Cairns of remembrance

in #photogaphy5 years ago (edited)

Cairn

Dictionary
/kern/
noun
1.a mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark, typically on a hilltop or skyline.

Wikipedia
A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn

I love this definition since the first cairn that we made was for my dad and he is half Scottish!

Most of the cairns I had seen were small ones that people used on hiking trails. It was a great experience to make ones as memorials.

Dad

October 7, 2016
After my dad's funeral we climbed Hog's Back, his favorite mountain, and erected this cairn for him at the top.


The group that climbed the mountain.


Looking down at the valley.


The building crew

Mom

Feb, 1, 2019
After my mom's funeral we climbed Hog's Back and erected this cairn for her at the top next to my dad's cairn.


The group that climbed the mountain.


It is a steep hike up.


The Building crew


Love you mom and dad and so glad that we took this time to be together and hike dad's mountain and work hard and build you these beautiful cairns of remembrance.

Sort:  

I have never heard of this tradition before. What a lovely idea. I would not have guessed they were so large without seeing people for scale. This takes a lot of skill too. I am so inspired by this idea.

I think your parents spirits are in this place now. And such lovely views in a remote place.

What a moving time for all of you. I know visiting there will be a good tradition in your future.

Thanks so much @fitnfun I love it too and would love to go back and see them in the future. We did work on my dad's since it had been sitting for a couple of years in the weather on the top of the mountain.

A timeless tradition. Imagine archeologist, eons from now, excavating your father’s cairn…

Great photo essay

Really cool to do something like this in memory of mom and dad. I'm sure they will be pretty proud. Some of the rocks look really heavy. Team effort gives strength.

Posted using Partiko Android

@fredkese I totally agree, team effort does give strength and most of the rocks were very heavy.


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here

hi @sjarvie5
I think this is one of the most significant posts I've ever read on steemit. I think the memory of our loved ones is something sacred and sharing the construction of cairns with family and friends was a gesture of true love for your parents. I have dedicated them a tree, inspired on stories recounted by Ovid in his famous Metamorphoses "Bauci and Filomene"
(https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filemone_e_Bauci)
congratulations and thanks for sharing with us

Thank you so much @road2horizon, what a kind thing for you to do. I love the idea of planting trees for loved ones and giving or getting live plants.. I still have a plant a friend gave me from when my dad died and it reminds me both of him and her love. Where is the tree?
This is a post I wrote about my mom's death about a month ago, thought you might like to read it.

Oh man, that's such a great tradition! I find in our lives we miss traditions, especially for helping with big transitions in life. This is such a positive thing to do while thinking about a loved one in the meanwhile.

Sorry to see you had to lose both parents in such a short period of time.

Thanks @soyrosa I don't know who first came up with the idea but it was such a beautiful way to spend that time after the funeral.

Love those! And fun building them.

Yes, you were right in there lifting those super big heavy ones!

Good to know about the Cairn, and the reason it is built.

Here in India we have same rock mounds for many reasons. One such I know of is, making a wish to build a house and building the mounds in religiously recognized mountains or temple surroundings
They ll be smaller in size to what I see in your pictures.

Posted using Partiko Android

Thanks for your comment. Interesting to know about how they are used in India.

I think what you have done for your mum and dad is really special and never heard of this type of tradition before. They are rather large and must have taken loads of effort. I am glad a large enough group went to help you with this.

Thanks @cryptoandcoffee, it did take a lot of effort, most were very big rocks. It was really great to hike and build together.

Hi sjarvie5,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.29
TRX 0.12
JST 0.035
BTC 64646.46
ETH 3357.15
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.44