17/09/2026
⛪ There are two quiet rules in an Irish graveyard, and you will be watched on both of them.
The first is that you do not walk across a grave. You go round, even when round means the long way through wet grass in good shoes. Children were corrected on this sharply and without much explanation, and adults still do it without thinking. The second is that you leave by the gate you came in by. Going in one gate and out another was held to be asking for trouble, and in some places it was said plainly that you would be back before long. 🌿
The reasoning behind the second one has worn away, as these things do. The usual reading is that a graveyard is a place you should not pass through, only visit. Passing through makes it a road. Coming and going by the one gate keeps the visit closed, and closes it properly.
Neither rule costs you anything and both mark you out. Walk the path, keep off the plots, and come back out the way you went in. It is the same principle as the rest of Irish etiquette, which is that the form matters more than the belief. Plenty of people doing this would tell you they do not hold with any of it, and they will still go round. 🕊️
