Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Spooky Gravesites...!

With Halloween just around the corner, This might make for some interesting post.

Burial customs are sometimes very different from culture to culture, and because of those differences often seem strange or spooky to others.

Even in our own country, the burial customs change from generation to generation. Many times we look back and say "why did they do that?"

Mortsafes


Logierait Parish Church, Scotland

Victorians. What a wacky bunch they were. When they weren’t swanning around the seaside in full body swim suits they were sipping turtle soup, enjoying their tenth meal of the day. But when they weren’t doing either of those things they were, evidently, putting cages over burial plots. But was this weird act to keep the dead from getting out or to keep the gravediggers from getting in? Rather disappointingly mortsafes were exactly that, ‘safes for the dead,’ placed over plots to deter robbers looking to sell body parts to local medical intuitions. Shame. The Victorians could have done with a bit of zombie in their lives.

Probably some of our customs will eventually seem strange to someone in the future, providing, of course, that there is a future!

I think we'll have our coffee on the patio this morning. The weather is supposed to start warming up again today. Guess we have had our 2 days of Fall!

12 comments:

Phyllis (N/W Jersey) said...

Shades of Dr. Frankenstein! Never heard of this little tidbit. You always find the most interesting items! More rain again today for us up here, so I will really enjoy your patio today.
I'll bring some hot blueberry muffins for all.

linda m said...

Those are so weird looking. However, for that time period and the grave robbing that went on it does make sense. Glad it is warm by you; very cold up here.

JO said...

I guess the cages were cheaper than a mausoleum (sp)

Coffee on your patio will be nice. Sure don't want it on my patio. Please pass the pot.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Some cultures (like some American Indian tribes) bury valuable things with their dead and some bury more than one in a grave by stacking them. Interesting subject. Maybe in your picture they were trying to keep zombies in their graves.

HermitJim said...

Hey Phyllis...
I don't remember ever hearing about it either! Like I said, customs seem to change with the times.

Blueberry muffins sure sound good! Nice!

Thanks for the visit this morning!


Hey Linda...
Guess they do make sense in a weird way!

Shame that folks had to resort to that, but it makes for some interesting articles!

Thanks for coming over this morning!


Hey Jo...
You are probably right on about the cost!

Always room for you, sweetie! Thanks for dropping in!

HermitJim said...

Hey Dizzy...
So many things to learn about the past. Some burial customs are very similar from culture to culture and that makes me wonder if the origins may have been the same!

Lifetime of research could be spent here, I guess!

Thanks, buddy, for coming by this morning!

Sixbears said...

They do look more like something to keep the dead in than the robbers out. Spooky indeed.

Fresh pot of coffee perked on the woodstove this crisp 30 degree morning.

Anonymous said...

I could have used one of those atop my first-born's baby bed to keep the little bugger from climbing over the top!

Peanutbutter-choc-chip muffin INSIDE here today; air quality is horrid, tho' we do have cooler cloud cover today.

And I drop by here most days, but don't always have anything useful to say (not to say that THIS was useful, lol!)

Anonymous said...

I prefer the idea to stop the dead from getting up :-) :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

HermitJim said...

Hey Sixbears...
I'll admit that they seem to be more toward containment other than prevention!

Fresh perked on the wood stove sounds good to me!

Thanks, my friend, for coming over today!


Hey Herlander...
I didn't realize anything could stop that early activity! Anything with chocolate AND peanut butter is excellent, as far as I'm concerned!

No matter if you comment, the visit is always appreciated! Thanks!


Hey Christer...
It makes for a much more exciting story, doesn't it?

Thanks, my friend, for coming over today!

Duke said...

I think it is interesting to walk around old cemeteries, you can pick up a lot of interesting info.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Learn something new all the time from your posts, HJ, and this is certainly timely for the season and upcoming Halloween.