City of the Dead

I’m back from a fabulous road trip – crossing the USA from south to north along the Mississippi River – 1400 miles (or close to).

Over the next few weeks I want to share some of that with you …

There were a lot of literary references during the trip – and a lot of music as well…

It all started in one on my favourite places – a graveyard (no surprise there really).

Ever since reading Anne Rice’s Interview With A Vampire, I have wanted to visit the New Orleans Cities of the Dead – the cemeteries where the tombs are all above ground. (Note to self – must re-read the book now that I have been there.)

Like most people, I always thought the above ground tombs were because of the high water table in New Orleans – and the flooding of the graves. This is in part true – but the tombs also reflect some of the cultural heritage of the Creole people of Louisiana.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest of the cemeteries – just a few blocks from the city centre in the French Quarter.

In the bright New Orleans sunshine, the glare from the white tombs was blinding – and the heat was ferocious.

I was a bit startled to realize the cemetery is still in use. I had thought it was just a historic site – but burials are still taking place in those family tombs.

Apparently the law says that a tomb must remain undisturbed for two years after the funeral. But any time after that, it can be re-used. They take the remains of the previous occupant and place them in a container at the back of the tomb and then destroy the coffin. This makes way for the next coffin. These tombs look small – but they may contain a dozen or more occupants.

This cemetery holds the tomb of Marie Laveau – who was considered the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans during the 1800s. (She makes an appearance in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods – another of my literary references for this trip). Voodoo is a fascinating mix of old religions and legends brought to the New World by African slaves and the Christianity that was imposed on them. Marie was supposed to be able to  create charms and magical powders guaranteed to cure ailments, grant desires or bring ill to your enemies.

Marie’s official grave is well marked, and attracts a lot of visitors – both locals and tourists – many of whom paint voodoo symbols or leave tokens there. However, popular legend says her body was removed from that grave and buried elsewhere in the cemetery, where she would not be disturbed.

Another popular tomb is definitely uninhabited – actor Nicolas Cage has purchased a pyramid tomb where he plans to be buried.

While walking through the rear of the cemetery – I noticed that a housing estate behind it was being torn down. It was a large estate – that must have been home to a lot of people. I stopped to ask one of the workmen if the estate had been flooded or damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

No he said – the apartments had been well built – and had survived the disaster. They were now being torn down to make way for fancy new condos and shopping centres. He sounded so infinitely sad as he said it, I had to wonder if he was one of the people who had seen their homes survive the worst Katrina could do – only to lose it to ‘progress’.

In many ways – that was much sadder that anything I saw in the cemetery.