In Desi Culture, there is a built in fear that graveyards or shamshan ghaat are haunted and dead ones visit this world in night. Thats why many people avoid passing through graveyards in night.
Are such concepts common in west as well. I heard that west is more superstitious than us.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
Horror movies of Hollywood... Yeah they do believe too...
Though mahool is right about Hollywood culture giving the cemeteries and graveyards of USA a negative repo, but in reality, cemeteries are some of the most peaceful places in USA. If your love ones are buried there, you would feel at peace for them. You would know that their graves will never be destroyed our defaced by anyone, whether you visit them or not.
We have a cemetery few minutes from our house, and my both daughters love to visit, and then go from grave to grave, reading tombstones, and then they would run back to us to tell who is burried in which grave (name, years of birth and death). There are graves that are more than 100 years old.
The atmosphere of these cemeteries is nothing to be afraid of. I will try to post some pics
Re: Haunted Graveyards
^ Graveyards in the West are so well maintained. I went to the one in Pakistan to visit a relative's grave and I was horrified to see broken and open graves and nothing being maintained. I didn't know who to feel sorry for, the poor dead person or the fact noone clearly came to visit them or paid any attention to maintenance.
Shak, I always think that if I ever have to move back to Pakistan, I will start a graveyard business. Buy a huge piece of land outside a big city, and maintain a cemetery like in west. Knowing our nation, having your love one buried there would become a status symbol. It will be a very profitable and low maintenance venture.
Patent pending 
Re: Haunted Graveyards
Though mahool is right about Hollywood culture giving the cemeteries and graveyards of USA a negative repo, but in reality, cemeteries are some of the most peaceful places in USA. If your love ones are buried there, you would feel at peace for them. You would know that their graves will never be destroyed our defaced by anyone, whether you visit them or not.
We have a cemetery few minutes from our house, and my both daughters love to visit, and then go from grave to grave, reading tombstones, and then they would run back to us to tell who is burried in which grave (name, years of birth and death). There are graves that are more than 100 years old.
The atmosphere of these cemeteries is nothing to be afraid of. I will try to post some pics
yes, while going through some urdu books, some writers do say 'unn ke qabristaan itne ache hain, ke wahin mar jaane ko dil karta hai'.
Having said that probably the conditions of graveyards in our part of the world create fear and make them haunted.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
I also heard about this graveyard. probably, one of the few graveyards in Pakistan, where you can offer fateha online.
One of my friend told that his grandfather is buried in the same graveyard of Islamabad, where Parveen Shakir is buried. He said that there they have allotted numbers to graves.
Oof, someone stole my idea
Re: Haunted Graveyards
What is offline fateha?
Re: Haunted Graveyards
This maali / sweeper at our graveyard in hometown takes money from my chaachoo each month and whenever we visit graveyard on Eid days, its full of leaves. sometimes, ashes of leaves burnt near graves :smack:
Its all about your own care in our graveyards. many people have covered their part of graveyard with boundaries and gates and visit on daily basis. Those who don’t do this always find new unknown graves in their portion.
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/canvas/576588-meri-mitti-mera-wajood.html
Re: Haunted Graveyards
Oof, someone stole my idea
which idea? allotting numbers to graves. I think Wadi e Hussain is for only people belonging to Fiqah e Jafria. You can attract your target audience :p
Lol, iss mulk main merne ke baad bhi firqa bandi se jaan nahi buchtee
Re: Haunted Graveyards
Lol, iss mulk main merne ke baad bhi firqa bandi se jaan nahi buchtee
When you said 'If your love ones are buried there, you would feel at peace for them. You would know that their graves will never be destroyed our defaced by anyone, whether you visit them or not', I remembered destruction of graves in some Qadyani graveyard. So, yes its an unfortunate reality.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
I love all the haunted and creepy stuff about graveyards in stories and movies. But my real life experiences with graveyards are very peaceful and pleasant.
I associate graveyards with my childhood, my father, and bindweed flowers. My father used to take me to visit our ancestral graveyard every Thursday. The graveyard was situated amongst the green fields and meadows with wildflowers growing everywhere...out of all those flowers I loved the pink bindweed flowers. Out of some 7 or 8 graves in that big field I loved looking at my grandparents' graves which were built with stone and looked very very old and gothic. There was a tree overshadowing the graves. Both my parents are buried there...but I can't be. :(
Then there was this townish graveyard in Lahore with 100s of graves...I still love visiting it. It looks very mysterious with all the winding paths and unmarked and fallen apart graves.
interestingly, both graveyards I know had big ponds...the one in my village still survives but the one in Lahore one has been filled up to make room for more graves. I remember seeing and playing with tadpoles in that pond when I was young.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
About 10 minutes from my home is a cemetery, said to be among the haunted cemeteries in the US. There are tombstones dating back to the 1800s and there's some ancient legend about a guy who's buried there. I would pass this cemetery on my way to and from work...and I still do whenever I go that route. I've often thought about parking my car on the grass median....and visiting the cemetery to see if it really is as spooky as it's said to be. Maybe one day I'll go during daylight hours with a friend.
Or if Hareem01 lived here, I'd take her along with me for a stroll among the tombstones.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
I love all the haunted and creepy stuff about graveyards in stories and movies.
Yaaaay!!!!! Same here. So, I take it that you like watching horror movies? I do!!! I haven't found many fans of the genre. I recently watched The Conjuring cuz I heard several people found it scary, but I was disappointed. It wasn't scary at all, the movie Sinister was creepier.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
graveyards are in pretty bad condition and visiting them def feels creepy. There is a particular smell of rose mixed with sand + the humidity that contributes to the deathly smell. Last time I went (that was a decade ago), the driver was almost driving on the graves (which I first thought were speed bumps) because there were no roads. And the scariest part were kids/infants graves ...almost dying out.
My grandparents are buried in a pretty nice graveyard in Karachi, properly maintained. I forgot the name but I remember it has a green gate and it is the place where Habib bank founder's family are buried. They still have 3-4 spots reserved for their family otherwise it was full.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
In Desi Culture, there is a built in fear that graveyards or shamshan ghaat are haunted and dead ones visit this world in night. Thats why many people avoid passing through graveyards in night.
Are such concepts common in west as well. I heard that west is more superstitious than us.
But in some English Horror Movies I've watched that if you enter in the graveyard then you are safe from evils as they can't enter in the graveyard.
Re: Haunted Graveyards
But in some English Horror Movies I've watched that if you enter in the graveyard then you are safe from evils as they can't enter in the graveyard.
Have you ever visited a graveyard alone in night?
