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Showing posts from December, 2017

Christmas Ritual from Finland: visiting the cemetery

This week's post was inspired by the Finnish ritual of visiting cemeteries at Christmas. It may not be everyone's idea of a perfect Christmas, but for religious and non-churchgoing Finns, taking candles to place on family graves on the 24th December is part of their annual tradition. Since the 1920s when candles became affordable, many Finns (up to around 75%  of Finnish families) will light the beginning of the Christmas period for their deceased relatives. Snow lying crisp and even in Highgate Cemetery, London. You can search the cemetery's registers on the Deceased Online database  Some take candles to a local cemetery where they do not have relatives - often to enjoy the peaceful, reflective experience of the candlelit graveyard. In Finland, as with many of the cemeteries that feature in the collections of Deceased Online , graveyards are respected as places of calm for the living. Emphasis is placed on nurturing the trees and plants surrounding memorials. Thi

Lewisham Cemetery: Captain Walter Napleton Stone VC

This week's post explores the life and family of First World War Victoria Cross hero, Walter Napleton Stone (1891-1917), who was commemorated recently at a special ceremony in Lewisham  Politicians, relatives and local residents gathered in Lewisham High Street on 30 November 2017 to mark the unveiling of a paving stone in the name of former Blackheath resident, Captain Walter Napleton Stone VC .   The paving stone is one of 628 specially commissioned stones which are being laid in the home areas of each of the Victoria Cross recipients of the Great War. The date of 30 November commemorates the day Walter Stone was killed on the Western Front, at the Battle of Cambrai . Like many killed in action between 1914 and 1918, the grave of Walter Stone has not been found. He is remembered on a number of memorials, including the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing, the parish war memorial Shrewsbury's St Mary's Church, and on the Lewisham Shopping Centre mural.  Although Walte