This week I would like to share what I have found out about floral symbols on gravestones and what they mean. Like I said in one of my first posts, gravestone symbols were actually used as a language to tell people about the deceased and how they died because many people during the colonial New England era were illiterate. The more I find on the interpretations of symbols the more I am amazed by the forms of communication people come up with!
This first list of interpretations is from Memento Mori: Bringing the Classroom to the Cemetery by Laura Suchan.
- lily/rose: purity
- foliage/fruit: lushness of heaven
- ivy: Christian constancy
- palms: peace/victory
- unopened bud/broken flower: life cut short or life budded on earth but will bloom in heaven
- floral wreaths: symbol for mourning-often used to frame an epitaph
- floral motifs are usually associated with women and children to symbolize beauty and innocence.
- bud and the broken stem suggest that the flower will never get an opportunity to grow and blossom
- Floral patterns and specific flowers can also be used as a sign that the deceased was attractive.
- calla lily: beauty
- Easter lily: purity
- tulip: love and passion
- corn: fertility
- grapes: Blood of Christ
- morning glory: resurrection, beauty, loss of young child
- passionflower: passion of Christ
- sunflower: devotion to God
- floral wreath: victory over death
Now, the items that are highlighted purple above are probably more contemporary symbols rather than colonial. I say this because, although the Puritans did believe in the resurrection of Jesus, they did not believe that any other being was capable of resurrection (in the case of the second coming of Christ). The Puritans also did not believe in the Eucharist or Communion, which means they would not have used grapes as a symbol of the Blood of Christ.
Also, I would like to point out from my post last week about hand symbols, the last hand symbol is holding a chain. I wondered if it meant anything, but couldn't find anything on it...until now! I found out the chain (or "Great Chain of Being") symbolizes life on earth, and since it is broken it symbolizes that that life on earth has ended. Just in case anyone else was wondering!
Sources:
Suchan, Laura. "Momento Mori: Bringing the Classroom to the Cemetery". The History Teacher, Vol. 42, No. 1. Nov 2008. Society for History Education. Retrieved Nov 14, 2013. (JSTOR) Web.
Andersen, Keenan. "Gravestones- floral motifs". The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Spring 2009. Retrieved Nov 14, 2013. Web. <http://www.ettc.net/njarts/details.cfm?ID=1450>.
I only knew of a few of these symbols and their meanings. Not surprising that there were more than I knew about. The graveyards walks (in New England) that I took were back in grade school only made mention of the ones pertaining to God or the church. One thing that stood out to me then was that the many of the more decorative headstones were from the 20th century. The older headstones (dating back to 17th century) were much more modest.
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