He Loved Birds
The site of the cemetary of st. John, near the Dutch village of Laren, is one of the most ancient sites of the Netherlands.
Nearby, on the heaths of Hilversum, one can still find the worn down tumuli where an early to middle Bronze age people, known only as the Hilversum Culture, left their dead.
The location of the current cemetary, a low hill, has been used for feasts and celebrations since prehistory. Especially celebrations of the summer solstice on the longest day of the year were known to take place here well into the middle ages.
During the early middle ages, Christian missionaries took over many pagan celebrations and covered them in a Christian sauce in order to convert the local peoples. Famous examples of this are Easter and Christmas celebrations. The summer solstice was dedicated to John the Baptist. This is why the cemetery on this ancient site of worship is now dedicated to St John. regardless of who the feast was now dedicated to, there continued to be activities on the site celebrating the solstice throughout the middle ages.
In the 14th century a little church was built on the site as a centre of pilgrimage, but in the early 16th century it was delapitated and no trace of it exists now apart from underground remnants that have only been indirectly observed. The rulers of Holland ordered the building to be demolished because it remained the centre of ‘superstitious and pagan’ activities.
The cemetery now consists of two distinctly separate parts. The part one enters first from the main road is the old Catholic cemetery that dates mostly from the 19th century.
As the village of Laren became a popular place of settlement for artists, the problem arose that the catholic priests would not allow these people to be buried on the cemetery as obviously these were evil hell bound heretics. So since the 1920’s, a municipal cemetery was added to the complex.
The contrast between the two cemeteries could not be greater. The catholic cemetery is a distinctly gloomy place with huge trees line the dark lane that separates the strictly lined gravestones, most of which featuring severe and serious lettering and containing crosses, giving the impression of a forest of fingers pointing down in disapproval.
The municipal graveyard (featured on this photograph) on the other hand is a light and green park where the lush bushes seem to cradle the grave monuments. The monuments, stones and statues are extremely varied in style and shape and often contain a little personal touch of the person buried there. A stone slab that features a stylized keyboard set in dark and light granite marks the resting place of an enthusiastic music lover. This wonderful Art Deco styled sculpture marks the resting place of a bird lover and the playfully exposed rear of a young angel guarding over one grave hints at a lifestyle that would certainly not have been accepted by the people laying in the depressing gloom next door.
The ancient worship of the longest day of the year is still in existence in a way as each summer there is a religious procession (the only one above the rivers that separate the catholic south of the Netherlands from the protestant north) from the village to the graveyard.
This is a picture of somebodies headstone. It seemed a little icky to sell pics of it on-line. Hence i won’t.
He Loved Birds belongs to the following groups:
Atheism, Dutch Touch, Heritage in Stone and à EUROPA!
Vicki Ferrari
Love reading your stories and seeing your images BFG!