Grave Matters: A Show of Hands

A lot of times, when I'm out and about in a cemetery, I come across graves with hands carved on them. Hands are a common symbol in the world of iconography, but ones that play an important part.

It all began many thousands of years ago, when Christianity was still in it's infancy. Owing to a misreading of the book of Exodus, showing any pictorial, or written description of God was strictly forbidden. It comes to us from Chapter 20, Verse 4 of the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament after Moses has led his people out Egypt and climbed to the summit of Mt. Sinai to converse with God.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee, any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water underneath the earth."

Taken quite literally at the time, it didn't leave a lot of wiggle room when it came to answering the question what does God look like? So here was the problem. We want to show God, but how can we do it if it's not allowed?

Well, there are other ways to reference God, specifically, passages in the bible that reference the hand of God coming down, or the arm of God, so there was a way around it and much later it was was adapted into usage on the gravestones we see today and of the images of hands, there are three which are probably the most common. A hand coming down, a hand pointing up, or a pair of hands clasped together.


Here we have to images of hands pointing upwards. When seen on a gravestone, this denotes that the soul of the person buried here has gone up to Heaven. In the case of member of the clergy, this can also be seen as the "Manus Dei" if two fingers of the hand are pointing upwards.

On the tombstone below, note the Gothic touches as well as the clusters of oak leaves and acorns. These are symbolic references to truth and spiritual power in times of adversity. They can also be seen as a symbol of birth and renewal as oaks grow from the acorns drop to the ground and in turn spawn new trees. The stone above shows a hand pointing towards a star. In the iconographic world, a star or stars represent the guidance of the divine, and in this case, because it's a single star, it's also a reference to the Star of the East, or the star that guided the three wise men to the manger when Jesus was born.

The next two headstones show hands coming down. Again, this is a symbol of the hand of God, as sometimes this type of hand is depcited as coming from a group of clouds. The stone on the left also has acorns on each side of the wrist, again a reference to truth and spiritual strength.

The hand on the right it is along the same lines, the only difference being that instead of acorns, the hand is flanked by a pair of tassles, which are mostly just a decorative touch and hold no reference to the bible. What both have in common are a chain that appears broken, with one link clasped in the hand. This is a reference to the chains or bonds of holy matrimony that have been broken by the death of the person, but will be restored in heaven.

Finally, we come to hand clasped together as seen in these next images. Note closely that one is masculine in appearance and the other feminine. The way to tell this is to look closely at the cuffs of the sleeves. A man's cuff should have a wider width or a button on it, while the woman's will most likely appear to be made of lace. On these headstones, the left hand is the woman's and the right is the man's.


















In some cases however, the sleeve has no detail or is considered gender neutral. If this is the case, then it can be interpreted as a welcome from Heaven, or a farewell to earthly possessions or relationships.

These last two images are two rarities that I've come across. Both are unusual because the hand has been carved with the palm facing out rather than inwards as is common on most graves, while below it is an open book with no text. This device can be used in one of two ways, either as a bible, with a piece of scripture or verse carved into it's face, or as a record of the birth and death dates of the deceased.

The shaft on the right is one that I came across in an Masonic Cemetery near Olympia. Here we see, carved into the shaft of the obelisk, a hand with a heart in the palm with three links of chain above it. The heart is a powerful symbol in iconography denoting the most deepest feelings of human emotion and of the love of God. Here the hand is also clearly male if we take a closer look at the cuff. The chain in use here however is not a symbol of matrimony, but rather a symbol used by the Odd Fellows and the Masons which share a number of the same symbols. To tell whether the person was a Mason or an Odd Fellow, look closely at the chain for the initials F, L, and T inside the links which stand for Friendship, Love and Truth.

So the next time you find yourself in a cemetery, take a look around for a show of hands, and you'll be amazed at how many there are.