A Grave Subject

A friend has informed me of a Facebook question she posed and the Facebook response she received. The question was why do cemeteries seem to all face the graves east west with the head of the deceased facing east? The answer came from an evangelical Christian.

Now I shall weigh in as a pagan.

It is true that Christian cemeteries (and now by tradition) have faced the graves east-west with the headstone facing east. And so for those believers in the Christian faith, they faced the direction of the assumed arrival of Jesus. And it has been a very delayed arrival indeed.

Jewish cemeteries, I understand, tend to face the graves either in the direction of Jerusalem (which was generally easterly) or the gate of the cemetery. The latter, it seems, is because on the resurrection, which Jews believe in, they would leave the cemetery by the gate!!! However, it seems that one of these two directions is not always the case.

Muslim graves tend to face Mecca, which traditionally lay the graves in a north-eastly direction because Mecca was generally south-eastly.

But much of this tradition comes from pre-Christian times in which the sun was the focal point of beliefs. The sun rises in the east. The dead would witness the sunrise. The sun has been a symbol that other religions have adopted but transformed, often in order to make conversion of “pagans” less of a transition for those people.

So, as graveyards become more secular, it is a tradition that has simply been carried over.

Would a Christian in China have to face west? I know, you will tell me that the world is round; but it would be a much shorter distance to face west.

I believe there are some religions that don’t worry about these directional requirements. Regardless, it is much easier to burn the body; then one doesn't have to worry about whether one is facing east, west, Jerusalem, Mecca or Timbuctoo.

Here endeth the lesson.