Our graveyards are packed with ancient hidden symbols, but do you know that to look for?
Kerima-Gae Topp does. She’s an authority on headstone symbolism and the meaning of inscriptions from past eras, many of which have slipped out of our collective knowledge.
“It’s terrible when you go to someone’s funeral, and you learn so much more about them than you never knew when they were alive,” she says. Some graves are adorned with carved stone ivy, an evergreen that means keeping or clinging to the person’s memory. Urns on top of graves, she explains, are symbols from classical Roman times when people used to cremate bodies and put the ashes in urns. Daisies on a grave represent innocence, acorns mean faith and endurance, and a lily displays purity.“The cemetery at Mays Hill is very simple.
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