Cemetery

Kerepesi Cemetery, Budapest, Hungary
Cemetery in China
Cemetery in Kavala, Greece

A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park, is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word cemetery (from Greek κοιμητήριον 'sleeping place')[1][2] implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Roman catacombs.[3] The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard.[4][5]

The intact or cremated remains of people may be interred in a grave, commonly referred to as burial, or in a tomb, an "above-ground grave" (resembling a sarcophagus), a mausoleum, a columbarium, a niche, or another edifice. In Western cultures, funeral ceremonies are often observed in cemeteries. These ceremonies or rites of passage differ according to cultural practices and religious beliefs. Modern cemeteries often include crematoria, and some grounds previously used for both continue as crematoria as a principal use long after the interment areas have been filled.

  1. ^ κοιμητήριον. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
  2. ^ Harper, Douglas. "cemetery". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  3. ^ "cemetery". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  4. ^ Upendran, S. (October 25, 2011). "Know Your English: Difference between 'graveyard' and 'cemetery'". The Hindu. Archived from the original on June 19, 2018. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  5. ^ "What's the Difference Between Cemetery and Graveyard". WhatDifferenceBetween. May 22, 2023. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2023.