A Rabbit's Review - 4/7/2011

Decoration Day In The Mountains; Traditions Of Cemetery Decoration In The Southern Appalachians

Alan Jabbour  and Karen Singer Jabbour

University Of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2010

33 color plates, 86 black and white photographs

ISBN 978-0-8078-3397-1

Hardcover 35.00

Available for Kindle 19.95

So little has been written about the practice of Decoration Day that few outside the South are aware of it; one might think that it is no longer widely practiced. Folklorist Alan Jabbour and Karen Singer Jabbour, photographer, have brought this tradition back to our attention with the book Decoration Day in the Mountains.

Decoration Day had its beginnings before the Civil War.  While it is,  as Alan Jabbour argues, the precursor to Memorial Day, it remains a grass roots practice that is  loosely organized and can happen throughout the spring to early fall rather than on a fixed day.  Decorations, and the related but distinct “homecomings,” vary from place to place but generally share elements.  Sprucing up of the graves, prayers, music and “dinners on the ground” are common elements, but can vary greatly between cemeteries. 

In some communities, the actual cleaning of the graves may happen in the week or so preceding the Decoration rather than on the day of celebration itself. In the cemeteries within Great Smokey Mountain National Park, however, this is quite impossible.  The creation of Fontana Lake by the Tennessee Valley Authority cut off 27 burial grounds from regular access by any means other than by boat or overnight hike. As the roads promised in the 1940’s plans for the TVA were never built, the National Park Service now provides boat service across the lake as well as providing land transportation for the those not up to a lengthy walk for scheduled Decorations at some of these cemeteries. The Jabbours’ discussion of the community activism that held the federal government to its promises of accessibility illustrates how this event recharges the spirit and culture of a group and creates a new sense of group cohesion.

Although many Decorations happen in community cemeteries not specifically administered by a church, the day is still a religious event.  Alan Jabbour contends, quite convincingly, that Decorations are “quintessentially grassroots Protestant” in nature and practice. The lack of hierarchical organization, inseparability of kinship and religion, and setting outside of a church building proper are not only identifying markers of the event but of Upland South culture more generally.

The elements of Decoration Day explored in this book lend support to the claim that cemetery studies are a vital component in larger cultural studies research.  This book shows how ethnography should be done, illuminating the roles ethnicity, kinship, labor, music and foodways all play in the tradition. “Dinner on the ground” is often the culmination of the day, the sharing of a meal essential to hospitality.  Rather than being removed to a distant building, the food is shared within the confines of the burial ground, spread like a picnic (hence the lack of a final “s” in the term “dinner on the ground”).  Not only do the participants share their dinner with all participating in the cleanup and services of the day, but also with their ancestors who are present in a different way.

After reading about the shared meal I find that the practice of Decoration Day, as described, more closely resembles el Dia de los Muertos than Memorial Day.  The decorations and fashions in adornment of graves are also rather similar to the Latin American traditions. The shifts from handmade crepe paper flowers, to plastic and silk is noted and discussed in the context of similar traditions from outside of the Upland South. Karen Singer Jabbour’s photographs are especially effective in exploring how much consideration goes into the choice and arrangement of the floral displays. The color plates are essential to helping to understand the culmination of the Day’s work.

This book fills a gap in our understanding of the folk culture of the South.  Much of this is new information about the origins and practices of the event. As important as the history and sociology may be, this book’s most important contribution is its celebration of the participants.  Traditions, folkways and values are embedded in practices like this across the world, and if we lose the celebrations we lose the culture as well.

LisaMary works as a writer and photographer in Portland, Oregon . She hopes she can complete her grad work with a dissertation on tracing patterns of assimilation through how we honor our dead. Her interest in cemeteries is part of her heart and mind. LM's heart loves them for the tales they tell us about individuals, her mind for the stories they share about our community and culture.