The Symbols of Autumn

Autumn in Brown County,Indiana

Today is the first day of Fall, also known as the Autumn Equinox. It’s that time of year when the days become shorter and the nights grow longer in the northern hemisphere.  It is one of only two days in the year, (the Spring Equinox being the other,) when daylight and darkness are of equal time.

Harvesting Wheat - 1800's

Pumpkins

The arrival of autumn has been celebrated for centuries, from ancient Egyptian times, to the present, with harvest festivals. These festivals are usually held at the end of the growing season. People throughout the ages have commemorated the hard work involved and the abundance of foods available; pumpkins, corn, squash, beans, wheat, apples and nuts, during this season of plenty.  

Autumn Celebration -
Daniel Macllise

At harvest festivals contests were held, music was played, bonfires were built and plenty of eating and drinking took place. It is no wonder that in the Western Hemisphere, autumn is depicted by full, lush women bearing ripened fruits and grain.  The North American Indians also had many festivals tied to autumn and gathering food from the wild to prepare for winter.

September 2011 Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon - 2010

The harvest moon is another symbol of autumn.  This is the full moon that occurs at the closest time to the Autumn Equinox.  Usually it is in September, but it can occur in October, as it did in 2009 and will again in 2017.  The full harvest moon was so named in the eighteenth century because it was bright enough that farmers could work into the night by it’s light.

Autumn is a time of melancholy for some.  The end of the summer’s warmth and light has come, and the prospect of cold and darkness lay ahead for many months.  It is a season that inspires you to look inward, to reflect and consider the choices you have made, and the options still open to you.

Death is also linked to the autumn and harvest.  Crops were gathered from the field in autumn by reaping with a sickle or scythe. So too were souls depicted as being gathered from the earth.  The Grim Reaper, also known as the Angel of Death, first came about in the 15^th century and was depicted as a skeleton carrying a scythe.  Some believed the Grim Reaper was simply an escort to the afterlife.  His role was not to judge, but to provide safe passage for the newly departed soul.  Others thought the Grim Reaper actively sought souls and caused death to occur.

Other gravestone symbols for autumn include wheat sheaths, gathered and tied for harvesting.

Acorns and Oak leaves can symbolize strength and prosperity on a marker.

Abundant fruit as a sign of a pleasurable life, lived to the fullest.

And plowing, tilling the soil as done when planting or harvesting.

Autumn - Frederic E. Church

Autumn Equinox Sunset 2010

Autumn also comes a sense of balance, abundance now, leanness to come; equal hours of daylight and darkness, feelings of warmth and of chill.   Tonight, celebrate Autumn as your ancestors did - with an abundant dinner, a glass of wine, laughter, stories, and a soul-warming bonfire.

Autumn Bonfires (1885)

Raymond L. Knaub

In the other gardens

And all up the vale,

From the autumn bonfires

See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer is over

And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

The gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall!

                  - Robert Louis Stevenson

Happy Autumn!

~ Joy

The High Mortality Rate of Infants and Children

A lamb is the one of the
symbols for a child's grave

September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month and an appropriate time to explore the tombstones of infants and children.

Cherubs mark childrens' graves 

Child 'sleeping' 

I love going to the cemetery, strolling, thinking, taking photos. But when I come across a stone marking the death of a young child, a baby, or an infant, the colors of life, in that moment, seem to drain a bit.  In the twenty-first century, it seems so wrong for a person to die young, but before the mid-twentieth century, it was common.  In fact, the farther back in time you go, the more it was to be expected. 

Three Lambs indicate that
3 children are buried here

Mortality rates for children, those ten and under, have always been high.  No matter what a parents social standing, children died due to infections, disease and poor nutrition.  Poor prenatal and postnatal care were also factors.  Not until the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, did scientists and doctors even begin to understand what caused certain illnesses and how they were spread.

Lamb in shell for protection

Born and died same day

From Colonial times to the latter 1800’s, 25 to 30% of white infants would not survive their first year.  The rate for black babies was around 35%.  Probability and expectancy was high that a typical family would loose at least one infant during its first 12 months.

Mother and 3 children

George lived almost 4 months.
His mother also died.

Two children
from one family

Early pioneer women had a child approximately every 26 to 30 months.  According to the Indiana Historical Society, “Over sixty percent had six to nine children, thirty percent had ten or more, and only ten percent gave birth to less than six children in their lifetime. According to 1840 census figures, women in Hamilton County, Indiana had an average of eight children during their lifetime.”

Mother and baby
floating on cloud

Mother portrayed as an angel
carrying her baby away

During that time, mothers fared little better.  Puerperal fever, an infection of the uterus, usually contracted after delivery and caused by doctors and midwives not washing their hands, was the main cause of death during childbirth in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Breech births also added to the toll, compromising mother and infant. A breech birth sometimes led to unstoppable bleeding in the mother and suffocation of the baby.

