Jul
14th
2023
Served Cold · 2:26pm Jul 14th, 2023
I was out biking today when I passed by a graveyard, and I saw something I'd never thought about before.
For those who don't read Norwegian, the sign warns that deer might eat flowers on the graves. It also has a list of recommended flowers the deer don't like, as well as a list of flowers they discourage since the deer find them delicious.
It just struck me reading this that there could be some lore in that. Maybe in Equestria ponies know that things are truly dire, when weather control has fallen apart and the harvest is failing, or when winter was unusually hard and Wrap-Up is just too far away, that's when ponies start grazing on graves.
Report
Daedalus Aegle · 168 views
·
“Grave-grazing” definitely works as an expression for either desperation or truly shameless exploitation of all available resources (and the kind of worldview that reduces everything to “available resources.”)
5737837
It is quite evocative. Grave-grazing Grogar, goat-god of greed, emerges from his lair to do his wicked work.
Maybe even a condemnation for callousness. "That pony would graze on a grave!"
NORWAY
Grave grazers could be a pejorative term for cemetery tourists, people who like to wander graveyards and read the tombstones of both the famous and unknown alike. People who like the quiet and aesthetic of cemeteries, and not just for the flavors of the ritual offerings scattered about there.
5738402
Wait that's me I do that D:
5738415
My mother is keen on cemetery tourism too.
Cultural memory of sorts of nearly going extinct from cold and starvation after a
nuclearWindigo winter?5737837
5737909
This being Equestria, I cannot help but wonder what it would be like if this were flipped around on its head? Like Equestrian funeral culture practised leaving relatively low maintenance and nutritious flowers and whatnot on graves for the explicit purpose of helping those in dire straits? Even in death (and honouring/remembering the dead), they still do their best to help their neighbours...
5740197
That's a fascinating idea. Keeping the grass over a grave well manicured is also a sign of respect. This could go so many ways!
5740197
5740246
Yeah... interesting idea. After all, a graveyard would be mostly open area of grass that no one's going to claim as private property, no one's going to build a building or road on, no one's going to hold a market on and trample down... just grass, perhaps flowers. Though since the grass would need to be kept under control whether there were any needy ponies in the area or not, maybe the tradition would be that local needy can graze there, but whatever grass isn't taken thusly would be harvested and turned into charity hay or somesuch thing.
5737837
5737840
Though I could still see there being a phrase combining grave-grazer with something indicating wealth (silver-shoed grave-grazer sounded good in my head, but I'm not sure silver would be a good enough material for even fashion horseshoes) for the "shameless exploitation" version, the sort of well-off person who'd, while probably not literally in the form of graveyard grass (unless it's charity fraud), happily take the last material gift of the dead, meant for the needy, just because it was a little better for their own bottom line.
...Of course, that could potentially lead to additional stigma to taking the offering. Do you really need it? Mightn't there be someone even worse off out there? Hm. Maybe there's also a tradition of cemetery keepers being an even more active part of the local welfare system, regularly holding or sponsoring meals for some of the locals. And of course, it'd be rude to decline the invitation, or imply you thought the grasses used in the food were of poor quality by asking too many questions about where they came from.
And that in turn could tie into all sorts of local politics... And actually, if one wanted to know how the poor in an area were doing, what their problems and needs were, the local cemetery keepers might be a good place to start, so maybe they'd also over time evolve a role as advocates of the downtrodden. And they'd be well aware that material wealth in life might get you a bigger stone than a pauper's, but you'll be just as much in the ground under it.
...So now I'm imagining an Equestria where the social workers and advocates to the government for the poor and unfortunate traditionally dress in fashions other settings would think more appropriate for necromancers. Because they started out as (and still include) the cemetery keepers who had to know the poor well to try and help them stay fed and started helping them in other ways, and since people associated them with death anyway, they decided to lean into it.
My, and all this from a sign warning about Norwegian dear eating flowers. :D
5740806
Lots of good ideas in that. If I weren't buried so deep in other ideas already I might think about a story for it.
5741017
Thanks. :)
And feel free, you or anyone else reading this, if an appropriate coincidence of time and interest does occur. :)