Graveyard Symbols Scavenger Hunt

Sue Bennett is church administrator at Bethel United Methodist Church located on Pitt Street in Charleston, South Carolina. She directs informational tours with various concentrations around Charleston, and was kind enough to give an exclusive tour of Bethel United Methodist Church to my Charleston Beyond The Grave class. Bennett spoke of the intricate symbols that symbolized ideas to memorialize loved ones.

One of these symbols being a hand pointing downwards. This symbolizes mortality and is said to represent a secret masonic handshake.

Another reoccurring symbol I found in the Bethel United Methodist Church yard is an angel. This symbolizes spirituality and guarding to Heaven.

  

The symbol shown here is a cross surrounded by a crown, representing sovereignty of the lord.

An hourglass symbolizes the passing of time and the shortness of life.

The cloth over that is draped over this grave symbolizes mourning.

A wreathe symbolizes victory in death or redemption and dates back to the Greeks.

Roses can symbolize a multitude of things, such as, beauty, hope, or love. 

Weeping willow trees are just as meloncholy as they sound; they symbolize sorrow and mourning.

While willows were a vary popular symbol in the victorian era, the Willow and Urn can arguably be the most popular of the era. The combination represents the mourning of the deceased. 

Ivy symbolizes memory, immortality, friendship, and many more values.