Exercising near a cemetery.

[blueredyellow]

Our new house backs onto a cemetery. We have a gate from our garden going directly into a wooded area, and then there's a further 20m of meadow / grassland before you get to graves - this area of the cemetery is where the really old graves are (not that this matters from a respect point of view, but just that there are no families that visit these graves).

Do you think it would be OK to do yoga and stretching under the trees right by our back wall? Or would that be disrespectful?

We're having work done in our garden and home at the moment, hence why the garden is not a great option just now.

[JessicaEccles]

I think it would be rather nice - circle of life and all that.

[RachelRagged]

There was a similar question a while ago (though that concerned jogging through a cemetery) and I will say on here as I did on that thread.

I very much doubt the deceased would mind or the living who may visit the graves. Not like you are IN the cemetery stretching and doing yoga and even then, if I had a relative in that cemetery, I would not be bothered to be honest.

YANBU OP

[PerspicaciaTick]

I like the idea of cemeteries being a community space, so long as the community are respectful in how they choose to use them. So fine to quietly work out on your own or with a partner, not so OK to have a large group joining in a noisy bootcamp activity. Also fine to use a quite space, provided you are ready to move away if someone comes to visit a nearby grave.

[ijustwannadance]

I don't think the residents will mind

[Sirzy]

I think as long as you aren't using headstones to balance when stretching or anything like that it's fine.

Obviously if it was a used area you would need to be respectful of families visiting/funerals but it doesn't sound like that would be an issue.

There is a primary school directly behind the garden of remembrance my grandparents are in and I love going when the children are playing out as it is an nice reminder of how life goes on

[Wellitwouldbenice]

It's fine (although would probably postpone to another time if someone new was moving in... )

[TizzyDongue]

Will you be naked? Or there is a burial on at the same time you're doing naked yoga?

[blueredyellow]

No nakedness, no using the headstones!

Thank you!

[Werkzallhourz]

I have very strong beliefs about churchyards and cemeteries. I was involved in a huge debate about property developers building on old church yards without disinterring the graves in my area. I personally think it is horrendous to do this, but accept other people are not so precious about it.

However, as part of this, I strongly support people safely using church yards and cemeteries for recreational purposes such as walking, jogging and cycling.

It can help to prevent vandalism, cut down anti-social behaviour, help with the reporting of damaged or dangerous monuments, and prevent potential public health hazards that inevitably occur when utter idiots break into old crypts in search of jewellery or scrap metal and disrupt the remains of people who died of infectious diseases such as small pox.

But moreover, it reclaims church yards and cemeteries as being part of community green space that also supports wildlife. I also think it promotes a healthier attitude to death and provides a connection to the past.

So, in my view, yoga away. Our local brownies and scouts play all sorts of games in our local church yards around the gravestones. It actually think it is far nicer to have activity in cemeteries than for them to be abandoned to ruin.

[Buxtonstill]

There's a 'farmers' market near Oval tube station in a churchyard. Stallholders set up their tables on the gravestones, and hang moneybags/stock etc on the gravestones leaning against the wall. They are very old graves, and so maybe no descendants object, but I find it pretty tasteless. You are not doing Yoga on the gravestones, so I wouldn't have a problem.

[VodkaJelly]

I used to live on a fairly ordinary council estate. At the back of the estate you could cut through the cemetery to go into town. I used to take my kids when they were little and we would stop and sit on the benches and watch the wildlife, squirrels, rabbits and birds etc, we were respectful and never strayed off the path. Occasionally a grave visitor would strike up conversation and it was a nice cemetery. It was mostly mums and pensioners using it as a cut through.

School kids also used it and the council didn't like that so changed the times that they opened the gates.

A few years ago the council decided they didn't like us scummy council estaters using it as a cut through so they closed the gates permanently. No amount of appeals changed their minds. They said it was the kids using it to and from school that they didn't like. The school has since been demolished and kids don't go that way anymore but they still haven't opened the gate.

Vandalism and theft have increased ten fold as not as many people go through the cemetery anymore but the council still let people walk their dogs there.

We might have been scummy council estaters but at least we didn't shit on the graves.

[Notso]

The playing field at my children's primary used to be a graveyard. The gravestones are still there, the children don't play on them. They were moved by the council and are respectfully maintained by the school. Pupils lay flowers that they grow in the gardening area.

It used to be overgrown and unloved often frequented by drug users, while the children had only a concrete yard to play on.

[ApocalypseNowt]

I can't be the only one who used to get taken to graveyards as a child as a nice afternoon out?

Maybe it was a local thing or a my parents thing but I still love a good wander round a graveyard.

I think they should be part of the community as a PP said.

[Bluntness100]

There is an old cemetery in the town next to us, and it's got a public walkway through it, which is used constantly by people, and it has benches, where people sit and eat their lunch, but it's very ornate and a lovely space, more like tombs if that makes sense. With some very very old gravestones also.

My issue comes in when it's an actively used cemetery, mourners, visitors, burials, then I think someone jogging through is disrespectful. Doing yoga outside it is fine, but if you do see some mourners or s burial I'd pop back in the house.

[SomewhatIdiosyncratic]

Our church uses the church yard including old graves for children's activities and Easter egg hunts, so I doubt that they would have an issue with some calm yoga

[ItsJustPaint]

Yoga lovely

30 day shred or boot camp - not so much

[user1484226561]

I hope people will be exercising, wildlife watching and generally relaxing around my grave in the future

[user1484226561]

even setting up market stall would be fine with me!

[redexpat]

How loudly do you fart when you do yoga? Because mine are loud enough to wake the dead, which would feel rather disrespectful. Are you a silent or even a non farter?

[SocksRock]

We regularly enjoy Sheffield General Cemetary. No one has been buried there since 1978, but a conservation society looks after it and it is a beautiful calm space to wander in.

[bunnylove99]

YANBU. I think it's a nice idea.

[joystir59]

I love the idea of you doing your yoga in the cemetery.

[ZippyNeedsFeeding]

The fact that you have thought about it tells me you are unlikely to cause any offence. It's not like you'll be demonstrating your downward facing dog to the gravediggers or owt.
I've always wanted to live next to a graveyard, I've always found them really calm and interesting places. I probably would bother with yoga myself (because I am a graceless oaf), but it's no different to anyone going for a walk for exercise really and I wouldn't even be remotely offended.

[MiddlingMum]

When we go for long walks in the country, we often look for a nice churchyard with a bench where we can eat our lunch. Obviously we are quiet and respectful, and check we don't leave even a crumb behind, but they can be beautiful places to visit.

Doing yoga nearby wouldn't be a problem at all imo.

[GladAllOver]

This sounds very very like the previous thread.
I think you and the previous poster are BU. These visitors are not causing you any harm.