Cemetery Traditions: Rocks or Poop?

Last week the usual trio of my mother, grandmother and myself made a follow up trip to the cemetery. We went to check the progress of the flowers we had planted, do you plant flowers for Memorial Day? Well we do and until this visit I did not know other faiths had different traditions. Did you know this? Do you know what they are?

We finish our planting, drive around and visit other, not so, recent relatives scattered throughout the cemetery and view the new flowers. As we made our way through the cemetery I saw the most curious sight and it nagged at me all the way home.

There is a section of the cemetery that is mostly of the Jewish faith and as we drove I began to notice all the headstones had piles of rocks on top, why? “Why, would someone place rocks on top of a head stone,” I asked my mother. I was told she did not know, Google it and when I got home I did, know what I found?

Google informed me that at one time it was a traditional of practicality. That the Jewish faith buries their dead very quickly, unlike use Christians, who hold on until flowers are required to hide the smell. That in the past it was away to let other visitors know someone cared and had visited the grave. Practical because flowers use to be and still are expensive, besides they only last a week or so.

As I read the Google fact finding response I thought how touching and practical it was. I decided that upon future visits I would start a new cemetery tradition (Hopefully not upsetting another faith) for myself and take rocks. This is where I got confused.

Upon arriving this past week at the cemetery, flags in hand for our military relatives, I suddenly stopped cold in my tracks. We were not in the Jewish section but here someone had placed a rock. Was someone already trying the tradition for them selves?

As I neared the headstone a thousand questions entered my mind. Who was the Crawford’s, what relative had left a stone, and is that really a stone?

I can tell you it was not! It is POOP. All I could think of was; for some reason the Crawford's had had assets, not named heirs, and the family was leaving their thoughts regarding the situation. “Poop on you!”

I think I like rocks better but then I'm from a poor family.

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