| Summary: | An interesting change began to shape the burial customs in Iceland around 1880. Until then, all Icelanders had been buried in common parish cemeteries as elsewhere in Christian territories. Increasing number of farmers began to ask for permission from the authorities to bury their closest relatives on their own farms, and to be allowed to be buried there themselves. Because of how common this became, and how different it was from the way things had been done within the Christian tradition, it presents an interesting religious, cultural, and sociohistorical phenomenon.In this article, this innovation is scrutinized, and various aspects related to the aesthetics of private graveyards explored, e.g. how their founders chose to place the graveyards at their farms and how the graveyards were fenced. The impact of the private graveyards on the funeral ceremony is also described. The research is largely based on previously unexplored data, as well as unpublished official documents about the private graveyards in the former Múli-deanery, in the Eastern part of Iceland, from 2002.The private graveyards gradually changed the funeral practice in Iceland. Instead of a traditional ceremony at the parish church, many chose a simpler service at the farm. However, these two variations of funeral-rites were not considered as two different types of funerals with distinct religious connotations.Given the frequency of home burials, it is obvious that the practice continued even after public authorities no longer gave permissions for new private graveyards. On the contrary, the fact is that burials in older private graveyards have continued, and are likely to continue in the years to come. Á síðasta fjórðungi nítjándu aldar ruddi athyglisverð nýjung sér til rúms í greftrunarsið Íslendinga. Í stað þess að látnir væru grafnir í sameiginlegum sóknarkirkjugörðum, eins og aldalöng hefð var fyrir hér á landi og annars staðar í hinum kristna heimi, sóttust nú stöðugt fleiri bændur eftir því að fá heimild yfirvalda fyrir því að þeir og ...
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