Gravely Speaking

A portal is an opening or entryway. They come in many forms—a door, a window, even your eyes and your mouth are considered portals. Many superstitions about death concern portals, many of which come from the Victorian Age, some of which still exist today.

The eyes, for instance, are considered the windows to the soul. Victorians believed the eyes were powerful, almost magical, even in death. When a person died therefore, the body had to be removed from the home feet first (most people died at home in the 19^th Century). In that way, the eyes of the deceased could not look back and lure a live person to follow the dead through the passageway to death.

The Victorians also believed that as you passed by a cemetery that you needed to hold your breath. The fear was that if one opened one’s mouth, that a spirit from the dead residing in the cemetery would enter your body through the portal—the open mouth.

Another superstition had to do with the mirrors in the home. After a death, the family very quickly covered the mirrors. It was believed that mirrors were false portals in a sense. The Victorians believed that the spirit of the dead could enter a mirror and become trapped in the mirror. If the spirit did so, it would not be able to complete its trip through the passageway from the Earthly realm to the Heavenly realm, or in some cases, to warmer climes.

The door as a motif in funerary art symbolizes mystery.  The door is the portal from the Earthly realm to the next. In Christianity, the door is usually viewed with hope, charity, and faith.  The next life in the hereafter will be better than the one experienced here on Earth.

Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

Trinity Churchyard Cemetery, New York, new York

As I walked through the Hartsdale Canine Cemetery at Hartsdale, New York, I noticed so many similarities between the gravestones of humans and animals. Of course, the gravestones for the dogs and cats are chosen by those humans that loved them, so it is only natural that there would be so much sameness in terms of the stone shapes, the materials for the gravestones, even some of the symbolism, but I also noticed what I believe are some fundamental differences in symbolism.

For instance, bones carved into a gravestone for a human in the 18^th Century has a completely different meaning than the bone found on the gravestone for one of our four-legged friends! In the former, it is a symbol if decay and rot. It is to remind us that our bodies are temporary and that death is always with us, a constant creepy companion that will meet up with us eventually.

The bone, however, found on the gravestone of a dog, like Isabella in the photo below, is a reminder of what a dog loves—to gnaw on a bone, to fetch a bone. It is a joyful item and a reminder of a playful puppy with something yummy!

A world of difference in perspective!  One is all about Heaven and one isn’t.

Hartsdale Canine Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York

Hartsdale Canine Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York

Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

When I write about our furry family members, I am not referring to those males in the family with hair on their backs, but instead, our little four-legged family members—our dogs and cats. As it turns out, with the exception of how much room is between gravestones, those who bury their pets choose much the same symbolism and gravestone choices as we do with our two-legged family members.

In the example above, the empty bassinet, represents the emptiness that is felt by the loss of the dogs buried underneath. It is much like the empty bassinet gravestone that marks the intricately-carved white marble gravestone of Mary Wigglesworth, who died just shy of her first birthday, her inscription on the pillow.  The symbolism is obvious.  The marker is clearly for a child but also represents the emptiness and sadness from the loss.

Many gravestones also display a photo on the face of the gravestone. That is common in the Hartsdale Canine Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, too.  The gravestone above displays a photo of a cat named, the Fifth Daisy, while the gravestone below displays the photo of 34-year old Anna Maddalena.

Mt. Olivet, Red Bank, New Jersey