Cemetery Sunday

In Ireland, the date varies by parish, and is typically in summer. Parishes coordinate to avoid scheduling Cemetery Sunday on the same week so that families can attend services at all cemeteries where their relatives are buried. For churches which are no longer used, Cemetery Sunday can be the only regularly held service on the grounds.{{cite book |last1=Graham |first1=Barbara |title=Death, Materiality and Mediation: An Ethnography of Remembrance in Ireland |date=2016 |publisher=Berghahn Books}}

In the United States, Cemetery Sunday is the first Sunday in November, around the time of All Souls' Day.{{cite web|url=http://www.rcancem.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=107:cemetery-sunday&catid=71|title=Cemetery Sunday|publisher=Archdiocese of Newark|access-date=5 August 2013}}

{{See also|St James' Church, Dublin (Church of Ireland)#Cemetery}}

St. James Church (Church of Ireland) in Dublin, had a long-established tradition of cemetery cleaning and decoration in conjunction with the Fair of St. James, historically held on July 25, the Pattern Sunday for St. James. There are records of burials at St. James as early as 1495 and it is believed that the cemetery may have been in use as early as the 13th century. There is no known documentation of when cemetery decoration began at the St. James Cemetery, but it was well established by the early 19th century.

The fair itself was banned from the public streets by the 1730s but continued in a smaller way next to the cemetery through the 1820s.{{cite book |last1=Hopkins |first1=Frank |title=Hidden Dublin: Deadbeats, Dossers and Decent Skins |date=2008 |publisher=Mercier Press, Ltd. |page=28}}{{cite web |last1=Murphey |first1=Sean |title=The Story of St. James Fair |url=http://www.frg.ie/local-history/the-story-of-st-jamess-fair/ |website=Fountain Resource Group |access-date=14 September 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914045156/http://www.frg.ie/local-history/the-story-of-st-jamess-fair/ |archivedate=14 September 2019}} In 1821, G. N. Wright wrote of a custom to "deck the graves with garlands and ornaments, made of white

paper, disposed into very extraordinary forms".{{cite book |last1=G N |first1=Wright |title=An Historical Guide to Ancient and Modern Dublin |date=1821 |publisher=Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy |location=London |page=164}} By 1828, Nicholas Carlisle characterized St. James cemetery decoration as a custom that was already old:

{{Quote

|text=It was, and perhaps is still, the custom in Dublin on St. James’s day, for the relatives and friends of those who are buried in St. James’s church-yard, to dress up the Graves with flowers, cut paper, Scripture phrases, garlands, chaplets, and a number of other pretty and pious devices, where those affectionate mementos remained, until they were displaced by fresh ones the next year.{{cite book |last1=Carlisle |first1=Nicholas |title=An historical account of the Origin of the Commission appointed to inquire concerning charities in England and Wales; and, an illustration of several old customs and words, which occur in the reports. |date=1828 |location=London |pages=326–327}}

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Burials continued in the St. James Cemetery through the 19th and 20th century before ceasing completely due to the closure of the cemetery.

For days or weeks before the designated Cemetery Sunday at a particular cemetery, family members of those buried there work to clean and tidy the graves. This may also include removing overgrown plants and debris from the cemetery and other general maintenance to the grounds.

Cemetery decoration often features cut flowers. Homemade crepe paper flowers were also common in early St. James cemetery decoration. Today, artificial flowers are often used. Flowers can be placed on graves in any number of ways, including in patterns.

Decoration can include the placing of tokens at individual graves. Tokens are often personal or household items significant to the relationship between the person who places the token and the deceased.

Relatives of the deceased often choose Cemetery Sundays to return home for visits and reunions after moving away.

Food is a common element in many Cemetery Sunday traditions.

Singing is also common but not universal.

Scholar Barbara Graham connects Cemetery Sunday traditions to the Decoration Day traditions of Appalachia and Liberia as many Irish and Scotch-Irish refugees and other immigrants from Ireland settled in Central and Southern Appalachia.

• Decoration Day (Appalachia and Liberia)
• Flowering Sunday
• Pattern (devotional)

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Category:Roman Catholic cemeteries

Category:Catholic holy days

Category:Holidays and observances by scheduling (nth weekday of the month)