A Night at the Mausoleum

Last night, D and I went to Edmonton’s Night at the Mausoleum event. It is an opportunity to discover the history and beauty of Edmonton’s oldest cemetery as well as take a rare peek inside the Cathedral of Memories, Edmonton’s oldest Mausoleum. Hosted by City of Edmonton staff, there were refreshments, including coffee, pop, popcorn and sno-cones to enjoy both before and after the half hour guided tour of the cemetery (there were 2 tours last night). What an interesting history of the cemeteries within the city as well as the evolution of the stone work on gravestones. As you walk through this cemetery, so many names are recognizable as streets, parks and neighborhoods that have been dedicated after the pioneers and influential people of Edmonton. Emily Murphy is interned in the Mausoleum and the Muttarts have a lovely plot along the road inside the cemetery.

I have a tendency to forget history details quite quickly – Social studies was always a struggle for me (give me something that I can logic out or work towards or a really good story – not memorization of dates and events). So to find out (again) that Edmonton has the oldest mosque and one of the oldest Muslim populations in North America was fantastic. It was interesting to hear that the Muslim mosque was built by a Ukrainian builder which is why it has a Ukrainian church feel to it. To confirm that Edmonton has been accepting of multi-cultural and religious beliefs made me feel proud to be from here. (Don’t get me wrong, we also have several misanthropes around who are not accepting of anything different from themselves.) This is especially interesting to me in light of the fact that I felt like Glasgow was just like Edmonton and one of Glasgow’s tenets is the acceptance of different religions.

Anyway, D and I enjoyed the experience quite a lot. There was lots of good information and I think the hour and a half guided tours would be fascinating. To be able to learn more about the cemetery and the people buried within in would a great opportunity. Unfortunately, all the longer tours have ended for the summer, so I think D and I will be going to one next summer. At $5 each, it is a great bargain. And if you aren’t sure if you want to do that long of a tour, keep an eye out for A Night at the Mausoleum event next year. It’s free and quite interesting.

On other notes – very sad things going on right now – The voice of the Count has passed away. I loved the count… this makes me sad. Supposedly Neil Armstrong has died. There goes another icon of history. Lately, it has been quite sad to read that so many people who were influential while I was growing up are passing. I tend not to focus on age (after all I am only 25), but this really makes me start to dwell on mortality. That is very very sad.

And another sad thing, we had this lovely 10 foot high sunflower growing in the front garden – beautiful red and yellow striped leaves. It towered over all the other 8 and 9 foot flowers. When I got home after walking through the downpour, I found the sunflower lying down on the ground, its stem snapped. I am very sad to lose it. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to take a picture of my beautiful sunflowers (half of which I didn’t plant but grew anyway). Sighhhh…

Anyway, I just wanted to share those thoughts in amongst my many loads of laundry and cleaning bouts. D’s parents are coming next weekend. The house needs to be clean… and I have so much to do. And tonight we are going to a friend’s Fringe play River City gets Wet with some friends. So I am hoping that will be a fabulous as I think it will be. The Social Event of the Season has been cancelled, which is also sad. But next weekend our favorite Halloween store opens and then it is the croquet tournament and then D’s parents are coming. So it will be a very full weekend, followed by a busy week and another full weekend. Whew!