In our local paper, there was a headline "Oakwood Cemetery Bans Outdoor Grilling." My first thought was "where do you grill indoors in a cemetery, in a masoleum?--ewwww." Second thought was it was a ban on DYI cremation. I really don't understand . . . . .
Many cultures will frequently visit a family members grave, cooking out and generally having a family 'get together' as a remembrance of a special day of the diseased....birthday, wedding anniversary, etc.
I didn't get it either Jane. I have never seen anyone at any cemetery grilling and celebrating... I have seen some gaudy displays but each to his own on what's beauty or acceptable but never picnicking. I should refrain that and say I have never seen picnicking.
Dia de los Muertos aka Day of the Dead is a popular holiday happening on the same weekend of Halloween. Very popular in Mexico and it has been brought into this country by immigrants over the years. Also, in Madagascar families will visit the cemetery where relatives are buried, dig them up, put new wrappings on them, have a picnic and party before putting them back in their grave.
Mart, I don't know about squatters, but it is rural and rather hard to get to down a one lane gravel road. The county is under a burn ban, but this headline came out before the ban was imposed. I asked a couple of locals about the ban on grilling, and they just stared blankly at me. No sense of humor, no curiosity. I asked the wrong folks!
Even cemeteries inside the city limits here have burn bans simply because people just to not think that what they are doing is dangerous. And there are many who continue to party at a family members grave and are not squatters. Not surprised that some people were not aware of what was going on, it's just something that most people do not know about. At a cemetery way out in the country there really needs to be a burn ban....many people who use charcoal for grilling just do not realize that you can not dump it on the ground and leave it without it catching other things on fire. Even sprinkling some water on it does not prevent a problem. But even a posted burn ban does not stop some people...I have had to report our neighbor a few times for violating a burn ban in the city during exceptionally dry summers and a lady across the street was burning trash in her back yard, which is also not allowed in town when a neighbor called the fire department to come put it out.
Our town Fire Dept is quite strict about outside burning. We have just a short season:. winter until April 1st. No one can burn in the winter because of course everything is snow covered! So we have maybe a week in February & then March. Can't complain:. we are a small town and our fire department are all volunteers.
We don't have those sort of things over here, it's very quiet and peaceful time. We just take flowers and look after the grass around the grave, we clean the headstone if it's dirty. There's a law saying can't dig up graves.
