Understanding Cemetery Symbols by Tui Snider [The following is an adapted excerpt from my book, Understanding Cemetery Symbols. I hope you enjoy it! Also, full disclosure: that’s an Amazon affiliate link. If you buy my book after clicking it, I make a few pennies at no additional cost to you.] What do Alpha and Omega look like? Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last. Since Alpha looks like an A and the Greek letter Zeta looks like a Z, people often assume that Zeta is the last letter in their alphabet. Well, surprise! It’s…
Tag: cemetery
April A to Z: “Understanding Cemetery Symbols” by Tui Snider Master List of my 2018 April A to Z blog posts: I’m taking part in the annual April A to Z Blog Challenge for the sixth year in a row! This time, I’m sharing adapted excerpts from my latest book, Understanding Cemetery Symbols. I hope you enjoy it! Each day, I’ll add a link for that day’s featured post to the list below. [Also, full disclosure: that’s an Amazon affiliate link. If you buy my book after clicking it, I make a few pennies at no additional cost to you.] A…
The tragic tale of Amber Hagerman Have you ever wondered why news bulletins for missing children are called “Amber Alerts”? It’s a sad-but-true tale: In 1996, a little girl named Amber Hagerman disappeared while out riding bikes with her brother in Arlington, Texas. Even though her kidnapping was immediately reported to the police, the case had a tragic end. Amber’s dead body was discovered four days after her abduction, lying in a creek bed. Her neck had been slit. AMBER Alerts named after a kidnapped little girl Since evidence suggests Amber’s abductor kept her alive for at least two days, her relatives and concerned citizens brainstormed…
You asked for T-Shirts: Readers of my books, especially those who enjoy Understanding Cemetery Symbols, keep asking me to create T-shirts using photos I take in historic graveyards. And while it’s fun creating mock up designs in Canva.com, it’s intimidating. I’ve had no idea how to actually manufacture the T shirts – until now! [Disclosure: I’m receiving free T-shirts for including a link to CreateAShirt in this post!] Enter CreateAShirt.com The other day I got an email from CreateAShirt.com. They offered to print out some shirts for me in exchange for linking to their site, as I just did in the previous sentence. Pretty…
St. Anthony’s feast day is January 17 For this week’s cemetery post, I decided to write about Saint Anthony of Egypt. Why? Because not only is his feast day January 17th, but he just so happens to be the patron saint of gravediggers. I figure that also makes him the patron saint of those of us who enjoy exploring historic graveyards! Non-Catholics celebrate feast days, too I’m not Catholic, but plenty of non-Catholics celebrate feast days. Case in point: St. Patrick’s Day. No one bats an eye if you’re a protestant, Jewish, or even an atheist who decides to drink green beer…
All roads lead to Greece When researching the meaning behind historic cemetery symbols, I often joke that instead of finding that “all roads lead to Rome,” it seems that “all roads lead to Greece.” Here’s a good example: While looking into the meaning of the XP symbol that is such a common sight in historic cemeteries, I had a realization. Xmas is perfectly respectful When you see an XP symbol on a headstone it is a Christian symbol. Since Christ’s name starts with the letters X and P when spelled in Greek, XP (pronounced KEE-roe) is often used as shorthand…