Refelction Week 8

Kimberly Ziccardi
Spring Grove Cemetery
Hunley, Marcha
20 August 2009

This week we spent a lot of time discussing the role, cemeteries play in society. There were many great ideas some of which were that cemeteries are for the living more so than the dead. I truly believe this. Nothing means anything to the dead anymore. There is nothing left but an empty shell; a body, but for the living there are countless memories and endless emotional attachments. Cemeteries are important due to the fact they preserve the memory of the loved ones lost and honor them for all their good deeds achieved when alive. Funerals bring closure to those who are able to say their last farewells and cemeteries preserve the site at which people are able to continuously visit and pay their respects. One of the other ideas is how cemeteries are broken down into a simple function of business. Considering that I myself am a business major, this concept was exceptionally appealing to me. Basically cemeteries are business entities that have bills and try to make a profit.
The other half of the class was spent walking through the memorial mausoleum. This was a beautiful and innovative way to preserve the dead. Although a little eerie due to the dead bodies that were merely a few feet away from me behind a block of rock, it was very beautifully laid out. The different rows of marble gave elegance and class to the building. I especially loved the different stain glass windows depicting scenes from the old and New Testament. There is also numerous mosaic pieces decorated on the walls of each floor. Even the urns were beautifully placed behind glass cases. The building was overall pretty dark and somewhat scary at times. I guess it’s hard to shake old stereotypes even when with a group of people. Overall, everything was stunning and definitely a modernized way of “burying” the dead.