Flaming Hearts, Weeping Angels

In Flaming Hearts, Weeping Angels: Secrets & Symbolism in New Orleans Cemeteries, writer and photographer Sally Asher masterfully assembles everything there is to know about the city’s famous aboveground cemeteries—and the forgotten burial grounds that lie below New Orleans’s hotels, restaurants, sidewalks, and gas stations.Unique in their architecture and funerary traditions, the “Cities of the Dead,” as they are informally known, have weathered all manner of foes, including hurricanes, pandemics, and thievery, over the last three centuries. Plunging into the past, Asher decodes the cemeteries’ secrets and symbols—even setting the record straight in some cases—in an artfully comprehensible history that takes readers through their architectural elements, burial trends and traditions, current restoration efforts, and more. This gripping history is accompanied by interviews with present-day New Orleans gravediggers, embalmers, funeral directors, archeologists, and tomb builders. Including over three hundred photographs, Flaming Hearts, Weeping Angels: Secrets & Symbolism in New Orleans Cemeteries is a vivid exploration of New Orleans’s necropolises. To be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike, this book is perfect for anyone hoping to uncover the mysteries of these hallowed grounds.Flaming Hearts, Weeping Angels offers an immersive journey into the evolving landscape of these sacred spaces, where tradition meets the modern pressures of preservation and climate. The book is divided into three sections: “Grave Facts” (covering topics such as tomb terminology, how to bury a body, and the proper way to restore a tomb); “Cemetery Sagas” (covering the history of yellow fever, All Saints’ Day, cremation, pet cemeteries, and more); and “Exquisite Emblems” (covering symbols and styles of funerary architecture).With a foreword by Michael Duplantier, Flaming Hearts, Weeping Angels serves as a guide to the worlds below and above New Orleans’s Cities of the Dead.