Symbolism, Art and Poetry


This is a Cemetery

Lives are commemorated
Deaths are recorded
Families are reunited
Memories are made tangible
and
Love is undisguised.
This is a cemetery.

Communities accord respect
Families bestow reverence
Historians seek information
and
Our heritage is thereby enriched

Testimonies of devotion, pride and warmth are carved in stone to pay
warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life-not the death-of a loved one.
The cemetery is homeland for memorials that are a sustaining source
of comfort to the living.

A cemetery is a history of a people-a perpetual record of yesterday
and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today.
A cemetery exists because life is worth loving and remembering-always

Author Unknown. The Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery brochure,
Middle Village, NY

Flower Symbolism

The children sketched the symbols on some of the headstones, and discovered their meanings; these are included in the scrapbook.

A web search will reveal various web sites with the meanings of the many symbols, flowers and markers found on or with the headstones.

There is also an excellent section in the book "Your Guide to Cemetery Research" by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack.

For example: