xc-COTD1

...it'd be wrong if i made a joke.

Washington Cemetery Panorama facing Bay Parkway.

Washington Cemetery Panorama facing Ocean Parkway.

Me.

The resting people.

Brendan on the right, me in the middle, Chris on the left and Christian on the camera.

I went on a small trip with my classmates Brendan, Chris and Christian to the cemetery to observe what we saw, and the ideas we got from our visit. I visited two cemeteries; of two different religions two compare and contrast what I noticed. I went to the Trinity church cemetery (Christian) on city hall, and the Washington cemetery (Jewish) on Bay Parkway and Ocean Parkway (it’s huge). When I went to the trinity church cemetery it was pretty peaceful but it being in city hall made it a bit annoying to be, so many tourist, cars, and tight space, it seems a bit un-peaceful for the dead. One somewhat obvious observation was that the trinity cemetery, is very old, some of the gravestones date back all the way to the 1840’s and older, Thomas Jefferson has a tombstone in the trinity, but his body isn’t buried their. The good thing about the trinity is that there is a lot of historical aspects to it, like most of lower Manhattan because its one of the earliest, parts of Manhattan and New York City when it was forming. The Washington cemetery was much, much quieter than the trinity; one of the reasons is due to the area, less people, and more rural neighborhood. Another difference is that the Washington cemetery is mainly for people of the Jewish religion, meaning that every decease person in the cemetery was buried following Jewish tradition, buried in 24 hours, no embalming, etc.

Some similarities that were interesting was that both cemeteries, uses tombstones, they can be made by however way the person’s family choose it to be so they’re not all the same, some have pictures of the decease, some are glossy (marble material) some are hard concrete, etc. The only small difference is that in trinity and most catholic cemeteries there’s a cross, and for Washington cemetery, they use the Star of David, which I thought was cool and interesting, shows each religions emblem. I my little trip to the cemetery, for a few reasons, first one being I pass cemetery’s all the time, I was never scared of them but never found them interesting, but after all this it’s a bit interesting it’s more or less like a trip to a park, but with organize concrete figures, lots and lots of them. I think everyone should go to a cemetery for two reason’s even if the people in the cemetery aren’t related to you, you’ll notice how different and how similar all dead people and their families are. They all die, grieve move on, like everyone else.