WHY DO YOU LIKE CEMETERIES? Are you a Taphophile?

Posted by Diane Kaylyn Neldon Brians on

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WHY DO YOU LIKE CEMETERIES? Are you a Taphophile?

You know you do. Have you realized yet how many people do? What amazes me is the many different reasons why people are drawn to them. What is the fascination, the intrigue?


First, what is a Taphophile?
taphophile. Noun. (plural taphophiles) A person who is interested in cemeteries, funerals and gravestones.”

www.yourdictionary.com/taphophile

Wikipedia writes of a taphophile a lover of cemeteries as a “Tombstone Tourist”.


Tombstone tourist (otherwise known as a "cemetery enthusiast", "cemetery tourist", "grave hunter", "graver", or "taphophile") describes an individual who has a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries, epitaphs, gravestone rubbing, photography, art, and history of (famous) deaths. The term has been most notably used by author and biographer Scott Stanton as the title of his former website and book, The Tombstone Tourist: Musicians (2003), about the lives and gravesites of famous musicians.
Some cemetery tourists are particularly interested in the historical aspects of cemeteries or the historical relevance of their inhabitants. La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna, Austria carry a large array of famous inhabitants and their tombs, that make the cemeteries significant tourist destinations.
Genealogy tourists make considerable effort to search out cemeteries and their records, to verify grave records and ancestral burial locations.

So, why do you like cemeteries?

There are so many different reasons why people like cemeteries and there are so many people who do. Have you ever thought about it? Do friends and family think this is odd, or do they share this interest with you?
Do you love reading the epitaphs? They can be thought provoking, heart wrenching and loving. Getting a little glimpse into the person’s life, “Beloved father, Sweet Angel”. When they were born, when they died. You can learn so much from reading the tombstone. Did they have a family, children, parents, spouse? Were they in the service, an explorer an artist, a poet? Were they someone of status or wealth? Were they a part of the gold rush or the witch hunt?

 Guardian Angel bellefontaine cemetery st. louisbellefontaine cemetery st. louisCementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain

 



Are they your ancestors? Are you interested in where your ancestors are buried? To perhaps learn more about them, to continue your search of your family tree. To have a connection with your past. Maybe you like to visit the graves of the famous. Famous musicians, leaders of industry or countries, actors.

 

st genevieve missouri cemeterybellefontaine cemetery st. louis
st andrews scotland

 


Is it the beauty of cemeteries? The park like setting with ornate tombstones. The peace and serenity. The decaying tombstones of wood in a ghost town. Castles where kings are buried in ornate carved sarcophagus. Kings and Queens of a time long past. Remnants of yesteryear.
bellefontaine cemetery st. louis

 


sterling castle cemetery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holyrood Abbey edinbugh scotland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No two cemeteries are the same. Each unique to the area and time. A cemetery tells a story. A story of a time, of a place and the people who lived and died there. There are cemeteries of faith and service, of wealth and poverty. There are ones above ground and mausoleums.

Salem           Salem
Cementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain Cementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain

 

There are cemeteries that are well kept, some by loved ones. Some abandoned, of a town that was alive and thriving but no longer.

edinburgh scotland  elizabethtown new mexico

Is it the macabre. The fascination of death or the fear. Do you search for the lost spirits?
bellefontaine cemetery st. louis
Cementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain


Bellefontaine Cemetery St Louis Missouri

Is it the architecture that draws you? The beautiful carved tombstones and statues. The stained glass and wrought iron.


Bellefontaine Cemetery St Louis Missouri
Cementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain
Salem


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What is it about cemeteries that are so fascinating to so many?


Why do I like cemeteries?

Cementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain


I have wondered this myself. Graveyards, coffins, skulls, why am I intrigued with them? The history with the cemetery and the area. How people celebrate life and death. There is such beauty. We have been to cemeteries that are so amazingly beautiful and some that are now only remains to a people that were once thriving that are now gone. Where there was once grand display of status has since been left to decay and rot. The forgotten. The architecture of these cities of the dead. The wrought iron and stain glass.

Cementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain
Rosslyn Chapelbellefontaine cemetery st. louis

 

 

 

Melrose Abbey

 

I like reading the epitaphs on the tombstones. After doing some research we have even used some of these on our own tombstones for our graveyard at Halloween.

 


Recently we have been fortunate to take some wonderful vacations to ancestral homes. While there we do like to find burial places of our ancestors. It is very hard to explain the feeling of walking somewhere that an ancestor once walked. To see where they are laid to rest. To know this person, good or bad, because of them I am here. To remember.

Poblet Monastery spain


The beauty, the architecture, the history, the connection all makes beautiful photo opportunities. Absolutely love cemetery photos. Kaylyn takes some amazing photos. Our home, in Albuquerque, had my favorite cemetery photos on the walls of the staircase. I sometimes questioned my choice of placement since we have fallen down these stairs.
Cementiri de Poblenou barcelona spain
bellefontaine cemetery st. louis

Salem


What ever the reason, cemeteries are a place of love ones now gone. Take some time to learn the history. Each era will have an influence on the tombstones. Symbols have meaning. Much time and thought go into the remembrance of a life that once was. Respect those that are gone and the place of remembrance.


 

 

 

 

I love cemeteries


So, does my daughter Kaylyn. The other half of The Wacky Wanderers.

 


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10 comments

  • Toowong is full of quirky historical stories, there is one where a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders escaped to Australia and is buried here with a wife he took on. The moving car is real, and I’ve videoed my sons in my car going up the hill, engine off in neutral. Pretty cool. The spirits on the main hill become visible from the eastern road on certain nights, looking like translucent grave diggers moving around a large crypt.

    FlagEcho on
  • I love graveyards. I feel they call to me. Thank you, you’re beautiful for sharing :)

    Lynn on
  • Use to go with Dad to the cemetery near us as kids. Now I’m a lot older, the cemetery is just… Intriguing. Esp. one that I pass when on a bus, it looks brand new and it’s a black tombstone with Mahone(?). That there makes me more interested in the cemetery. I heard (could be fake) when the floods hit Brisbane in 2011, some of the bodies decided to rise to the top.
    But still, Dutton Park Cemetery is an interesting place to visit.
    I also heard (not sure if it’s real) there’s paranormal activity at Toowong Cemetery (Here’s a snippet from the article)
    BRISBANE is home to a host of urban legends but none send shivers up the spine like the spirits which are said to squire around Toowong Cemetery.
    While many stories have become the stuff of urban legends, historian Liam Barker said others are unexplainable.

    ``There have been a number of unusual sightings which defy logic,’’ he said.

    One particular legend which sparks interest among local residents is the story of `spook hill’.

    ``The traditional tale is that the graves of two young sisters killed in a car accident lie at the top of `spook hill’ and if you sit in the car and put it into neutral the car will defy gravity and roll forwards up the hill,’’ Mr. Barker said.

    James Burley on
  • I’m so relieved to find that I’m not the only one who “loves” cemeteries. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wanna die (for another 100 years 😁) but every time I visit a cemetery, I can’t help but want to stay a while. I just love the peacefulness. The beauty. The history. More often than not, I find myself wondering how these people died, what kind of lives they have lived, what their dreams and hopes were. Every time I see a row of young siblings that died over a century ago, I can’t help wondering how their parents got through it.

    So…perhaps I’m a weirdo for searching answers that no one will ever be able to give me, and for being intrigued by the idea that I’m standing where, over a century ago, mourners had stood and wept for their loved ones.

    Anyway, I’m glad I’m not the only one 😁

    Georgi on
  • Cemeteries honor the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring that we believe in the resurrection from the dead.

    Robert Milton Cosby on

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