Cemetery tours.... I'm into it

This sunday my group began our monument analysis. We chose to study headstones are Ross Bay Cemetery, specifically the ones of children and infants. This may sound a little depressing, but we are doing our case study on Inca child mummies, so taking a look at Canadian child burials seemed appropriate. As we were working one surprising comment that we all kept making was how nice the cemetery was. It was peaceful and calm, right on the ocean, and it didn't hurt that sunday was a beautiful day. We were all saying how much we would like to have a picnic there.

My new found love of Ross Bay Cemetery led me to their website, and a list of tours that they offer every sunday. The tours are varied, each time focusing on a different type of person who is buried in Ross Bay. And now I really, really, REALLY wanna go on one. February 19th is the Black History tour, which will discuss the lives and deaths of many people who escaped slavery in California and ended up in Victoria. I think that sounds amazing. A full list of tours can be found here:

http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/tour.htm

Also, June 3rd it the Awake and Dreaming tour. Awake and Dreaming was one of my favorite books when I was in elementary school, but I never realized that Ross Bay Cemetery was involved in it at all. The tour is run by Kit Pearson, and I actually think I'm going to go to this one. Even if it's just to meet Kit Pearson. I read all of her books when I was younger, and loved them all. But I digress.

I have a sneaking suspicion though that there are a number of people who wouldn't be interested in taking a tour of a cemetery. It seems a little morbid, some may even say disrespectful. Maybe I am not troubled by the cemetery because I have spent so much time in museums. Our relationship with death as a society is somewhat complicated. I wonder what this says about me, that I was so comfortable in a place where so many would be uncomfortable. That I was so happy and peaceful in a place where so many go to mourn. But, when you think about it, cemeteries should be peaceful; it is the final resting place after all.