The Bachelor Report
CEMETERY VISITATION PATTERNS

Philip Bachelor has researched major community values of Australian cemeteries. The following is taken from an article that is part of a series in which he discusses bereavement and cemetery use. BY DR PHILIP BACHELOR

General cemetery visitation patterns are composed of several factors including frequency and duration, anniversary visits, and long term visitation trajectory.

This article reviewsthese factors and discusses when and for how long mourners visit cemeteries.

Frequency
A recent National Cemetery Visitation Study identified that the majority of cemetery visits followed regular patterns, with the most popular frequency being

Figure 1
Frequencies of all visits

weekly, as shown in Figure 1. In fact, just over 41% of the sample 3000 cemetery visitors were found to visit at least once each week.

Duration
Durations of cemetery visits were from naturalistic observations made of visits to several specific cemetery compartments at Fawkner Crematorium & Memorial Park. Figure 3 summarises the mean duration of visits by females, males, and all visitors to each of the specified cemetery compartments.

Figure 3
Mean duration of visits to specified cemetery compartments

The mean duration of female visits was found to be greater than that of male visits in each of six specific cemetery compartments catering to various socio-cultural groups.

Anniversaries
The national study identified that of all cemetery visits, virtually 20% coincide with a personal anniversary, as shown in Figure 4 highlighting the apparent significance of anniversaries, particlarly of deaths and birthdays, in precipitating visits. Other anniversaries in the sample included Hellenic name days and other occasions such as ‘first date’ anniversaries. In addition to these these personal anniversaries, some of the public anniversaries - Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and religious festivals including Christmas and Easter - can also be important occasions to visit the cemetery. Specific cultural groups observe other anniversaries, so that increased visits to certain areas may also be anticipated.

Trajectory
Visiting a memorial is evidently of greater personal value to those who are recently bereaved and still working through intense grief. As mourners gradually adjust to bereavement, grief intensity subsides and the personal need to visit a memorial correspondingly diminishes. A typical cemetery visitation trajectory was constructed from data relating to 3000 visitors to major cemeteries throughout Australia. Figure 5 shows the proportions of cemetery visitors attending each year since the death of a significant other.

Summary
Different frequencies of general cemetery visitation are most evident by duration of bereavement, relationship to the decedent, family ethnicity, and service type (a choice relating to ethnicity). Those found most likely to visit a cemetery at least once each week include mourners attending the grave of their own child, spouse, or parent, those of Greek Orthodox and Italian Catholic families, and those visiting a grave rather than a cremation memorial. Conversely, those found most likely to make very infrequent visits to a cemetery include mourners attending the grave of a grandparent or friend, those of Christian Protestant and non religious families, those of British and Australian families, and those visiting a cremation memorial rather than a grave.

The mean duration of cemetery visits is just over twenty-four minutes. Specific duration varies significantly by social and cultural factors, and is closely related to the visitor’s emotional bond to the decedent, ethnicity of the family, and sex of the visitor. Many more females than males visit cemeteries, and the mean duration of visits by females was found to be greater than the mean duration of visits by males to each of several diverse cemetery compartments. Personal anniversaries, including death and birthday of the decedent, precipitate one in five visits to a cemetery. The majority of cemetery visits occur within a relatively short interval of the respective death, and the typical

Figure 4 Personal anniversary visits

Figure 5 Cemetery visitation trajectory

wane of cemetery visitation follows a similar pattern among those of various social and cultural backgrounds. As no significant variation from the general trend was found in relation to any specific social or cultural identity, it is suggested that the typical long term visitation trajectory is a generally universal phenomenon.

References

• Bachelor, P. (1998) ‘Cemetery Visitors in Australia’, Conference papers and reports, Eleventh National Conference of the Australian Cemeteries & Crematoria Association, Alice Springs, 30 August–3 September.

• Bachelor, P. (2001) Cemetery visitation: The place of the cemetery in the grief process, unpublished PhD thesis, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga