Foto Friday: Halloween Edition Cemeteries and Spooks
Not every country celebrates Halloween, and not every country celebrates the way the United States does. Here in Argentina you can find the odd Halloween display in the supermarket selling a few special candies and a creepy mask or two, but Halloween is not something people do here. I’m missing out on some of my favorite Halloween traditions, like pumpkin carving and all the delicious pumpkin flavored baked goods that are out this time of year. I would kill for a real glass of apple cider right now, or a good apple fresh off the tree. Alas, the grass is always greener (or the leaves are always more colorful). Today’s FotoFriday is a bunch of photos of cemeteries around the world, in honor of Halloween where these kinds of things are supposed to be spooky. I threw in a few other Halloween-flavors for good measure.
Ireland
St. Mary‘s Cathedral
cemetery in Limerick,
Ireland.
Holy Island on Lough Derg
and the Shannon river in
Clare, Ireland.
Here are ruins of six churches,
it’s been a holy site
for thousands of years,
originally for paganism
and then Christian hermits.
Kilmainham Gaol courtyard
where executions took place,
James Connolly was so
gravely injured that for his execution
he was sat in a chair and then
shot on this spot.
The Victoria/East Wing of Kilmainham Gaol,
former prison in Dublin,
Irish rebellion leaders were imprisoned here.
The “Witches Stone” at
Blarney Castle near Cork, Ireland.
Blarney Castle sign reads
“The Murder Hole:
When the outer doors had been battered down,
assailants entering the lobby below were easily
dispatched from there by boiling liquids,
stones or other missiles.”
Scotland
St Mary’s Abbey in Melrose, Scotland.
Founded in 1136, Scottish nobility
are buried here.
Robert the Bruce‘s embalmed heart
is buried here too…
Zombies during the Edinburgh Fringe
festival on the Royal Mile.
The joint St John and St Cuthbert Cemetery
in Edinburgh, Scotland.
A church has been here
since 850 AD and many of the gravestones
are not normal headstones but are
along the stone walls that
turn this cemetery into a maze.
Ruins of the Old Church of
St. Andrew (not to be confused with St Andrews Cathedral),
near Yellowcraigs, Scotland.
Inside the ruins of Old Church
of St. Andrew,
established in about the
9th century and
transferred here in 1612.
The Glasgow Necropolis, a Victorian cemetery
that rises above Glasgow and
is next to the Glasgow Cathedral,
not every grave here has a headstone,
the lanes wind around and up the hill.
England
London, England, this plaque reads,
“Site of ancient scaffold here the
Earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino
suffered 18th August 1746”
A cathedral cemetery in Oxford, UK.
A cathedral cemetery in Durham, UK.
Durham Cathedral in Durham, England.
The long name is The Cathedral
Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the
Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham,
yeah, everyone just calls it
Durham Cathedral.
Durham was been used as a makeshift
prison in 1650 (3,000 Scottish
prisoners were kept here and 1,700
people died while imprisoned here).
A mass grave was uncovered in 1946.
Burning wicker man in Oxford’s
bonfire night celebration.
2011
Buenos Aires, Argentina
All of the following photos are of La Recoleta Cemetery (Cementerio de la Recoleta) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This cemetery is like a mini city, its considered one of the world’s most beautiful cemeteries. Walking through the alleys, on a sunny day, feels both eerie and beautiful. A city of the dead, full of statues and mini houses where people have been laid to rest for hundreds of years.
Recoleta Cemetery
Recoleta Cemetery
Recoleta Cemetery
Cherub statue, Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Recoleta Cemetery
Recoleta Cemetery
Vermont
Barn spider at Lake St Catherine, Vermont.
Tomb of the Unknown Solider, Vermont
26 October 2013
By Kristance Harlow
I found out the story behind the statue of the lady with the dog!<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Liliana_Crociati_de_Szaszak<br />
You HAD to end with a spider!!!! I HATE spiders and it caused me to yelp and gave crawlies up my spine!<br />I loved the statue of the woman with dog–so lovely. Wonder what the story is behind it.
Oh Kristance, you have exceeded all expectations of a Halloween themed blog; after all what is more iconic on this "Day of the Dead" than a cemetery? And what interesting links. I shudder to think of the fate of Lord Balmarino who, essentially was killed not once, but twice! How grisly. And the monument honoring the murdered Jews and other minorities that transcends or perhaps