Colma, California, a little south of San Francisco, has the highest proportion of dead residents to living residents. It has more cemeteries within its limits than any city in the US and maybe the world.
73% of its area is taken up by its 17 cemeteries.
Ceili wrote:Many graveyards dig up remains and rebury them lower and reuse gravesites. Not so much in N.America but in europe.
Well, graveyards are here in Germany (deepending on towns/cities and who owns the place) re-sold after 10, 15, 20 or 25 years (or you can buy them again).
Afterwards, they stay "unused" (= just lawn) for a couple of years and are used later for their original pupose again.
I've never heard of someone being "reburied lower" until now.
"Ossuaries" are repositories for bones of people that have been dug up in order to put newly dead in the cemetery. I don't think they have them anywhere in the US, or in modern Europe (there were medieval ossuaries), but some parts of the world reportedly still have them.
In "Hamlet", they are digging up Yorick (alas, poor Yorick) in order to make room to bury Ophelia.
"Ossuaries", "ossuaires", "Beinhäuser" (singular: 'Beinhaus') were used in Europe till about 17th/18th) century: people usually were buried close to the church ("churchyard"). And since there soon wasn't much room left ....
A picture search by google with these terms shows up some really nice architecture.
Words to Live by
Life is not meant to be a journey to the grave with the intention
of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up,
totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming --
WOW -- What a Ride!
doglover wrote:Oh my...the thought of disinterring remains is horrible. Where is respect for the dead in Europe 
I know of nowhere in the U.S.A. that would be permitted or sanctioned.
I think this is more common in the US than you may think. It's fairly common for spouses to be buried in a "shared grave". When my grandmother died they dug up my grandfather's burial vault and dug the hole down deeper, placed his vault in and then stacked hers on top of his. I was under the impression this was a fairly common practice. (This was in Chicago btw.)
CI : do we really want to be remembered ?
JL : golf course...hmm...i'll get back on this after I play golf tomorrow.
Doglover : Nooooo cant have doglover unemployed. But its interesting that you said cemetries create jobs, only humans make money out of their dead.
Our children will certainly remember us as I think about my own parents, but beyond that I doubt very much many other people will give us a thought. Most of the people that I've known and are now gone will not be remembered by too many outside of their family members and very close friends. By the next generation, most will have been forgotten. I've seen the tombs of Shakespear, Napolean, Columbus, Vasco de Gama, St John, Eva Paron, Ramses II (saw his mummy twice), Michaelangelo, Jack Kennedy, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, jr., and other famous people. They will be remembered for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
We humans work for money to trade for our creature comforts. Some people's only goal is to make money, while some cannot seem to make any. Some of us are lucky enough to accumulated enough money to live comfortably for the rest of our lives; a great feat when we consider that about 90 percent of the world population struggles to meet their daily need of food and shelter. I'm not sure why we need to take up space in a cemetary with huge stones over our heads after we are gone.
CI....thank you so much for sharing that rocket
photo....It's a testament to those who loved the rocket scientist and who had the means to show it....Isn't the resting place really for the loved ones left behind?
It is humbling to read your statistics.
Doglover: I was just pointing out that only human beings make money (or profit somehow) from their dead. I dont think I know of any other living entity that profits from their dead in the sense of exchanging them for goods/services/resources, apart from maybe using them as food. I am not saying anything about whether making a profit from the dead is right or wrong. And, of course the dead have to be taken care of.
CI: I find myself in agreement with you.
I plan on donating my body to Kraft, because they have "good food, and good food ideas." I would like to be an inspiration to their future line of products....instant soylent green perhaps...
Except mine would be yellow.
