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Cemeteries are made so that there is a place where family members can come visit the place where loved ones are buried and pay their respects to them. People who visit cemeteries can read the head stones, and even if they don't know the people buried there, they can get an idea about the history of the time in which they lived. You can sometimes get an idea about the kind of family from which they came or their position in society by the type of monument or grave marker they have. Some cemeteries are just for people who fought in wars. Some cemeteries are on private land and are just for members of a family. Most cemeteries are open to all people. Cemeteries are pleasant, peaceful places of silence within the noisy cities surrounding them. They have beautiful tree-lined drives, lakes, and gardens. They have beautiful statues and monuments built to honor the people buried there. One of the most famous cemeteries in St. Louis is Bellefontaine Cemetery. In 1849 there were four cemeteries on Jefferson Avenue that were in the way of the growing city of St. Louis. A committee was formed and one hundred thirty-eight acres of land was bought north of city that included the Hempstead Farm and the LaBeaume Farm. At first, they called this land the Rural Cemetery. Later, the name was changed to Bellefontaine Cemetery because it was on the road to Fort Bellefontaine. The committee was planning to move the graves in the four original cemeteries to Bellefontaine when an outbreak of cholera hit St. Louis. Almost sixty people died every day, and many of them had to buried at Bellefontaine even before the planning was completed. Following the outbreak, many famous leaders of St. Louis were relocated there. In constructing the cemetery, many trees were kept and the roads were made to wind around the gardens, lakes, and trees. The monumental architecture is world famous. As you read the names on the grave stones, you recognize the names of streets, schools, and towns that were named after these people who lived in St. Louis before us; people who were giants in their day. |
The Egyptians were the first to embalm around 1102 B.C.. Their way of embalming placed emphasis on how much money one had. A person of lower class did not get the type of treatment or burial that those of upper and middle classes received. Individuals of the middle class received half the treatments in comparison to upper classes. It took forty days to dry the body, and thirty days to delicately wrap members of the upper classes. Also, the Pharaohs, which were the ruling class in their civilization, were embalmed most carefully and placed in pyramids with everything they needed in their after life. Some of the Egyptians rituals including putting oil and spices on the body after they were embalmed, removing the brain through the nose, and placing the organs in jars with different gods on them. The Egyptians thought that the sun was the center of the universe. Some of their gods were Anubis, a jackal, who was the god of the dead and Oris, the judge of the dead, who has a dog. One of the myths was that Anubis went to the weight and put the person's heart on one side and on the other side was a feather. If the heart weighed less than the feather, you were a good person. If the heart weighed more than a feather, then you were a bad person. That would control your after life. The Greeks had a very different religion. They believed in the Elysian Fields, a soul's final destination . When someone died, the embalmer placed a coin in the dead person's mouth and a honey cake in the casket. The money placed in the mouth was used to pay for the boat ride across the river, Styx, while the honey cake was used to feed the dog one would meet along the way. If the embalmer forgot to put in the honey cake or the coin, then the person had to live on the other side of the River Styx for one hundred years before being allowed to cross. The Romans feared death. They began the custom of having a ceremony for the dead. Unlike the Greeks, Romans were not buried with a coin or honey cake. Money was paid to people to cry at funerals, so the dead would not come back to life. The Americans started the practice of embalming in the early 1800's. From their experience as blood letting, barbers where the first embalmers. William and John Hunter thought of an improved way of embalming that is currently used. It involved replacing blood with mercury, which is a silvery liquid. The process began by washing the body, closing the eyes and mouth, preserving organs, and finally dressing, including make-up. |
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