Silver Fancy White Heart

Mothers may have gotten their special day first, but fathers weren’t far behind. Just a year after the first national celebration of Mother’s Day, Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington started a movement to recognize fathers with their own special day. Brought up by a strong father, a Civil War veteran who raised a brood of six after his wife died in childbirth, Dodd wanted to recognize the contribution fathers make to their families.

On June 19, 1910, Dodd and members of the YMCA wore roses to church in honor of their fathers. Red roses were worn to honor living fathers; white roses commemorated fathers who had passed away. Despite several attempts to declare a national Father’s Day celebration, fathers didn’t get their own special day until 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson issued a presidential proclamation designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day and a day to honor fathers. In 1972, the day was finally designated a permanent national holiday when it was signed into law by President Richard Nixon.

Today, children and wives remember the contributions Dads make to their families with barbecues, gifts and lots of pampering. But long after our fathers pass away, their legacy remains a strong guiding force. Families honor fathers that have passed away by placing flowers and other gravesite tributes at their graves. If you cannot travel to your father’s grave this Father’s Day, don’t forget your Dad. The Gravesite Masters can deliver your Father’s Day tribute to cemeteries across the country.

Solar Memorial Flag

Our nation has set aside the last Monday in May, May 31 this year, to pay tribute to the brave men and women who have died gallantly in military service to the United States. On Memorial Day our nation will remember and grieve for the heroic men and women who have died protecting America, Americans and freedom. The Gravesite Masters can arrange to deliver memorial flowers, U.S. flag tributes or solar light memorials to the graves of your family’s fallen heroes anywhere in the U.S. Even if you live far from their final resting place, with the help of The Gravesite Masters you can arrange to remember and honor the men and women who have fought their final battle.

Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day dates back to the Civil War custom of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers. The end of May was chosen to commemorate the reunification of the country following the Civil War and was expanded to encompass all fallen veterans after World War I.

Solar memorial flags, solar crosses, solar yellow ribbons and solar-powered angels are particularly popular Memorial Day tributes for deceased veterans. Powered by unobtrusive solar batteries, these beautiful gravesite memorials light up the night, bringing comfort to all who see them.

Easter Cross Gravesite Decoration

After the winter snows have melted away, spring brings rebirth and renewal. Trees begin to bud, the grass starts to green and spring bulbs begin to poke their tender shoots through the ground. Soon daffodils and tulips will bloom, carpeting the landscape with color. Many cemeteries were created as beautifully landscaped parks and arboretums and blossom with the rich colors and heady scents of flowering trees and bulbs each spring. The beauty of nature can be a balm to the soul whether grief at the passing of a loved one is fresh or a still dull ache.

Spring calls families to revisit the graves of their loved ones. Particularly during the Easter season, families come to honor their loved ones, decorating their gravesites with spring flowers and Easter crosses. The Gravesite Masters has a beautiful selection of Easter gravesite decorations that include beautifully decorated crosses, charming bunnies and lovely flower and ribbon Easter eggs. Our selection of spring floral bouquets in cemetery cones includes a wide variety of flower varieties and colors for you to choose from.

The Gravesite Masters can deliver and install your choice of spring or Easter gravesite decoration on your loved one’s grave at cemeteries anywhere across the United States.

18" Gold Fancy Heart

Love doesn’t end when someone close to us dies. Love stays in our hearts where it is nurtured by our memories.

On Valentine’s Day it is as natural to remember and honor those who have enriched our lives but are no longer with us as it is to bring flowers and chocolates to the living.

After the death of a spouse, parent, child or close friend, remembering our departed loved ones on special holidays and on birthdays and anniversaries with a gravesite wreath or floral arrangement helps us to grieve and gradually assimilate their loss into our lives.

The Gravesite Masters offers a large selection of lovely Valentine’s Day wreaths to decorate the graves of loved ones who have passed away. Heart-shaped wreaths in a wide variety of colors and designs ensure that you’ll be able to find a fitting tribute for your departed loved one. Gravesite Masters also offers a large variety of popular gravesite stick hearts that can be easily stuck into the ground at the individual’s gravesite. Bouquet and vase combos are another popular Valentine’s Day gravesite decoration. Our velvety artificial rose bouquets are so real looking you’ll want to reach out and touch them.

Not only can you purchase gravesite memorial flowers from The Gravesite Masters, but we can arrange to deliver them to the cemetery and place them on the grave of your loved one, allowing you to remember loved ones across the country.

The first real storm of winter swept out of the Rockies, across the plains and is moving toward the East Coast. With temperatures plummeting into the single digits for the first time this winter, ice, snow and sleeting rain are making highway conditions slick and dangerous. Unpredictable winter weather can make your planned trip to the cemetery to honor your loved ones a dangerous journey. Yet knowing that their loved ones’ graves are decorated with wreaths or flowers over the holidays gives families a sense of peace and comfort. Decorating the graves of those who have passed is an honored part of the grieving ritual, a tangible symbol of a family’s love and respect. Many families feel that decorating the graves of their loved ones is an important way to keep memories alive during the holidays.

Forgoing this important tradition when the weather turns nasty may be practical but it leaves an emotional void. With the help of The Gravesite Masters, families can rest assured that their loved ones’ graves will be decorated this holiday. The Gravesite Masters provides gravesite beautification and nationwide delivery of both fresh-cut and artificial cemetery flowers and wreaths to cemeteries across America. Whether you want to pay tribute to a loved one in a cemetery across town or across the country, the caring staff at The Gravesite Masters is ready to help you. Call us today and let us help you decorate your loved ones’ graves for the holidays.

