When it comes to remembering and honoring those dear family members who have departed this world, we all have our ways of going about it.
Respecting the traditions of others as it pertains to celebrating the lives of lost ones is something that should be a given in today’s world. For some, that might mean engaging in practices or customs that are unfamiliar to the rest of us, but that doesn’t make them any less validated.
The same can be said for gravestones and the way some families choose to adorn the resting places of their loved ones. One common fixture – and one you’ve likely seen at some point in time – is the placing of coins on headstones. But why does this exist? And where did it come from? Read on to find out more…
Placing coins on gravestones is a custom witnessed in cemeteries all over the US and beyond. I first noticed it as a child when on a visit to my grandfather’s grave, and even then I began to wonder what it was all about.
Well, fortunately it doesn’t take much digging online to discover the origins. It was once believed that the practice dated as far back as military forces in the Roman Empire, but numerous sources have poured cold water on that misconception in recent years.
