Graduation photos and rosary beads.

[sashh]

My father passed away recently, from his house I have been given a couple of boxes of things.

One box contains pictures of my various graduations. The big ones, the ones parent and grandparents display. It seems a shame to throw them but I don't want to hang them up as some shrine to myself.

Does anyone have any ideas? I could just throw them and recycle the frames.

The other thing I keep coming across is rosary beads.

Now I'm the type of atheist who makes Richard Dawkins look like a lightweight.

Google tells me they can be burned or buried. I don't want to attempt burning plastic and burying them in the garden seems a bit off,

Again any suggestions?

Do you have a Catholic Church near you? I would hand the rosary beads to them (you could always post with an accompanying note).

The pictures you could hang or store in your loft. What is wrong hanging the pictures of yourself?

Donate to a Catholic school? They must have meant something to your parents. Graduation pics- take a copy and maybe make a small print but I don't think I even have one of my graduation.

Take the rosary beads to your local Roman Catholic church.

After a car accident at 18 in which I suffered a fractured pelvis, extensive facial bruising and broken ribs, a mother of a friend visited me and gave me a short version of rosary beads in Connemara stone. I'm 65, and have been a non believer since I was 14.

Those beads gave me such comfort then and I still have them.

I also suggest that you donate to your local Catholic church.

I'm catholic and I've never heard this about rosary beads.

Why can't you just bin them if you don't want them?

Just bin them as you would an unwanted necklace, if a charity shop won't take them. I mean, they're not magic or anything.

Put them in your loft?

If you don't place any religious value on the rosary beads, it seems odd to take heed of any tradition or superstition around the disposal of them. On the basis they appear to have been of sentimental value to your father, I'd donate them as suggested above. If you don't want to donate them, I (as an atheist) would bin them in the same way I'd bin any other unwanted item that can't be repurposed, without a second thought.

Yes, this. If the rosary beads are completely meaningless to you then why do they need to be burnt? what an irrationally angry feeling towards something you admit you have no belief in! 🤣

Put them on the grave .

Oh, I don't think the OP is burning them out of anger, I think she just thinks they need to be disposed of in a 'special' way, and that you can't just put them in the bin!

If you are athiest why are you superstitious ? Hand them into a RC church go after a mass and just give them to the priest or whoever is on the door.

But even most of us who do put religious value on them have no problem binning them.

You tend to keep your First Holy Communion beads and your Confirmation ones but that's it.

Otherwise we'd all be tripping over them considering the school and the church youth clubs give them out every single Ash Wednesday, and any other time they seem to have a job lot.

But again- why? if she has no belief and thinks its all BS why do they need to be destroyed in a special way- what does she think is going to happen if she just chucks them- will she be smited by God?

Edit: even if they are burnt if it's God's wrath she fears its not like he isnt going to see she's burnt them is it? LMAO

You’re a pretty poor atheist 😉 This is what comes of being brought up in a Western Christian culture I suppose. Bin the plastic beads!

I didn't keep either of those.

We forgot to put my late mum's rosary beads in the coffin. She kept them in her beside table. The only ones in the house. So we binned them.

I think some people just default to 'the jujus of other people's belief systems must be respected because they were respected by them', and in this case it's the OP's recently-deceased father.

Ok that makes more sense but I would argue that burning them is far more disrespectful to his religion and him than simply donating them to someone who would appreciate them. Also, its surely not very good for the environment

I’d agree with this
Its what a lot of Catholic’s do
we have some on our parents graves

Why can't you put the photos in an album?

Charity shop for the beads.

Honestly, no one is going to want them unless the dead person was valued by them, and they keep them as a memento the way they would keep any other belonging. My parents, both devout Catholics, must have a dozen or more rosaries around the house, hung on the edge of mirrors, at the bottoms of drawers, in purses etc etc. I've been very clear with them that their collection of battered religious statues will all be broken up with a sledgehammer -- far too battered to donate, as I think it's highly unlikely someone wants a statue of the Sacred Heart with both hands and head broken off and reglued slightly crooked.

Well yes, I agree, far simpler to throw them out but OP seems scared to do so hence my wondering why if she is such a staunch atheist!

Rosary beads are a really common, mass-produced item that you can buy in bulk. They're just an aid to help people count the rosary prayers. They're not in themselves a sacred object or a holy relic or anything. You can take them to a charity shop or put them in the bin. It's fine.

I'm not bothered about being turned in to a pillar of salt or have thunderbolts attack me.

Why do I not just bin them? Well why did I attend a requiem mass last week? Because that is what, 'Dad would have wanted' and also because he had a lot of friends who would want a mass.

One of dad's friends gave me a mass card, it means nothing to me but it does to her and so I thanked her and took the card.

I can't put them on the grave as he was cremated, he did want his ashes and my mother's ashes to be buried so that's an idea, maybe bury them with him.

@placemats I glad you got some comfort from them.

Because yo u can still show respect towards someone else's beliefs. If my parent was Catholic and used rosary beads as a comfort to them, I too would feel odd chucking it in the bin, similarly if they'd had a stuffed toy all their life I couldn't bin it