Cemeteries!

the cemetery in Jerusalem

I have a dark confession to make. I love to visit cemeteries!

Not all cemeteries. Just the cool ones. By that I mean cemeteries with history or famous inhabitants, beautiful grounds or remarkable architecture. I always check to see if there is a cool cemetery in any city we visit. Pere-Lachaise in Paris, Highgate in London, La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, the D-Day Landings Memorial cemeteries in Normandy, the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, the "new" Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem, the Novodevichy in Moscow and the Alexander Nevsky in St. Petersburg.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Boston

I am not macabre or anything. It's just that you can tell a lot about a city and the people who lived - and died - there by their cemeteries.

Autumn is the best time to visit NE!

The USA has some great cemeteries too. The simple and somber Colonial and Revolutionary War cemeteries in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, the grandiose cemetery statues and mausoleums in the Southern cities of New Orleans and Savannah. Forest Lawn in LA, Green Wood in Brooklyn and Mt. Auburn in Boston. The military cemeteries like Arlington National Cemetery and Gettysburg. (I especially like to visit cemeteries around Halloween - okay, that's a little macabre!)

Yet I hadn't visited any cemeteries in Africa since moving to Johannesburg ... until now when the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation offered a tour of the Braamfontein Cemetery as part of their program over Heritage Weekend. I had read about Braamfontein Cemetery in Lost and Found in Johannesburg, Mark Gevisser’s wonderfully written memoir about growing up in Joburg during apartheid and was eager to visit it myself.

The Cullinan family plot

Braamfontein is the oldest existing municipal cemetery in Johannesburg. There are many famous family plots there - like the Cullinan family plot  - and there are mass graves from some of Joburg's most notorious disasters - like the Dynamite Explosion of 1896. Most of the cemetery is broken up by religious denomination. Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, and the large Jewish burial ground described in Mark's book. There are even crematoriums and ash burial grounds for the Indian population as well. (I didn't see any Catholic graves but I assume the Catholics are buried in Catholic cemeteries. I must look into that.)









I didn't recognize many of the famous people buried in Braamfontein but famous graves are not the only reason I visit cemeteries. I like to look for symbolic elements on the older grave sites.

the clasping hands indicate a final farewell

flying hourglass = the swiftness of time's passage

the draped urn is a visual of the separation of the living and the dead

the dove indicates peace and purity; usually found on the grave of a woman who died young

angels are guides to heaven

a column represents mortality

a woman carrying a cross = faith

a woman holding an anchor = hope or eternal life

lilies = purity, chastity

lamb symbolizes innocence; they are usually found on the tombs of children

wreaths symbolize victory over death

We were warned not to visit the cemeteries in Gauteng unaccompanied. There was evidence of  squatters and the homeless in Braamfontein and it is dangerous to venture in alone or unguided.


 





 

So I am waiting for an escort to visit the Heroes' Acre Church Cemetery in Pretoria where along with the tomb of Paul Kruger, you will find the graves of Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Hancock,  two of the court-martialed defendants immortalized in Breaker Morant, the 1980 Bruce Beresford film set in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War.

One of the fierce women from the SH2015 Gaza Gray archaeological dig in Kruger happens to be a South African "cemetery expert" and knows exactly where their graves are situated. Maybe we can visit on Halloween, Leonie?