Nowadays, few people are surprised by the fact that visiting cemeteries is included in standard excursion programs in many cities of our planet. In addition, the cemeteries themselves are sometimes able to surprise very much - tourists who know the value of architecture and unusual works art, as well as a calm, contemplative process of relaxation, will meet for themselves a lot of fascinating things in various cemeteries. In this article we will talk about the most remarkable and interesting, in our opinion, cemeteries in the United States of America.
Arlington national cemetery is one of the world's most famous resting places of warriors, high politicians and famous astronauts, located near Washington across the Potomac River.
The state felt the need for this memorial during the Civil War. Then the development of military equipment provoked a fabulous number of victims - more than 600,000. During the war for independence, the dead were buried in provincial graveyards, but for the Civil War with its large-scale armies, such an order was not suitable. In 1862, the American Congress approved an ordinance that allowed the government to acquire land for the burial of the warriors of the North.
The next cemetery - Green Wood in Brooklyn - is a well-known landmark and a solid place for burial. The New York Times once wrote: “The ambition of a New Yorker is to live on Fifth Avenue, to be on fresh air in Central Park and rest with their ancestors in Green-Wood Cemetery."
Soon after it was opened in 1838, the cemetery became a popular place for leisurely walks and picnics: then there was neither the glorious Central Park nor the Metropolitan Museum, and the population had to go somewhere. " rural cemetery"then it turned out to be the most suitable: it was not a modest churchyard, but a real park in the traditional English style, developed by leading landscape designers - experts in their field.
Green-Wood Cemetery remains a particularly attractive place for many tourists today. There are special sightseeing buses at your disposal, or you can take a walk on your own. Whichever option you choose, you should purchase a map at the entrance - because on two square kilometers of the used territory, among a huge number of winding paths, marked with cast-iron street signs, there are 600,000 graves.
There is also Woodlawn Cemetery - one of the largest and most beautiful in New York. Attractive landscape design and over 1,000 marvelous family mausoleums have made Woodlawn a National Historic Landmark.
First of all, visitors most often want to visit the chic mausoleums. You should definitely look at the tomb of the Belmonts - a copy of the Saint-Hubert chapel, located in the Amboise castle, in which, according to legend, the famous Leonardo da Vinci. Here you can not miss the mausoleum of Frank Woolworth, who built the glorious Woolworth Building, built in the Egyptian spirit, with sphinxes near the entrance. Like a true Parthenon, with Ionic columns around the perimeter of the territory, the mausoleum of Jay Gould is firmly closed and is not marked with any commemorative plaques. Rumor has it that one of the wealthiest and most hated residents of the States, Jay Gould, feared that his body would be carried away in order to obtain a ransom from relatives.
One of the most famous cemeteries in the United States is located in the suburbs of Washington, where the military has been buried since the war between the North and the South. Arlington National Cemetery occupies 3 sq. km. It is still in effect today, about 20-30 people awarded this honor are buried a day. The cemetery is expected to be filled and closed for burials by 2025.
The cemetery was founded in 1865 to bury soldiers who died in the Civil War. As before, mainly military men are buried here, but there are exceptions to every rule - people with special medals and services to the state can be buried here. For example, here is the grave of the famous jazz musician Glenn Miller, although his body was never found. Two presidents, senators, judges, astronauts, actors found peace in Arlington. There is even a polar explorer and a cardiac surgeon. You have to be a truly outstanding citizen to get a seat here. The main contingent is the military (active or retired), as well as their families. In 2001, the U.S. Congress introduced a rule prohibiting the burial of people who committed crimes in Arlington Cemetery. serious crimes which are punishable by life imprisonment or death penalty. This happened after it turned out that US military veteran Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for committing a terrible terrorist attack, has the right to be buried in this cemetery.
Over most of the burials, the same tombstones are installed, the only exceptions are the graves of especially important personalities and old burials. According to the rules established by the administration of the cemetery, relatives have the right to indicate the symbol of the deceased's religion on the marble slab. IN currently 47 such symbols are officially approved, including the pentacle, which is the main sign of the neo-pagan religion of Wicca. The tombstones are arranged in such a way that from any vantage point they form clear, straight lines.
Two US presidents, William Taft and John F. Kennedy, are buried at Arlington Cemetery. Usually presidents are buried in places that are memorable for them. But after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his widow decided that he should be buried in a place where he could be visited by the citizens of the country who loved their president with all their hearts. His wife Jacqueline Kennedy and brothers Bob and Ted Kennedy rested next to the president. An eternal flame burns on the grave.
Nearby are signs calling for respect for the deceased family, so everyone approaches the president's grave in silence, humbly bowing their heads. Only the sounds of camera shutters do not stop.
