Gravedigger

A gravedigger is a cemetery worker responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service.

Description

If the grave is in a cemetery on the property of a church or other religious organization (part of, or called, a churchyard), gravediggers may be members of the decedent's family or volunteer parishioners. Digging graves has also been one of the traditional duties of a church's sexton. In municipal and privately owned cemeteries, gravediggers may be low-paid, unskilled, and temporary laborers, or they may be well-paid, trained, and professional careerists, as their duties may include landscaping tasks and courteous interactions with mourners and other visitors. In some countries, gravedigging may be done by landscaping workers for the local council or local authority.

A gravedigger implements a variety of tools to accomplish his primary task. A template, in the form of a wooden frame built to prescribed specifications, is often placed on the ground over the intended grave. The gravedigger may use a sod-cutter or spade to cut the outline of the grave and remove the top layer of sod. Digging the grave by hand usually requires shovels, picks, mattocks, and/or other tools. Cemeteries in industrialized countries may keep a backhoe loader and other heavy equipment, which greatly increases the efficiency of gravedigging.

Gravedigger (disambiguation)

A gravedigger is a person who digs graves.

"Gravedigger", "Gravediggers" or "grave digger" may also refer to:

Characters

Music

Other

Gravedigger (song)

"Gravedigger" is a song by Dave Matthews from his debut solo album, Some Devil. This was the first solo single released by Matthews away from the Dave Matthews Band, and it won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 46th Grammy Awards held on February 8, 2004. The song has been performed live by Dave Matthews (solo), by Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, at Dave Matthews & Friends concerts, and occasionally as an acoustic solo by Matthews during Dave Matthews Band shows. During the Dave Matthews Band's tours in 2008 and 2009, it was played regularly by the full band.

Matthews said about the song:

There was also an acoustic version of the song on the album Some Devil. The song began as an intro played twice solo by Matthews at full-band DMB shows in the spring of 2002, before debuting as a full solo song in the same tour. In the original "Gravedigger Intro" version, only two people are mentioned: Merrill Lee (1905–1969) and Robert John Smith.

Music video