On designated spring and summer weekends across the upland South, families gather in rural cemeteries to clean and decorate the graves of their deceased family members. This annual ritual of remembrance, called Decoration Day, often includes hymn singing and a communal meal known as “dinner on the ground.” Although Decoration Day is a widespread tradition of great importance to many Southerners, it has received very little scholarly notice until now.

With the publication of Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians, Alan and Karen Jabbour have produced the first book-length exploration of the topic and provided a much-needed contribution to American folklore studies. While the book was jointly researched and authored, folklorist Alan Jabbour, former director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, was the primary writer. His wife, photographer Karen Singer Jabbour, was responsible for the more than 120 photographs in this lavishly illustrated volume. The photographs add greatly to the book and are carefully tied to the text. The inclusion of a generous number of color photos conveys the splendor of a fully decorated cemetery in a way that text and black-and-white photography cannot portray.

The book examines the cultural meanings of Decoration Day as it is practiced from North Carolina to the Ozarks. Due to the project’s origins, the Jabbours focused most of their documentation on several counties in western North Carolina. Their research began in 2004 as part of an Environmental Impact Study for a proposed road through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that was to provide access to twenty-seven cemeteries made inaccessible to families due to the creation of Fontana Lake in the 1940s. The six-week documentation project captured the interest of the Jabbours who, on their own, continued the research that eventually led to the creation of an exhibition and this book.

The story begins with a description of the Jabbours’ first experience of a decoration day, involving a boat ride, provided by the National Park Service, to transport family members with flowers across Fontana Lake in order to decorate several of the isolated North Shore cemeteries. In this way, the authors invite the readers to accompany them as they observe and document the traditions and learn from the participants. This style of presentation makes the book especially useful for classes in ethnography and fieldwork methodology.

In subsequent chapters, the Jabbours examine cemeteries as cultural landscapes and describe the individuals involved in the collective process of maintaining and decorating the cemeteries as “curators” of those landscapes. Even though many of the cemeteries are not connected to churches, the authors recognize and are able to convey the sense that these are considered sacred spaces by communities, giving the decoration ritual not only a social but also a religious dimension.

The book also provides a broad history of the region and its diversity of cultural groups, namely Cherokees, Euro-Americans, and African Americans, as well as a more specific history of Lake Fontana and the formation of the North Shore Cemetery Association. The Jabbours identify a number of “historical traumas” resulting from government actions, including the Cherokee Removal, the Civil War, the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the building of Fontana Dam. They examine how all these events caused displacement or upheaval in the population. In that context, the Jabbours reveal how Decoration Day played an important role in the mitigation of public policy regarding the use of federal land. The examination of the grassroots movement leading to the establishment of the North Shore Cemetery Association, of the accommodations by park employees, and of the rapid revival of Decoration Day in the once inaccessible cemeteries demonstrates the unifying power of a threatened cultural tradition.

Beyond the regional focus, the Jabbours explore the origins, history, and diffusion of the broader Decoration Day tradition, distinguishing it from other celebrations, such as church homecomings, family reunions, and religious observances such as All Saints’ Day. While they contrast the community-based Decoration Day tradition with national and state holidays honoring military dead, such as Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day, the Jabbours investigate a possible connection. Citing two documented observances honoring fallen Union soldiers in Charleston, South Carolina, and Confederate soldiers in Petersburg, Virginia, and making a case for the existence of a folk custom of graveyard decoration days pre-dating the Civil War, the Jabbours argue that the creation of a national Memorial Day drew on an existing Southern traditional practice. They acknowledge more research and evidence is needed and invite more scholarly attention to this topic.

Throughout the book, attention is given to the decorated cemetery as an example of artistic expression and community aesthetic. But the Jabbours did not neglect other artistic associations. They devote a chapter to Decoration Day as it is portrayed in art and popular culture, particularly in literature and song. Musical examples range from “Bouquet in Heaven” by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, “Decoration Day Blues” by Teddy Darby, Curtis Jones, Sonny Boy Williamson and others, and “Decoration Day” by the Southern rock band The Drive-By Truckers.

The only notable absence in the book is the use of historical photos. The Jabbours discuss how decoration practices and the maintenance of cemeteries do evolve over time, as in cases where communities abandon the tradition of clearing vegetation and mounding graves, finding it more practical to keep the land flat and sown in grass. Some photographic evidence of this is included from within the five-year project period. However, it would have been interesting to compare Karen Jabbour’s documentation with archival photos or old family photos from participants.

The photography is also a major strength of the book, as is the thorough and original research in an under-documented subject. The Jabbours’ concluding thoughts describe the values the tradition represents in terms of the importance of bonds of kinship, acts of piety, egalitarianism, individual freedom, and the ideal of community—both the living and the dead.

This book will interest folklorists, historic preservationists, cultural resource management workers, cultural geographers, archaeologists, and cemetery scholars. It also is an excellent resource for use in classroom instruction. Its accessible style and beautiful illustrations would also recommend it to a popular readership, especially anyone who has a family history of participation in Decoration Days.

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[Review length: 1042 words • Review posted on September 10, 2013]