Despite the huge number of tourists, the cemetery is quite quiet. Sometimes rifle volleys are heard, which indicate the burial of the deceased statesman.
often on reverse side gravestones write the name of the buried person.
In the very first photo, a beautiful building with columns can be seen on top of the hill. This is Arlington House, an estate formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his wife. During the Civil War, the land was confiscated and set aside for a cemetery. However, after the Civil War, the Supreme Court returned the mansion to the owners, but who wants to live in a cemetery? General Lee sold it for $150,000 to the administration. If you go up to the mansion, you can admire beautiful view to Washington. Now Arlington House has been renovated and turned into a memorial to General Lee. You can go inside, see the rooms and memorabilia.
In the old part of the cemetery, you can see old monuments that are very different from more modern identical tombstones made of light marble.
Comes to the cemetery very a large number of tourists, but they scatter around the territory and behave quite quietly.
Despite the hilly and rather winding terrain, all burials are carried out in straight lines.
On the territory of the cemetery there is the Memorial Amphitheater made of white marble, where memorial services are held on the Days of Veterans and Remembrance with the participation of the President of the United States.
On the south side of the Amphitheater adjoins the tomb of the unknown soldier. The main tombstone is an unknown soldier from the First World War, three plates in front of him are soldiers of the Second World War, Vietnam and Korean Wars. Near the grave carries a sentry post, in summer period once an hour there is a rather curious shifting ceremony. The military, who took up the post, takes 21 steps every 21 seconds for the entire hour. This is a symbolic number for military people, because it is 21 rifle volleys that is the highest honor at the burial ceremony of a serviceman. The soldiers going out to the grave take off their shoulder straps so as not to offend the memory of unknown soldiers, whose military ranks cannot be installed.
The cemetery has a huge number of monuments and memorials. And for the convenience of visitors, signs are everywhere to the two most popular places to visit - Kennedy's grave and the grave of the unknown soldier.
Although the graves are quite close to each other, the territory of the cemetery seems to be quite free.
A sign is placed on a fresh burial. A marble tombstone will appear after the deadline set for shrinkage of the soil.
There is a tradition of planting commemorative trees in honor of individual military units or ships of the Navy. These memorial plaques are placed near the trees.
And this is how the delivery of the coffin with the body of the deceased to the burial place looks like.
The cemetery is located in Virginia, but getting there from Washington is very simple: from the Lincoln Memorial you need to cross the Potomac River along the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which is also called the North-South Reconciliation Bridge. You can also use public transport - there is a station of the blue line of the Washington subway "Arlington Cemetery" nearby. Convenient parking is provided for motorists. Entrance to the cemetery is free, but for a fee you can book a tour or use open bus, which runs throughout the territory.
US National Cemetery
On November 22, 1963, shots were fired in Dallas, Texas, which mortally wounded John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States of America. Half an hour after the shots were fired, the president died, and a shocked America plunged into deep mourning. The body of John F. Kennedy was transported to Washington, and then the coffin was placed on the same gun carriage, on which in 1945 he made his last way Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and was transported from the White House to the Capitol to the harsh beat of drums. Day and night, through Rotunda Hall, an endless stream of people came here - congressmen and farmers, workers and housewives, students and employees ... At the coffin, draped with a star flag, the wife of the late president with her son and daughter, relatives and new president United States - Lyndon Johnson.
John Kennedy's funeral took place three days later. At the head of the funeral procession walked a platoon of Marines, six horses carrying a carriage with a coffin, followed by Jacqueline Kennedy, the brothers of the late President and high-ranking representatives from different countries. The bells rang dully, and hundreds of thousands of people bowed their heads in mournful silence.
The last refuge of John F. Kennedy was Arlington Cemetery, located in Washington on the other side of the Potomac River. The President was buried on a hillside - right in front of the massive cemetery gates, and an Eternal Flame was lit over his grave.
The history of Arlington Cemetery goes back to the days before the American Civil War. The land on which it is now located was bought in 1778 by John Park Custis, the adopted son of George Washington, the future first president of the United States. On his 1,100-acre plantation, he built a house with six heavy columns, called it Arlington House, and set up a memorial in it, in which he placed the world's largest collection of artifacts related to George Washington. Three years later, John Park Custis died, and George Washington adopted the youngest of his four children: a son and a daughter.
