Grave Memorials

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From Macabre Designs to Family Memories
 

Grave memorials have only relatively recently (in the big picture that is all of human history) re-captured their status as the primary memorial object for most people. Attaching epitaphs and even names to grave markers is a tradition that is only about 300 years old in Western Society – at least in its current form. Historians tells us that, for some time throughout the western world, grave markers were not meant necessarily to be viewed time and again by loving relatives wanting to remember the lives of their loved ones. In other words, they were not intended as memorials. Rather, grave markers were decorated by 14^th and 15^th Century church leaders to depict dark, frightening images that were intended to scare congregation members into living a good life so as to avoid a hellish fate in death. Still other traditions required grave markers to be large, heavy, body-length marble slabs, placed over a grave so as to assure that a body could never rise from the grave and escape.

When such superstition around death began to fade, the tradition of grave memorials began to take shape. (Be careful to not misread this article as saying that grave memorials were not in use in other parts of the world or that they were not common before the 14^th and 15^th centuries. Such explorations are beyond the scope of this article.) In the 16^th Century and beyond, grave markers have gradually become grave memorials, places to grieve and remember lost loved ones. Most every grave marker today has décor to somehow match the personality and history of the deceased, and grave markers are often emblazoned with special sayings written about or by the person memorialized. Whereas the grave markers of old were uninviting, to say the least, today’s markers are usually mini-works of art designed to entice many return visits. They are usually part of cemeteries that are luxuriously landscaped, park-like settings, and that only encourages families to gather there on special holidays and such – something that would have been unthinkable 400 years ago.

All of that said, however, there appears to be a gradual shift in grave memorials over the last few decades. Grave markers today do not appear to do as much memorializing as they once did. Most grave markers today offer little more than the name, dates, and one line devoted to the deceased. This is a far cry from the days, just 100 years ago, when men and women would devote great amounts of thought to the words that would appear on their own grave marker. Today, elaborate epitaphs are typically reserved only for the society’s most rich, famous, or powerful, but even that does not always happen and, in fact, many celebrities are being memorialized more with pictures and graphics than with words. The legendary singer Selena, murdered in 1995, for example, has an elaborate grave memorial devoted to her honor. But it has few words other than her name and dates. The marker is a beautifully designed, very elaborate bronze plate that includes colored, textured images of Selena’s face. Likewise, the famous 20^th century comedian W.C. Fields, after struggling for years to decide what should be on his grave marker, finally decided to request simplicity: his name and dates are all that appears on his large grave marker that could have easily held much more engraving.

With this current trend, it seems, the Western culture may be gradually returning to the days when memorializing was done outside of the graveyard – through writings, records, photographs, paintings and even just stories handed down through the generations. Only time will tell if grave memorials will continue as an important cultural tradition.