From Ald. Tunney's latest email newsletter:Wunder's Cemetery Easter Egg Hunt
Saturday, April 16, 10:00am (3963 N. Clark)
Come join your neighbors for a FREE old-fashioned Easter Egg Hunt on the historic grounds of Wunder's Cemetery! There are over 2000 eggs and bags will be provided for all egg hunters (no other containers allowed). Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, please call 773.525.4038.
There's also the Chase Park Egg-stravaganza, also tomorrow at 10am. Check out the details in our previous post. If you've got a kid, or are a kid, great choices tomorrow (dress warmly). It's all free!
Only in Chicago... would they find it perfectly normal to hold a kids' Easter egg hunt in a graveyard.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only one that thought it so wrong to have an Easter egg hunt at a graveyard. I only hope there are more that think so and they just didn't post.
ReplyDeleteAny holiday "celebration" would be weird in a cemetery but Easter marks when Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion.
Yeah, with all the underprivileged kids in Uptown, it's just HORRIBLE to have a free event for them, with prizes and fun, because it's in a graveyard.
ReplyDeleteA little history lesson:
Around Victorian times, which is when Chicago was established, people were rethinking cemeteries. They were redesigned to be places where families could spend the afternoon, bring a picnic lunch. Crypts were large and classically inspired; fountains and large trees and green spaces were incorporated. "The Victorians wanted large, new cemeteries established outside the cities to provide more hygienic and dignified resting places for their deceased. These cemeteries were designed to be beautiful places where visitors could stroll down long, shaded walks."
In holding family events at Wunder's, the cemetery is reverting to its original vision.
I'm sorry that, as a society, we have become so squeamish about death that a free event held for children in an historic place is so offensive to some.
BTW, if you think an Easter egg hunt in Wunders is offensive, don't EVER spend any time in Lincoln Park. It was originally a cemetery, and a lot of bodies are still there. Isn't that just AWFUL?! Can't go there!!! Ban all fun! Ban all free events!!
Woo-hoo for free events!
ReplyDeleteEh?!? For graveyard.
Is it allowed to have BOTH opinions? ::rolls eyes::
I took my daughter and it was wonderful.Nicely divided up for older kids and younger. The benefit to having it in a graveyard is lots or grass and trees and places to hide the eggs, also a good boundary around the area where they're running.
ReplyDeleteIt was a nice opportunity to talk to my daughter about her grandmother who isn't with us. To explain what a grave is and talk about life and death even if she is to young to understand those things.
And frankly, I suppose it's what you think of death, whether graveyards are bad or good. I see them as good, it's a place to celebrate and remember.
I know of plenty of people who choose to run and bike in graveyards for their exercise because it's quiet, peaceful and beautiful. Why should beautiful spaces be reserved for the dead instead of both living and dead.
I hope Wunders does it again next year, we'll definitely be there. :D