All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day, also known as All Hallow's Day, and tomorrow is All Souls' Day.   This is the time when families traditionally visit cemeteries to lay flowers and candles on the graves of deceased loved ones. It is believed that All Saints' Day was chosen to be November 1st to coincide with the Celtic festival of the dead (Samhain), in order to persuade pagans to convert to Christianity.  This was also the reason an early pope chose December 25th to celebrate Christ's birth, since it coincides with the Winter Solstice,  the major pagan holiday of the year.  Historians actually believe Christ was born in the springtime. After all, shepherds don't tend to their flocks in the middle of winter.

To celebrate this holiday, I drove out to Riverside Cemetery, Denver's oldest, founded in 1876.  Originally, Denver's cemetery was located where Cheesman Park and the Denver Botanic Gardens stand today.  Back at the end of the 19th century, it was decided that Denver needed this cemetery for parkland, and it hired someone to move the bodies interred there to Riverside and Fairmount Cemeteries.  To save money, the contractor decided to dismember the corpses and combine them in fewer coffins to save money.  Eventually the project became such a fiasco the city decided to stop it, leaving many bodies still buried or in pieces at Cheesman Park and the Botanic Gardens.  It is rumored that there are a LOT of angry spirits hanging out in the area.  Definitely don't go there at night.

In any case, I personally find all this a bit creepy, although I must admit there are a lot of interesting Victorian monuments at Riverside, not to mention some pretty scary looking crypts. These days the area around Riverside has gone from countryside to heavy industrial, and so it is no longer a popular spot to be laid to rest.  Now that the State of Colorado is rebuilding Interstate 70 a few miles away, it not very easy to get to, either - lots of detours through a maze of industrial sites.  And I must report that I did not see a single ghost during my visit, only one couple walking around the grounds besides me.  I do have to wonder why they were wearing Victorian clothing, however, and why it appeared that you could see right through them. No doubt a trick of the light.