Are picnics in graveyards allowed?

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by cBach

There is a difference between seeing the grave of JFK to pay respects and having a picnic nearby because you're hungry and having a picnic on the grave of someone you don't know.

You can 'pay respects' to people you don't know...visiting a cemetery can be just that and it is for me. An who says you are on a grave? But on that note, I am sure most of us drive across the final resting spots of untold individuals daily...

[Dwayne Lassiter]

Originally Posted by luksky

I'm pretty sure dead people don't care anything about "respect", only our physical forms would care anything about such an egotistic attribute.

Dead people don't care about cemetaries, or being buried either. We're not talking about how dead people feel.

[Longhorn Al]

I've been in a number of cemeteries while looking for ancestors. In doing so, I peruse the other headstones. I like cemeteries. They are peaceful. I look at old headstones and wonder when it was visited last. I see the dates of death and mourn a little for the babies, and think of how the family must have felt. I hate seeing stones fallen over and nobody has set them upright.


When walking through a cemetery, especially when on a search, I make sure to walk between graves, not across them. I find it disrespectful to trudge across the heads of the interred. Now, if I'm paying special attention to a particular grave, and need to get close to the stone, that's different. I'm doing so respectfully.


I don't think I'd ever have a picnic in a cemetery. But I don't see anything necessarily wrong with doing so. If it's for a weird reason to get your jollies, I don't think it's right. If it's because you find it peaceful and meditative, go for it.