New Orleans Part 9.

 Today is Oct 2, and another sunny day (read: humid) Before we got here, the forecast was for rain almost every day, yet we never did see a single drop. A few of the days days seemed to have rain clouds coming in in the afternoon, and when I said to a woman “Looks like rain this afternoon?”, she just laughed and said “Honey, we call them “fool’s clouds”. It hasn’t rained here in weeks and it ain’t gonna today either.” And she was right.

New Orleans has a lot of interesting above ground cemeteries and I had been trying to figure out which ones to see. Some are sort of a longer way away and would require a streetcar/bus/or taxi, which honestly seemed like an effort that I just didn’t feel like doing. I really wanted to go to St Louis #1, but it was apparently closed to the public. Some others were in dicey areas and were really not advisable to go to. Then I found out that you can book tours through the Catholic Church to go to St Louis #1, so I did that this morning, via the poor wifi in our hotel room.

We knew where it was since I had seen the walls of it when we were waiting for our swamp tour bus yesterday, so hooray, an easy walk! We weren’t too concerned about getting there early since the ticket office is also a tourist information spot, with a tiny museum, washrooms, gift shop and cafe. A much nicer place to wait than hanging out on a street corner while waiting for a swamp tour bus (they really need to address that)

We were about an hour early for our tour (honestly, I need to learn to time things better, although better early than late I suppose) however, when I was checking in, the girl said there was an opening “right now” if we wanted. Bonus! 

Our guide met us right away and we crossed the street and went into one of the most beautiful cemeteries I’ve seen, right up there with Pere Lachaise in Paris. I love a good cemetery.

As you may or may not know, New Orleans has a high water table and is built mostly on reclaimed swampland and most of it is below sea level, so burying coffins 6 feet deep was not an option (especially during floods, when gruesome things happened as coffins and bodies ended up floating around!) thus the beautiful vaults and mausoleums.

I didn’t know this though. Some of these vaults, which are not particularly huge, say for example this one:

Can have as many as 100 or more “people” inside! What? How? It’s interesting. To put it bluntly, it works like this: The vaults have 2 or 3 shelves inside. Grandma dies; has her service with a coffin, but then is removed from the coffin and is wrapped in a shroud for the actual burial. She is placed on the top shelf and the vault is sealed. The heat (which gets as high as 200F) almost acts like an oven, and Grandma is pretty much mummified and turns very brittle over the course of time. Maybe Grandpa dies a year or so later, and the same process is repeated but Grandma gets moved down a shelf, and Grandpa is put up top. By the time there is another death, hopefully not too often, grandma, and maybe grandpa too, are pretty much dust. When the tomb is opened again, they are put in bags or urns or maybe nothing at all, and are “shoveled” towards the back, maybe in a hole that was previously dug when the tomb was built. So eventually the whole family is together. Literally, mixed together. I rather like that idea. I thought it was fascinating. 

Here are some tombs that have who knows how many people inside.

Also in this cemetery is the future home of Nicolas Cage, yes, “that” Nicolas Cage. He spent a small fortune to have this built as his (eventual) eternal home. Why? No one really knows. Some speculate it’s an homage to the “National Treasure” movie franchise. Others think the pyramid is evidence of his ties to the probably-fictitious secret Illuminati society. Because of antique portraits bearing an uncanny resemblance to Cage that have shown up online, the more paranormally-minded suggest that the pyramid is where Cage will regenerate his immortal self. Other simply think he has money hidden inside since the government can’t make you forfeit a tomb, and after all, he did claim bankruptcy. In any case, locals were furious. (You also see red lipstick kisses all over it from adoring fans who sneak away from the tour guide. Sheesh)

The other really interesting tomb was that of Marie Laveau. Let’s talk voodoo! Voodoo is a religion that is still practiced in New Orleans (as well as many other places too) The core belief of New Orleans voodoo is that one God does not interfere in daily lives, but rather that spirits do. Connection to these spirits is obtained through various rituals, such as dance, music, chanting and snakes. Nothing horrible at all. Much of what we hear about voodoo is myth and misinformation and balderdash invented by and for tourists.

They believe that the dead can walk again and that if you drink the blood and eat the body, you can live forever. 

Oh. Wait. That’s Christianity. Do you see? The description is accurate, but misleading and missing important context. It’s made Christian beliefs seem sensational and it’s become insulting. Voodoo practitioners face that every day. It’s a religion like any other, and it might seem outlandish to a non-believer, but don’t most religions seem strange to someone who doesn’t practice them? 

Anyhow, Marie Laveau was the undisputed Voodoo queen. Born in 1801, the stories about her are legion. She could cast spells, she could grant wishes, she did not age, she knew things that she could not possibly know. True? Maybe, maybe not. She was a hairdresser and most of her clients were white women who gossiped with each other, paying no attention to the creole woman doing their hair; Marie no doubt picked up all sorts of information that she used to blackmail people. She did in fact have 12 daughters (yes 12!) and named them all Marie, and they looked amazingly like their mother….thus the “she did not age”. 

Or, maybe she really did have powers. They say that if you mark three “X’s” on her tomb, she will grant your wish from beyond, but not without a price. Or, some say that that if you put one “X” on her tomb, and turnaround and ask for a wish, it will be granted, but then you must return and put two more “X’s” beside your first one. You’d better not hope your first was not erased!

That’s one of the reasons that cemetery Louis #1 was closed to the public, the desecration of her tomb. And here it is today, pretty plain, but believers are still finding a way inside and asking her to grant a wish. 

Myself, I don’t believe in an afterlife or spirits, or god for that matter, at least not until I experience something myself. Second hand stories don’t count. It’s not that I think anyone is lying, but I believe that a lot of what people experience is desperation, wishful thinking, hallucinations or just dreams. I believe that everything has a rational explanation,  be it through science or nature.

I’m not saying those things aren’t true, I’m just saying they are not my beliefs.  

Anyhow, the tour was fantastic and well worth the $25 each. Also, it was scorching hot, but throughout the graveyard they had three misting stations set up, which was glorious. My trip would not have been complete with a wander through the cemetery and I was thrilled that it was St Louis #1. Which, by the way, was opened in 1789 and has over 700 mausoleums and anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 bodies (or what’s left of bodies)