"Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep...": Symbols and Their Meaning on Children's Gravemakers

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J. Jospeh Edgette

Abstract

Now I lay me down to sleep; the bedtime prayer so familiar to many children dating back to the New England Primer of 1781 was a plea to the Almighty to protect the soul of the petitioner during the night. If for any reason death would come while the child was in that vulnerable state of sleep, the Lord was asked to take the soul, thus saving it from other alternatives. Even to this day as we approach a new millennium, this child's bedtime prayer is still invoked.

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