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Cemetery Symbols Cemetery symbols used by Stonecarvers and Monument Companies from the 1700s forward included traditional religious symbols as well as symbols borrowed from art and literature. |
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Cemetery Symbols Cemetery symbols used by Stonecarvers and Monument Companies from the 1700s forward included traditional religious symbols as well as symbols borrowed from art and literature. |
| Anchor | Identified with Saint Nicholas, patron Saint of seaman and a Christian symbol for hope and steadfastness. |
| Angels | Trumpeting Angels of heaven accompany the soul heavenward announcing the arrival. |
| Arrows | Fatal arrows sent by God. |
| Bats | Bats of the underworld. |
| Bells | Tolling for the dead. |
| Bird | From earliest times, symbol of the soul; child's death. |
| Broken columns | Death |
| Candles | Being snuffed out by death's imps. |
| Cherubim | Guardians of a sacred place, servants of God; divine wisdom or justice. |
| Cocks | Fall from grace and resurrection. |
| Coffin | Coffins, skulls, pick-ax and spade - tools and other objects associated with burial, reminders of our ultimate end. |
| Crown | Glory and righteousness. |
| Cobra | Death (an Egyptian influence) |
| Death's head | With soul effigy over mouth (early New England motif). |
| Eye | Divine wisdom. |
| Father Time | Old man with a beard. |
| Flowers | Impermanence » Calla Lily - Majestic beauty » Daisy - Youth » Morning Glory - Resurrection » Lily - Purity, chastity, flower of Virgin Mary » Pansy - Humility » Rose/rosette - Love » Shamrock - Holy Trinity or Ireland » Thistle - The fall of man |
| Fruit | Fertility and abundance. |
| Grapes | Fertility and sacrafice. |
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Page ©2002 RK Andrews
Gravestone & curlique line from JOD's Genealogy Graphics |
