Maybe I am strange, but I have always LOVED old headstones. Some people mighty think it is creepy, but the history, poetry and artwork can be very interesting. For example, we live in the first town ever in our county, so we have old headstones, like Henrietta in the the photo above on the left. She died in 1876 at the age of 21 years, 7 months and 8 days. No one list death to the day any more, just saying!
And cemetaries have all sorts of art, like these statues. I must admit, the dog one got me wondering. And if you notice in the photo, neither of the headstones owners have passed yet. Headstones also have art, such as symbols on them, like these examples.......
So what can you do for "fun" at your local cemetary?
1.) You could make up a kind of game by trying to see how many of each symbol you can find. You could make a bar graph out of the information (shhh don't tell the kids they are learning math skills.) Find out which were the most popular and go online to find out what they mean.
2.) Look for local historcal figures (aka civil war, founding father, artist/actors, etc.)
3.) Read some of the poems on older headstones. They used to write a lot more then name, born/died! If you are having a hard time reading a headstone you can always do number 4.
4.) Make a rubbing! All you need is paper and a crayon. It is just like doing a leaf rubbing when you where little. Just make sure to be careful not to get crayon on the headstone. Darker colored crayons work best.
So get out there and have some fun. I mean come on, it's FREE...headstones, not just for Halloween anymore!
