Dem Dry Bones

Fun Facts About Cemeteries

• The word "cemetery" comes from the Ancient Greek meaning "sleeping place" or "dormitory." Early Christians used it for their burial grounds because they viewed death not as an end, but as a temporary rest awaiting resurrection.
• The most visited cemetery in the world is in Paris, attracting over 3.5 million visitors each year. Big names buried there include Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Marcel Proust.
• During the Victorian era, there was a surge in "safety coffins" installed with bells, flags, breathing tubes and viewing windows. People were deadly afraid of being buried alive by mistake because doctors struggled to definitively confirm death, especially with conditions like coma and cholera mimicking it.
• Although it is up for debate, the term "graveyard shift" originally referred to the night watchman who stayed in the graveyard to listen for anyone who might have been buried alive and was ringing their bell. Likewise, the phrase "saved by the bell" is linked to those Victorian-era safety coffins with built-in bells.
• Cemeteries were popular picnic spots in the 19th century, particularly in America. Families would have Sunday lunches among the gravestones as a way to connect with the deceased.
• In some parts of New Orleans, above-ground tombs are commonly used because the water table is so high that burying someone underground might cause the coffin to float back up during floods.
• There's a cemetery in Taiwan where many graves feature life-sized statues of the deceased sitting in chairs, sometimes with personal items next to them.
• In South Korea, families sometimes arrange marriages between unmarried deceased people, holding the ceremonies in cemeteries. These "ghost weddings" are rooted in the belief that an unmarried person's spirit remains restless, potentially bringing misfortune to their living relatives.