Placing evergreen wreaths on the graves of our loves ones is a lovely way to honor and remember those who won’t be joining us during family gatherings this holiday. A symbol of Christmas spirit and welcome, modern evergreen wreaths have their roots in several ancient traditions. Ancient Celts believed that holly, another winter evergreen, had magical protective powers. Holly wreaths were commonly used in pagan winter solstice celebrations. As with many Christian customs, the pagan ritual was given a new twist to make it distinctly Christian. Boughs of holly were used to decorate homes and royal halls, but wreaths were fashioned of evergreen pines to mimic the Advent wreaths made popular by German Lutherans, who also gave us the Christmas tree.

In Christian tradition, the circular shape of the evergreen wreath is symbolic of God’s everlasting eternal grace. Green reminds us of nature’s bountiful gifts. Evergreens were likely chosen because of their beauty, fresh scent and availability during winter holidays. Today, evergreen wreaths are synonymous with the holidays. Decorated wreaths adorn our doors, welcoming holiday visitors. Evergreen wreaths are the preferred adornment for loved ones’ graves during the holidays. The Gravesite Masters offer three exquisite evergreen wreaths in 20-inch, 24-inch and 36-inch sizes to honor your loved ones during the holidays.

What Americans are now referring to as “green burials” are actually a commonly practiced custom in many parts of the world and were once the traditional burial method of Americans in earlier centuries. The green burial movement is a return to simpler times when bodies were not embalmed, but laid to rest in crude pine coffins or in some cases buried right in the earth. In those days, necessity drove burial methods; today, the decision to have an environmentally “green” funeral is a conscious choice.

In a green funeral, the body is not embalmed. It is dressed in organic cotton and placed in a coffin made of recycled wood. The coffin is not buried in a concrete vault but is placed directly on the earth in the grave. The purpose of a green funeral is to protect the environment by reducing or eliminating the energy, raw materials and toxic chemicals used in traditional funerals. Green burials also speed and enhance the natural decomposition process, allowing natural processes to recycle the coffin and body, returning “dust to dust.”

Those who embrace green burials take comfort in knowing that their body will nurture the earth and become part of the cycle of life. Cemeteries dedicated to green funerals are growing in popularity, and many traditional cemeteries are permitting green burials in special sections. Green cemeteries encourage gravesite beautification with the planting of trees, shrubs and flowers to form a natural memorial to those who have passed.

Basic Patriotic Vase with Flag

In my hometown we’ve just buried another brave serviceman who died serving our country in Afghanistan. The flags in front of the police station flew at half mast. Moms and dads lined the streets, their children waving small American flags, as the hearse drove slowly through town on its way to the cemetery. The VFW honor guard that turns out for every soldier’s return to home soil marched somberly behind the hearse, the drummer keeping mournful cadence.

As we entered the cemetery, flashes of our nation’s colors caught the eye. The war has not been easy for our community. We’ve lost a number of courageous servicemen and servicewomen in recent months. My hometown is a small one, the men and women buried beneath the patriotic red, white and blue flowers went to school with our children. They’ve sat in our kitchen swapping baseball cards. We’ve guided them through Cub Scouts and watched them scrap with each other on the soccer field. We’ve nursed them through broken bones and cheered them to another touchdown on the high school football field. We’ve kept watch as they’ve grow from dirty-kneeded little boys racing around the backyard playing super hero into the real thing.

Our heroes have left us too soon. We will cherish them in memories and forever hold them in our hearts. And we will show our love and respect by honoring their graves with patriotic flower arrangements in the red, white and blue of the country they died for.

Why do we place flowers on the graves of our loved ones? While not universal, the burial custom is popular in the United States. A custom with a long history, flowers have been found in the graves of Stone Age Neanderthals and ancient Egyptians. While today placing flowers on the grave is done as a sign of love and respect, there are several schools of thought about the origin of the custom, from the mystical to the practical.

• Just as ancient peoples offered fruit, bread, flowers and game to curry favor with their gods, placing flowers on a loved one’s grave was thought to please his spirit and encourage him to intercede for those left on Earth.  
• Flowers symbolize the cycle of life and death. Some ancient peoples believed that the souls of the dead were reborn in the plants and flowers that grew over their graves.
• Before embalming became prevalent in Western culture, fragrant, fresh-cut flowers were placed around the body when it was laid out for viewing to alleviate the smell of decomposition.

The practical aspect — defusing the odor of decay — is the most likely reason for the custom’s spread throughout America. Until the Civil War, embalming was little known in the U.S., and it wasn’t until the 1867 discovery of formaldehyde with its superior preservation properties that embalming became widespread. Fortunately, today we can breathe easy and focus on honoring our loved ones when we place flowers on their graves.

When my mother was a little girl, she and her mother and grandmother used to visit the cemetery every week. As they weeded the graves, planted flowers and trimmed around the headstones, they would share stories about Grandpa Alfred, Great-Grandma Lily, Great Aunt Tootsie, Uncle Bob and the other family members whose graves they tended. My mother used to love hearing the stories of colorful relatives long gone but not forgotten. As a child, her job was to fetch water from the nearby pond to water the flowers carefully planted to decorate the graves. She knew that someday it would fall to her to tend the family graves and pass down the family tales.

Families no longer live in tight communal groups, living out their lives within blocks of each other. When my mother’s turn came to watch over the family gravesite, marriage and job opportunities had moved her far away from her family home. On visits back to see elderly relatives, she’d always stop by the cemetery with some flowers and do what she could to beautify the graves; but it bothered her that they often looked neglected. Discovering Gravesite Masters has given my mother the peace of mind she needs. With a call to Gravesite Masters Mom knows that beautiful, fresh-cut flowers will grace her parents’ graves on special dates and holidays important to the family even when Mom can’t be there herself.