Maybe I should find a service that can help me engrave something meaningful on his headstone. Your email address will not be published. Submit Comment. June 19, Anchor : Hope and Steadfast The anchor carries a lot of symbolism with it, meaning hope and steadfastness. Book: Knowledge, Faith, Wisdom A book, either opened or closed, means knowledge, wisdom, and faith. Broken Column: Early Death A broken column symbolizes a life that has been cut too short and, in some cases, death in the prime of life.
Dove: Purity, Peace, Hope A symbol of hope, as Noah released the dove as he saw the floods seemingly subside and the dove returning back to Noah on the Ark with an olive branch, meaning it had found land. Broken things symbolise a life cut short. A rose bud with a broken stem represents a girl who died before blossoming into womanhood.
A broken link in a chain represents a death in the family. A broken candle symbolises a life that ended too soon. They are sometimes depicted in the form of a snake swallowing its own tail, or as a wheel. The celtic cross is common in cemeteries across Scotland, Ireland and Wales. They are sometimes depicted with winged hour-glasses or wheatsheaves.
The skull is a reminder of our own mortality. A winged hourglass on a gravestone is a symbol of the fleetingness of life.
Flames represent eternal light or life. An upside-down torch symbolises light that cannot be extinguished. Clasped hands are a symbol of parting from a loved one who has died. Though the use of urns dates back to Classical civilizations, cremation was extremely uncommon in the United States during this time, thus the urns that appear in rural cemeteries are entirely decorative, and in no way functional.
Drawing on influences from a wide variety of people and places through time and space, the mortuary symbology that developed during the Rural Cemetery Movement proved to be highly eclectic. This is especially apparent when considering the frequency of Egyptian Revival architecture and design within American cemeteries during the nineteenth century, which may appear somewhat odd without further investigation. Though seemingly exotic, Egyptian Revival structures were not actually adopted directly from Egypt.
Rather, the use of Egyptian motifs in the United States was an extension of their existing use in Europe, where they were frequently utilized for monument building in urban areas.
Ranging in size and ornamentation, obelisks employ stark geometric lines and a strong vertical orientation, pointing upwards towards the heavens. Though tall and slender, obelisks are visually striking, and they often dominate the sculptural landscape of rural cemeteries.
Speaking to the wealth and prestige of the deceased, the ancient connotations of the obelisk also work to suggest a sense of impermeability to the affects of time. Seeking a source of comfort in their time of mourning, popular notions of Romanticism and changing religious sentiments played important roles in how Americans sought to manage their grief and remember the dead.
While they may seem commonplace today, the adoption of angels was a fairly remarkable development at the time. As the Rural Cemetery Movement was largely a product of the Protestant community, these popular angelic figures were born out of Catholic religious imagery. Though it may seem surprising, the popularity of angelic figures grew from a number of sources. For one, the growing popularity of Christian consolation literature helped to solidify the cultural potency of angels in the afterlife.
From another angle entirely, the adoption of angelic and female figures was also a reaction to the growing popularity of Classical and Egyptian styles, which many Americans viewed with skepticism on account of their historically pagan associations. In early America, home funerals were a common practice. In particular, visitation was often held in the front parlor followed by a procession to the church and cemetery. In this time, when most families typically cared for their own dead and bodies were laid to rest in the parlor, it was often customary to adorn the room with black, as a sign of loss and morning.
Draperies, synonymously referred to as curtains, veils, or palls, were often used to decorate the room for those past. Although typically black, these draperies were much more than a simple shroud or a mere cloth. During the Victorian era, when public cemeteries evolved and people began giving importance to gravestones as a means to memorialize the dead, the design and symbolism of tombstones became much more elaborate. This idea of draping, originally associated with parlor room visitations, thus extended to the craftsmanship of gravestones.
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