The cost of going to one’s final resting place in recent years continues to escalate for either burial or cremation. In spite of the warm assurances (and offers of credit payment plans) by your friendly funeral director, dying is no longer cheap.
Cemeteries continue to be filled with tombstones, mausoleums and markers reflecting a permanent display of love and reflection by surviving relatives and friends of the departed.
Today a “tombstone” is stated as being a tribute marking someone’s final resting place.
However, the custom began with ancient fears that the “departed spirit” might rise from the grave to search out and inhabit the body of a living person.
To prevent this belief from taking place the coffin was nailed shut, a heavy stone was placed on its lid and the coffin was buried deep in the ground.
For even greater security another heavier stone was placed on the surface over the grave leading to the adoption of the term, “tombstone!”
A trip through any local cemetery reveals a big step away from the original practice described herein.
(Excerpts from “The Little Book of Answers” – Author – Doug Lennox – (2003) – MFJ Books – New York, NY 1001.)