The boy was named George Washington Parke Custis. From him, Mary Ann Randolph Custis was born, who later turned out to be the heiress of the Arlington House estate. She married General Robert Lee and lived with him on the estate for over 30 years. When the threat civil war became imminent, the Li family left the estate. Union American states captured Arlington House, since, bordering Washington, he had a strategically advantageous position. Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, commander of the Unionist troops in the Arlington area, had big tooth on the southerners, besides, he hastily needed a place to bury his dead soldiers. He persuaded the federal government to set aside 200 acres of the Lee estate for a cemetery, and soon the estate began to bury the wounded who were dying in a nearby military hospital. A Confederate soldier is said to have been buried first in Arlington Cemetery in 1864. In the same year, the federal government confiscated the land and officially transferred it to the military as a cemetery, and General Montgomery Meigs ordered that burials be made near the house itself so that the former owners could not return here after the war.
A very curious reason was found for the confiscation of land: during the Civil War, a law was invented according to which the owners of estates in the territories of the rebellious states occupied by the northerners had to appear in person to pay taxes. Washington-Lee did not appear and did not pay taxes. It is not known how widely this law was applied at all, but in this case the decision to confiscate Arlington House was taken at the initiative of the Secretary of Defense.
After the war, General Robert Lee, who commanded the army of the southerners in the Civil War, with his wife and seven children found himself without a livelihood and accepted the presidency of the College of Washington in Lexington. Hypothetical rights to the Custis estate passed to his eldest son George Washington Custis Lee, who also participated in the Civil War on the side of the South. He accused the federal government of illegally trespassing on his land and won a case in the Supreme Court. After that, in 1883, he agreed to sell the national military cemetery home country for $150,000 and abandoned the idea of settling in Arlington House.
If, after the Civil War, only the poor and unknown persons were buried at Arlington Cemetery, now it has become a place of honor for the burial of veterans and their families. While neither the oldest nor the largest, it is nevertheless the most famous memorial complex USA. 230,000 American veterans and their families are buried here on 612 acres of land. From George Washington's aide-de-camp Pierre Lanfant to the soldiers who died during Operation Desert Storm, Arlington Memorial Cemetery holds the remains of veterans of every military conflict in which the United States has taken part.
Only those who died in combat, have 20 years of military experience or certain military awards, as well as their spouses and family members, can be buried at the US National Cemetery. The guard of honor carries the coffin, covered with the state flag, and during the burial, a salute is fired from guns and a bugler trumpets the end.
However for a long time Americans did not bury their black heroes in Arlington Cemetery. Only 80 years after the First World War, the command of the American army nevertheless decided to pay tribute to the black soldier who, with his heroism, earned a place in the country's national cemetery.
The 369th Infantry Regiment, which consisted of black soldiers, was transferred by the Americans, who considered that the "Hell Warriors from Harlem" were a disgrace to the American army, into submission to the French command. In May 1918, Sergeant Henry Johnson repelled an attack by 24 German soldiers who attacked a forward observation post. He had only grenades, a rifle and a homemade machete, but he saved his comrade N. Roberts, who was attacked by three Germans, and forced the rest of the enemy soldiers to retreat.
For his bravery, Henry Johnson was awarded the French Military Cross for bravery, but in the United States, due to the color of his skin, he was never presented for an award. The American nation did not recognize the feat of Sergeant G. Johnson, and in 1929 he died in poverty. Even now, the army command does not want to award him with the highest distinction - the Congressional Medal of Honor. When it turned out that Henry Johnson was buried in Arlington Cemetery, American politicians (including Senator Hillary Clinton) launched a campaign to ensure that the brave sergeant was at least posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. But the Pentagon agreed to award him only the Distinguished Service Cross.
Numerous veteran and civic organizations and groups hold memorial services in the cemetery's marble amphitheater. From time to time, new monuments are erected in the cemetery in memory of special categories of military personnel and veterans buried here. However memorial monuments erected at Arlington Cemetery not only in honor of the soldiers who participated in the hostilities. On February 1, 2003, an American reusable rocket crashed while entering the Earth's atmosphere. spaceship"Colombia". All seven crew members died, and although the investigation of this tragedy is still far from complete, America has already decided to perpetuate the memory of its heroes. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said: "The memorial in our nation's capital will serve as a reminder of the Columbia crew's ideals of honesty, courage and pioneering spirit."
A memorial in their honor was erected near the monument, dedicated to memory the crew of the space shuttle Challenger. This disaster, which occurred in 1986, claimed the lives of seven American astronauts.
