Animal imagery, other than birds, is rare around these parts. While lambs appear on gravestones, many of them, due to the extreme weather conditions, the fact that they’re modeled in 3D, and the type of stone used, have been worn away with time.

Thankfully, a few have survived the elements and you can tell that they’re lambs, rather then just a piece of stone with its features worn away.

Why Do Lambs Appear on Gravestones?

For the most part, lambs were chosen to adorn the tops of children’s graves. Since the lamb represents purity and innocence, this makes plenty of sense. Plus, it brings up thoughts of shepherds leading sheep from one field to another. And who else follows adults around, learning about where to go? Children. The correlation between them and lambs is obvious when you think about it.

You can go one step further with this and bring in the religious depictions of sheep and shepherds in the bible. Some people even quote the bible verse, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:36, John 1:29) in order to explain the importance of the lamb on a tombstone.

Unlike other symbols found in cemeteries, lambs are the simplest to figure out. And since they appear mostly on the graves of children, if you see a lamb but can’t read the writing on the gravestone, you can pretty much assume that someone’s beloved child is buried below.

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Sources

• https://wyuka.com/2020/06/19/gravestone-symbolism-one/
• https://blog.billiongraves.com/understanding-cemetery-symbols-part-ii/
• https://oldcem.bc.ca/what-we-do/gp/gp_art/gp-arts/animal/

Additional Reading