I created a fun way to introduce cemetery symbolism to the uninitiated with this game of Graveyard Bingo. The bingo card has 22 common symbols and a couple types of gravestones like the tree-stump gravestone or a marker made of zinc. Print the cards and the next time you are exploring a cemetery with friends, see who gets a bingo first, or in this case shout out GRAVE.
Gravely Speaking 
You missed “goth girl taking selfies.”
Really creative idea! Wish I had this when I went to Bellefontaine Cemetery with students years ago.
I think the fun part is that the bingo game could be customized. This bingo game is more or less for a Victorian-era cemetery. But if you lived in the Northeast you could swap out these symbols for flying deaths heads, winged cherubs, etc. Or it could be customized for a particular cemetery like Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. By the way, it is really good to hear from you!
Would you give the uneducated a picture and description of each type so we will be optimally prepared?
I will work on that. I also thought that I would put pictures in the bingo card which might help, too. What do you think?
That would be very helpful. However, for those of us curious about such things, it would be good to know the symbolism involved in each type of marker.
Great idea! Bonus points for spotting a ‘baby on the half shell’!
You are way ahead of the novice bingo players! Bonus points for even knowing the term!
Very clever.
FActually sounds like a fun family day in Boston. Flying deaths heads, winged cherubs, here we come!!!!
My 5 year old grandson LOVES going to cemetery’s and exploring. He especially likes to clean up leaves, moss, trash from the tombstones of the older, unkept cemeteries as well as visit accessible mausoleums. We talk about various grave markers and THIS GAME will be a great addition to our visits. Much thanks! Oh, perhaps create a visual BINGO card that corresponds with a graphic to help us visual people locate the markers more easily? Just a thought.
That is a great idea–my net project.
Love this! How do you feel about having this published in our newsletter with proper citations? (Historic Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association, Syracuse NY)
I think it would be great! I have more bingo cards, too, so you can play it properly. I hope you will email a copy of the newsletter.