Epitaph

Cemeteries are unique places in our lives. Some are beautiful, some are historic, and some are even entertaining. There is a quiet sadness about all cemeteries because they are the final resting places of our loved ones. We intend to post pictures here of cemeteries and head stones that are original photographs. We are looking for beauty, dignity, funny and above all something interesting. Feel free to comment and to contribute. We will provide a mail box if you want to contribute.




Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Ethnic Cemeteries - A Visit to Ireland?

Tired of flowers?  I promise there are no flowers featured in this post.  Some cemeteries are definitely religiously oriented and the one in this post is a Roman Catholic Cemetery.  This one also seems to me to be predominately an Irish cemetery.  I say this for two reasons; there are a large number of Celtic Crosses and most, but not all, of the family names are Irish.  I come from a Danish-Irish background myself.  My mothers grandparents came to this country from various parts of Ireland.
St. Joseph Cemetery is located in Waterbury, Connecticut and I have often passed by it.  I live in this community.  This was a beautiful Spring day and the cemetery was a quite refuge from the busy streets beyond.
There were several stones similarly designed here.  This was one of the nicest. The image was nicely carved and the engraving on the base stone was exquisite.
This statue rests on a pedestal that indicates that this is the marker for the Parish Priests.  I think that this is a nice way to do this.  I have seen many individual markers for Clergy, but this one is a nice way to remember the Parish Clergy as a whole.

These  are two of the many cross monuments.  They are among the smaller of the crosses, but they are nice in their own way.
 This large monument was a part of what appears to be a family cluster of monuments.  This is the largest of the cluster and some of the smaller ones can be seen to the right.
Perspective can make a great difference.  This is the same monument from above, but from the end.  Notice the nice straight lines of the other stones.
Remember I mentioned Celtic Crosses?  There are three here.
There are several more here.

I especially love the carving work on this final Celtic Cross.  You can click on the picture to see a larger version.  These are very traditional Irish and Celtic designs.  The IHS comes from somewhere else ( it is a monogram for the Greek name of Jesus ( I H C O Y C).  The C is a sigma, so IHS or IHC is the first three letters in the Greek name for JESUS.  If you pronounce the J as a Y then you will pronounce the name as the Greeks did.  This use of the monogram for Jesus is common in Celtic crosses.  Let me point out there are other explanations for the IHS. The other designs on the cross predate Christianity.



Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Spring is Here!

Spring is here and Easter has already come and gone.  The trees are budding and once again I am venturing out to shoot pictures of the area's Cemeteries.  I found yesterday to be an excellent day weatherwise and managed to cover two cemeteries.  One of them is in m home-town of Waterbury and the other is a historic Cemetery in the city of Meriden.  These of course are all in the State of Connecticut.  I will feature each of the Cemeteries in future posts, but this time I am going to feature some of the flowers I saw.  Often flowers in a cemetery are in some sort of pot, but these are growing in the ground.  Some of them have been specifically planted, but some are volunteer plants.  Now to the flowers.
This is a Tulip that has been planted by the stone.  Tulips are beautiful, but the flower lass only a short time.
Daffodils are like Tulips, they are beautiful but are short-lived.  I actually cropped out some of the withered flowers.
The Bluish flower is a Hyacinth. I don't know what the red flower is.  the Hyacinth is one of the first bubs to bloom and these are well past their prime.  The red flowers are beautiful.
I am not sure what this plant is.  It is very small and delicate and I believe a derivative of something that was once planted.  They were all around this stone.  This is a closeup view.
These delicate little bluish flowers  were found all over a certain area of the cemetery.  I know them as May Pink.  They are a wild flower and appear to be a kid of pansy, but I am not sure.  Why are they called May Pink?  I have no idea they are a purplish blue color.  They tend to grow until someone mows the lawn.
Dandelions are often thought of as weeds, but this one set near the blue flowers is quite pretty.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Peace!