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From: Matika <mbharvey(a)tiac.net>
To: NVGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com <NVGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 1998 10:42 AM
Subject: [Fwd: Tombstones Meanings]
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Hi all listers...
I found this on another one of my lists and thought some of you may find
this of interst., I know I did, Would like to thank Norma for posting
it!
Thanks Norma
Barbara
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Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 11:45:27 -0500
Subject: Tombstones Meanings
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Norma j Miller PMiller864(a)aol.com SAID:
From: PMiller864(a)aol.com
To: Maggie_Ohio-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Tombstones Meanings
I don't remember where I found these or maybe you all have already seen
them.
Norma j Miller
.
GRAVESTONE SYMBOLS
WE deal so often with abbreviation and scrawled handwriting that we must
decipher. We should also understand some of the symbols we encounter when
we
go graveyard hopping. They may no longer have meaning to us; but to many
of
our ancestors, the symbols chosen for their graves and vaults were once not
simply ornamental in nature.
.
THE early Christians had to develop a system of signs in order to guide one
another to secret meeting places for worship. You know, the early church
members were called "atheists," and not because they did not worship a God.
It was because they ONLY worshipped ONE god, not a plurality of gods, so
they
were atheists-without gods.
.
ONE of the symbols they chose, a common enough symbol and apparently
innocuous, was the anchor, within a Christian context, was really a
disguised
cross, and carries with it the connotation that Christ is the anchor that
prevents the Christian from drifting loose and being lost forever.
AN anchor is a more modern (post-medevil times) context may make reference
to
a person having been a Christian or simply as a sailor. An anchor with a
broken chain consistently symbolizes the breaking of the soul from
life-death.
.
A perpetual favorite, of course, is the angel. The angel in latter days
often
symbolizes the image that parents want to hold of a dead child-now an
angel, a
cherub as depicted in Renaissance art.
.
A crescent is commonly used to show that a person was a follower of the
Islamic faith. The use of this symbol is also applied by some, but not
all,
Black Muslims.
.
THE Christian views the cross as the instrument of death that led to the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. The cross was the only instrument, not the
representation of the Truth who died in the place of sinners. It has been
popular through the centuries for some faiths. However, the symbol of the
cross may also represent different nationalist divisions, such as a
division
between the Western Church and the Eastern Church. THE Japanese also used
a
cross, but for them it represented the four quarters of the earth, although
sometimes it meant the four compass directions. Crowns commonly refer
either
to a heavenly reward awaiting the dead one, or perhaps worldly achievements
of
the deceased.
.
SOMEWHERE between the Middle Ages and the 17th or 18th century, having a
dog
on your gravestone or marker or vault came to mean two different things.
Placed most commonly at the feet of medieval women, they signified loyalty
and
inferiority in the chivalric order. More modern applications came to
suggest
that the one buried there was worthy of love and affection or, at least,
loyalty. Again, as another non sequitur, have you wondered why you refer
to
your feet as dogs, as in "my dogs are really barking," or "my dogs are
killing
me? In the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the most handsome, most
expensive, and most desirable shower were those made from dogskin-and
especially Dalmatian.
.
A small bird that often appears in both Christian and Jewish cemeteries is
the
dove, symbol most Christians as the Holy Spirit, and to the Jews as a
symbol
of peace. Europeans used to see the dove also as a symbol of purity and
spiritually because of its white coloring.
.
WHILE it is rare to see one, DRAGONS on their gravestones. When they
appear,
Saint George rides out to kill them. This symbolizes triumph over sin.
And
when one triumphs over Sin, one has won relief from the most stinging
qualities of Death: the punishments for our sins.