While doing some research I found an interesting article at "The Association for Gravestones Studies" website www.gravestonestudies.org I found this very interesting and something I wasn't aware of ... so I thought I'd share it.
What is the origin of the practice of
all headstones facing east?
In many, but by no means all, early New
England burying grounds the graves are positioned
east/west. This east/west orientation is the most common
orientation in other parts of the country and world as
well. The earliest settlers had their feet pointing toward
the east and the head of the coffin toward the west, ready
to rise up and face the "new day" (the sun) when "the
trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised" or when
Christ would appear and they would be reborn. If the body
was positioned between the headstone and the footstone, with
the inscriptions facing outward, the footstone might
actually be facing east and the decorated face of the
headstone facing west. If the headstone inscription faces
east, the body would most commonly be buried to the east of
it. Much depends on the layout of the graveyard -- if there
was a church or other building in the center of the burial
site, where the high ground was located, the location of
access roads, etc. Early graves were seldom in the neat
rows that we are used to seeing. Burials were more
haphazard, more medieval in their irregularity; families
didn't own plots and burial spaces were often reused. The
north side of the cemetery was considered less desirable and
is often the last part of the burying ground to be used, or
you may find the north side set aside for slaves, servants,
suicides, "unknowns," etc. In many burial grounds graves
face all four points on the compass. Sometimes a hilly site
will have stones facing all four directions. With the
coming of the Rural Cemetery Movement in the 1830s and 40s,
an entirely new style of burial became popular. The ideal
of winding roads and irregular terrain dictated the
orientation of the monuments to a large degree.
Warm Regards,
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