced, but, as we say, historians warn anyone who may find need to tamper with a grave site that is over a few decades old to be very careful about opening the casket. While it seems unlikely that a gun manufactured decades ago and left to the elements for many years would perform its duty as intended, the possibility of severe injury definitely exists.
As a final thought to this topic, we offer this interesting observations: though documentation that a grave gun has been installed in a cemetery in at least 60 years is hard to come by, grave robberies are considered all but a thing of the past. The irony of that thought is yet another testimony to the strangeness that seems to be quite prevalent at just about any cemetery in any part of the world.