A survey
was taken in 1990 in which Americans were asked to name their greatest
fears. The results showed that more Americans feared public speaking than
anything else. Speaking about death was our second greatest fear, followed
by death itself in third place.
But in our experience from giving tours to
thousands of students, children are less afraid to ask questions about
death and funerals than we seem to be afraid to answer them. Many of the
questions they ask the guides during the course of a tour have very little
to do with what they are actually seeing at the time and more to do with
death and what we do to people after they are dead. Questions such as the
following are typical.
1) Why do they bury people in a cemetery?
The
typical American cemetery is a place where the living go to remember and
pay respect to the dead. It is more than just a place to bury bodies. The
word "cemetery," which did not become a common word until the 1800s, comes
from the Greek word for "sleeping chamber." Those who first used the word
wanted us to think of death as a sleep, a temporary state as we passed from
death to eternal life. The old word, "graveyard," did not give them that
hope.
Visits to the cemetery to pay respect used to be much more common.
In the early 1900s, we estimate that about 500 people would visit here each
weekday and 3,000 each Sunday. Even in the 1940s, the local newspaper
reported that nearly 100,000 would come here each Memorial Day, and it
reminded those headed to the Indianapolis 500 to avoid the equally long
line of cars trying to get into Crown Hill.
2) How are people buried?
In a
typical burial at Crown Hill, the dead person's body is brought from a
funeral home to the burial site inside a casket, a rectangular wooden or
metal box which holds the body for viewing. The burial site is a hole in
the ground 5' 6" deep x 3' 2" wide x 8' long. The casket is then lowered
into a larger concrete or metal box, called a burial vault, which sits
inside the hole. The lid is put on the vault, sealed, and then the burial
site is covered with earth.
Different cultures bury people in different
ways. Crown Hill is now the site of a number of Muslim burials. In these,
members of their community ceremonially wash and prepare the body, which is
not embalmed. The burial site is prepared as usual, but about a foot of
earth is spread over the bottom of the concrete vault. The body, wrapped
in a shroud, is placed directly on top of this earth and turned so that it
is facing Mecca, the holy city of their religion.
3) What is
embalming?
Embalming is defined by the American Board of Funeral Service
Education as "a process of chemically treating the dead human body to
reduce the presence and growth of micro-organisms, to retard organic
decomposition, and to restore an acceptable physical appearance." In
short, it is a chemical way to help preserve the body during the viewing of
the deceased that is a part of the typical American funeral. Very few
countries use embalming as much as the United States does.
The following
actual advertisement from the 1920s lets us know that embalming is an art:
"For composing the features $1.
For giving the features a look of quiet
resignation $2.
For giving the features the appearance of Christian hope
and contentment $5."
4) What is cremation?
Cremation is the process of
burning a body until only ashes are left. In a modern cremation, the body,
either in its casket or some other container, is placed inside a large gas
oven, called a retort. The four to eight pounds of ashes that result are
placed inside a container called an urn. The family may then choose to
bury this urn underground like a typical burial, or place the urn in a
columbarium niche inside a mausoleum. In about 50% of the cases, the
family chooses to keep the urn, either scattering the ashes somewhere that
was important to the deceased or placing the urn in some kind of personal
memorial at home.
Cremation is becoming more and more popular throughout
the United States, especially on the East and West coasts, and is the most
common choice in many foreign countries.
5) What is a mausoleum?
A
mausoleum may be thought of as a special stone house. The dead, in their
caskets, are placed in crypts, which are nothing more than shelves in the
wall enclosed by some kind of stone front, usually marble or granite. Crown
Hill has fifty-seven family-owned mausoleums, the largest containing 17
crypts. There is also the large Community Mausoleum, built of Bedford
limestone around 1950. This building is easily visible on the northside of
38th Street. In addition, Crown Hill has a number of outdoor mausoleums,
commonly called Garden Crypts.
6) How do you keep track of everybody
buried here?
Cemeteries are sometimes called "Cities of the Dead." Just as
the Postal Service assigns an address to each house in the city, the
cemetery has assigned a Section and Lot Number to each possible burial
location. A section is one of the grassy areas surrounded by roads. Each
of these sections has been surveyed and mapped into individual lots which
have their own number. So when a person is buried here, they receive a
unique "address" by which the cemetery can identify the location.
The
cemetery records these locations, as well as other information which it
receives from certain legal documents such as a burial permit. Therefore
the cemetery has a vast amount of information on each of the people buried
here which may, but not always, include the names of family members, the
date and place of birth, the date, place, and cause of death, and the
funeral director.
If you know someone is buried here, but aren't sure
exactly where, the cemetery will be glad to help you find the spot. For a
small fee, the cemetery will also provide whatever other information it
might have about the deceased. People who are doing genealogy work, that
is, looking up their family tree, often make such requests of the
cemetery.
Suggested Activities
1) Some children, (and some adults) are
afraid to go to a cemetery. Many stories and movies use misconceptions and
exaggerations about cemeteries in order to depict them as dark, spooky,
scary places inhabited by characters out of an R. L. Stine novel. This
image is part of popular culture.
It might be worthwhile to have the
students discuss these stereotypes and contrast them with what they will
actually see at Crown Hill Ñ a large park-like setting inhabited only by
trees, bushes, and man-made memorials of stone.
2) Some students may be
interested in the funeral customs of other cultures, both modern and
ancient. Perhaps some of your students come from a culture with different
burial customs than our own and they would be willing to talk about those
customs.
3) Have each student prepare their family tree. See how many
generations they are able to trace back.
4) It is not unusual for family
members from several different generations to buried together at Crown
Hill. Locate some of these family lots during your tour of Crown Hill and
have the students try to guess at the family relationships of those buried
there and come up with a possible family tree.