About four million people a year visit Arlington memorial cemetery, where at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier a guard is constantly on duty, changing every hour. The foundation ceremony for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was held in 1921 by President Harding. The stone tomb containing the body of an unidentified World War I soldier buried on Veterans Day in 1921 is only the visible part of the memorial. And under the slabs adjacent to the tomb, there are burials of unknown American soldiers who died during World War II, Korean and Vietnam Wars. Twice a year, on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, a wreath is laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the President of the United States.
memento Mori
Most Americans think about funerals during their lifetime. In the newspaper or on the website, you can see advertisements from funeral homes (in English. Funeral house, an analogue of Russian funeral services agencies), which offer to purchase a place in the cemetery in advance at a significant discount. Private owners can also sell a place in a cemetery, if the cemetery refuses to purchase it, it can be sold independently. After the site of the existing grave, it will be possible to re-burial. Family crypts are also for sale. The price of mausoleums depends on its size and location. The cost of the crypt starts from 30 thousand dollars.
In this country, it is really customary to buy a site in a cemetery in advance, since this purchase is expensive. The state can pay the relatives of the deceased only $ 250, and even then after receiving a death certificate issued by the funeral home. Only needy families can receive money, so the majority of Americans pay for their funerals on their own. An insurance payment after some time after the death of a citizen can cover the cost of a funeral, if the death was not the result of suicide.
The Protestant Ethic of Equality Is Not Available to Everyone
Funerals in the United States are a serious matter, so Americans often choose a funeral home during their lifetime, which helps to book or buy a place in the desired churchyard. Funeral home specialists contact the cemetery administration to purchase or book a grave site. America's graveyards are mostly found in private property. The land is either purchased or leased from the state. Therefore, prices for burials can vary significantly, but in any case, the price of land in a cemetery is very high.
Each cemetery has its own tradition of decorating burials. In American cemeteries, we will not find fences, massive monuments, earthen mounds, tall green spaces and variegated flowers. It is customary to install the same low marble monuments, white crosses or granite tablets. Wreaths are made up of spruce branches. The spirit of equality hovers over the graves, so it is necessary to observe the stylistic unity of the burials. These issues are also within the competence of the staff of the funeral home.
funeral home
The concerns of relatives about burial, as we have already said, are completely taken over by funeral homes. There are quite a few funeral homes in America, most often they are located near cemeteries. For this reason, the choice of a funeral agency also depends on the choice of the burial place. Employees funeral home take care of all the hassle associated with the preparation of the ceremony. After the mortuary, the body is taken to the funeral home, and all further manipulations with the body are performed by its employees. They choose a farewell hall, dress the body, and even send death notices to friends and relatives of the deceased. Of course, the farewell script is compiled taking into account the religion of the deceased. A funeral in America is not a sad event, but a calm farewell to the soul going to better world. Instead of loud wailing and tears at funerals, you can often find restrained grief.
The body of the deceased is in the hall of farewells for 1-2 days. Usually the hall for the farewell ceremony is located in the funeral home itself, or in the hall at the crematorium, mortuary, less often - at the temple, of which the deceased was a parishioner. At the request of relatives, farewell can take place in the house of the deceased. For example, residents of the southeastern United States still prefer home farewells. It is customary to decorate the room of the farewell hall with fresh flowers, mostly roses.
Traditionally, funeral prices, including burial in a cemetery, start at 10-12 thousand dollars.
The cost of cremation - from 700 dollars. Due to the low cost of cremation, this method of burial is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Environmentalists favor so-called "green cremation", which uses a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide instead of fire.
Wake (Memorial) can also organize a funeral home. No standards memorial dinner No. Usually relatives arrange a buffet table for the closest people.
Funeral homes in the US are very profitable business. Strengthens its existing tradition to delegate all the work of organizing a funeral ceremony to employees of a ritual agency. For this reason government agencies publish pamphlets explaining to Americans that you can save money on funerals by refusing the services of a funeral home. Indeed, when contacting an agency, the price can increase by 100%. However, do-it-yourself funeral arrangements are not very popular in the United States.
Funeral monopoly
In the US funeral business, like in any other, there is a monopoly. The SCI Corporation, founded in Texas in 1962, is the world's largest funeral service provider. The company owns 400 cemeteries in 43 states of America, Canada and Puerto Rico, and in addition it owns 1,500 funeral homes. The number of employees of the corporation is 13,000 people, and the annual turnover is 2 billion dollars. The company is actively buying up cemeteries, funeral homes and crematoriums, while not advertising its activities. The acquired assets retain their former names. Often, the variety of names does not mean the real diversity of service providers.
Today, some cemeteries even have their own line of souvenirs, in case there is a grave in the cemetery. famous person. City holidays and picnics are organized at the cemeteries. People go for a morning jog along the paths of cemeteries. The crypt can be rented for a photo session or video filming.
As a rule, there is no financial crisis in the field of funeral services. You can purchase a cemetery plot for $5,000 or pay for cremation services for $700 - the choice is yours. Only one thing is undeniable - the services of a funeral home will be needed by everyone.