Four lambs signify the deaths
of four children

Child who died before
leading infant to heaven

Living conditions in the U.S. inner cities were terrible and also contributed to high infant mortality rates.  Poverty brought on unclean living conditions, a lack of sanitation, and the quick spread of disease from one to another.  All of these conditions made inner city infant mortality rates around 30%. It took a better understanding of what roles sanitation and prenatal health played in order to enact such regulations as the 1897 New York law mandating that children be vaccinated against smallpox. 

Infant daughter

Infant son

It's interesting to note that many infants were not named when they were born.  Some were not given a name until they had reached that crucial first birthday.  If a baby died during the first few days of life, it was probably not named.  There are many stones in the cemetery, which are only identified as “Infant,” or “Baby.”  Many times gender was not indicated.   Parents and family members simply referred to the infant as he or she, waiting to see if it would survive.  The longer an infant survived, the more likely it went through the naming and baptism ceremonies.  Although this seems cold by today’s standards, it could be argued that by not naming an infant, whose rate of survival was only 70 to 75%, parents and family members were able to remain somewhat detached, finding a coping mechanism of sorts, in the lose of so many children in one family.

Only a first name

Only parents identified

In 1900, the rate of infant survival was still only 80% - with a 20% expectancy that the infant would not make it to the age of 10.  Once a child reached tens years of age, he or she still had only a 60% chance to reach adulthood.  Causes remained the same, poor nutrition, infectious diseases and sanitation.  Once doctors understood what caused cholera, small pox, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria and polio, and how these diseases were spread, cures were embarked upon.

Child's stone

It is amazing, and sobering, to realize how many families lost children from the settling of this country, up to the mid-1900’s.  And while we in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, have seen those numbers drastically reduced within the past 60 years, other countries such as  Angola, Afghanistan and Nigeria continue to have high infant mortality rates due to a lack of sanitation, poor nutrition and the spread of infectious diseases.  Let us hope it does not take another sixty years for changes to be made in those countries.

~ Joy 

Symbols: Flowers and the Frailty of Life

Symbols have been used on tombstones for centuries.  But it was not until the mid-1800’s that this secret code caught on with the ‘common folk’ who could finally afford to decorate their graves with statues and carvings.

Painting by James Tissot

The Victorians were known for their love of ornate designs, and this carried on to their gravestones.   Stone carvers of the period created works of art.  Rural cemeteries became the poor person’s art gallery, offering carvings, statues, and buildings of spectacular craftsmanship.

The Victorians were enamored with flowers, which were known to have their own language.  Give a woman a red rose and that signified love, a yellow rose indicated friendship, and a white rose meant innocence or secrecy.  It is no wonder they carried this silent language on to the grave.

Roses on a tombstone can have several meanings, depending on the number shown and if the rose is in bud or bloom.  A rose symbolizes love, hope and beauty.

Two roses joined together signified a strong bond, as on this couple’s stone.

A wreath of roses stands for beauty and virtue.

Age could also be noted with a rose bud indicating the grave of a child.  A partial bloom was used to show someone who had died in his or her teen or early adult life.  And a full bloom signified someone in the prime of life.

A broken blossom, whether a rose or another flower, indicated that someone had died too young.

Another flower that is abundant in the cemetery is the lily, which stands for innocence and purity.  There are several various types of lilies used on gravestones, each with a slightly different meaning.

The most popular is the Easter Lily, which represents resurrection and the innocence of the soul being restored at death.

Calla Lilies represent marriage and fidelity.

A Lily of the Valley signifies innocence, humility and renewal.

The Fleur de Lis is actually a stylized lily that represents the Holy Trinity.

And the Daffodil, also part of the lily family, indicated grace, beauty and a deep regard.  You’ll notice that live daffodils are abundant in older cemeteries during the spring.

Other flowers used on gravestones include the daisy, which means gentleness and innocence.  And the morning glory, which suggesting mourning, mortality and farewell.

Greenery is also used to convey unspoken thoughts.  Many stones are covered in Ivy to imply faithfulness, undying affection and eternal life.

The fern was very popular in Victorian times as an indicator of sincerity and solitude.

And the palm, another plant associated with Easter, signified triumph over death, and a forthcoming resurrection.

Wander any cemetery and you will discover a secret language communicated through symbols.  All it takes is the interest to learn what each generation wished to imply with their symbols, and the time to let them speak to you, offering interesting insights into someone’s life and time.

It’s the weekend; take some time to listen to this silent language.

~ Joy

(This is one of the topics I speak on for Genealogical and Historical societies.  If your group is interested in a presentation, please contact me here or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Grave-Interest/123365667736789)