Elmwood Cemetery

Saturday, April 15, 2017

I adore cemeteries!  Especially cemeteries like Elmwood Cemetery in Columbia, SC.  The design of the cemetery is much like a park.  People would come to the cemetery with a picnic lunch and share the day with their loved one who had passed away.  Time was spent with families eating their picnic lunch, cleaning up their loved ones headstone and plot area, children playing games, etc.  Very Victorian!

Elmwood has rolling hills, amazing trees (have I mentioned my undying love for trees?), and hauntingly beautiful headstones.  I enjoy any opportunity I get to go to Elmwood Cemetery.  Friends and I have had picnics there, brought our pets to play, walked there for exercise, played games, and paid our respects to the individuals buried at Elmwood.  Others in the community enjoy Elmwood Cemetery as a park as well.  On any given day you will see others walking through the cemetery exercising and many riding bikes.  It truly is a peaceful place for both the living and the dead.












If you are interested in learning more about death/mourning in Victorian culture, Widows Weeds and Weeping Veils: Mourning Rituals in 19th Century America by Bernadette Loeffel-Atkins is an excellent (short) book.  Also, Historic Columbia offers tours (7:30p, 8p, & 8:30p) every second Thursday from April to September of Elmwood Cemetery. 

Anyone else enjoy exploring cemeteries?  If so, which ones?

Happy Travels,
Amber




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