God's Acre

Gottesacker plateau in the Allgäu Alps

God's Acre is a churchyard, specifically the burial ground. The word comes from the German word Gottesacker (Field of God), an ancient designation for a burial ground. The use of "Acre" is related to, but not derived from the unit of measurement and can be of any size. In the early 17th century the term was used as a translation of the German, but by the end of the century, it was accepted as an English term.[1]

American Congregationalist poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote an 1842 poem called "God's Acre"[2] which referenced this term.

While used to refer to graveyards generally in English, the term is used particularly among communicants of the Moravian Church in parts of North America, but not in the Moravian independent provinces of Alaska and Labrador/Newfoundland.[3]

  1. ^ "God's Acre". Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. VI (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989. p. 647.
  2. ^ God's Acre full text
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference WSJ2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).