Last year I posted my first symbolism compilation featuring plants and critters – my favorite! – and I had so much fun making it that I’m back for another round. This time I’m featuring images that have both/either religious and secular meanings, and this is only just a small batch of the many different symbols that adorn graves in the South and elsewhere.

This type of art has been around for a long time but it became more fashionable during the Victorian Era so garden cemeteries and graves from that particular era tend to have more of them. Symbols can speak to a person’s faith or religion. It can tell stories of their lives – jobs and professions have specific imagery. Clubs, hobbies and interests can also be represented. And many a stone bears the history of how the person’s death affected their family and the mourning, the emotions that they (the family) expressed over their passing. It’s both sad and beautiful, isn’t it?

Anchor – hope, faith
Basket – maternal bond
Book – bible, faith, knowledge
Boat – journey, refuge
Broken Column – life cut short
Broken Wheel – end of the journey
Candle – life, light in the dark
Clock – passage of time
Crown – of/in Christ
Draped Urn – death of flesh
Gate – passage to next realm
Grapes – abundance, blessing, judgement
Hands Clasped in handshake – family, farewell
Hand, Finger Pointing Up – Going to heaven
Hand, Finger Pointing Down – sudden/unexpected death
hand, holding item – a deeper meaning with symbolism

Harp – music to/of God
Heart – blissful soul, love
Hourglass – cycle of life
Key – knowledge
Lamp – spiritual immortality
Mortar & Pestle – medical profession
Scales – law, justice
Skull & Crossbones – death
Sphinx – honor, power
Torch, Upright – eternal life
Torch, Inverted – extinguished life

My next post of symbolism I’ll dive deeper into the meaning of individual flowers because Floriography is near and dear to my heart.

For example the Cala Lily means purity and innocence. The particular grave pictured above, the one of the hand clutching a single flower, belonged to a sick young woman whose death was expected but still devastating. So much to be said with just single image.