Free, Printable Coloring Pages
Halloween Graveyard Coloring Pages
Graveyards are peaceful places in the daytime, full of old carved stones and flowers left by people who miss someone. Add a full moon and a few bare trees, though, and they become the setting for half the spooky stories ever told.
Jump to: Graveyard or Cemetery? | Garden Cemeteries | Graveyard Tales
Graveyard or Cemetery?
A graveyard and a cemetery aren't quite the same thing. A graveyard is the burial ground right beside a church, which is why it's also called a churchyard. When towns grew too crowded for their little churchyards, they built bigger burial grounds out past the edge of town, and those got the fancier name.
Victorian Garden Cemeteries
The word cemetery comes from an old Greek word meaning "sleeping place." The Victorians took that idea to heart and planted their new cemeteries like gardens, with winding paths, shady trees and roses climbing over the stones. They were so pretty that families packed picnics and spent Sunday afternoons strolling through them, back when most towns didn't have a public park.
Graveyard Tales
Crows
Crows hold something a lot like a funeral. When one crow finds another that has died, it calls out and dozens more gather around, cawing and watching. Scientists think they aren't mourning so much as working out what danger caused it...
Día de los Muertos
In Mexico, lots of families spend Día de los Muertos night right in the cemetery. They scrub the headstones, cover the graves in marigolds and candles, and bring along the favourite foods of the people they're remembering...
Día de los Muertos coloring pages
Famous Ghost Stories
One of the best-loved campfire tales starts with a man creeping into a graveyard with a shovel on a stormy night. He's after something buried there, and it turns out the owner wants it back...
The Headless Horseman
The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow never strays far from home. Folks said his body rested in the churchyard by day, and every night he rode out looking for his lost head, always racing back before the sun came up...
Legend of Sleepy Hollow coloring pages
Skulls and Skeletons
Wander through an old New England graveyard and you'll find skulls with wings carved on hundreds of headstones. They weren't meant to frighten anyone, though. The wings showed the soul flying away...
Skulls and Skeletons coloring pages
Zombies
Movie zombies love climbing out of graves...