While many people use the terms graveyard and cemetery interchangeably, they have very different meanings. A graveyard is typically attached to a church and usually only allows members of the congregation to be buried there.
This also often means that the rules regarding headstones are more restrictive. For example, they may require a more conservative inscription.
Churchyard
Churchyards are a unique and special place of heritage, beauty and wildlife. They are also important spaces for those who care and visit them.
A churchyard has a range of habitats including grassland, trees, shrubs and hedges, wild flowers and fungi. They are also a source of burial ground history with many records held in their archives.
They can also be an important source of family history for those researching their ancestors. Some churches even have a dedicated team to help people find their ancestor’s graves.
Many churchyards have yew trees which are renowned for their longevity. These and other ancient and veteran trees give shelter, food, nesting and roosting sites to birds, mammals, invertebrates, plants and fungi. The lichens growing on the headstones are often beautiful and can provide information about when the stone was laid. Many have a story to tell about the family who lay there. They can be reminders of love, loss and faith.
Cemetery
Regardless of whether you prefer a cemetery or churchyard, both offer the same function: a place to pay your respects to a loved one who has passed. Both are typically well-groomed and maintained to create a sense of dignity and reverence for the dead.
If you are particularly concerned about linguistic precision, it is often preferable to use the words graveyard and cemetery with different meanings: Graveyard usually refers to burial grounds on church property while a cemetery may be independent of any particular place of worship. However, many people are comfortable using the two words interchangeably today.
Some of the main differences between a graveyard and a cemetery include:
Burial Ground
A burial ground is an area specifically designed for burying the dead. It’s not a patch of land that happens to be available next to a church; it was chosen because of its suitability for burial.
A graveyard may contain a number of types of gravestones, including ledger slabs that lay flat over the coffin, tomb chests with side panels fixed to brick core walls and table tombs where a large slab is set on top of a smaller one. Some graves are also encased in a mausoleum, which is usually a small building dedicated to an individual or family.
Many people confuse the words cemetery and graveyard, but there is a difference between the two. Cemeteries aren’t attached to a church, and they can be used by anyone who wants to be buried there. Graveyards, on the other hand, are consecrated and can only be used by members of a specific religion. This means that it can be challenging to get a burial plot in a churchyard, especially if you are not a member of the congregation.