SPRINGFIELD  – This time of year, cemeteries takes on a more ominous tone.  It is Halloween and, after all, cemeteries are where the dead people are.

At dusk, and certainly at night, many cemeteries do transform themselves into a place avoided by most people.

Springfield has its share of historic cemeteries, but perhaps none is as celebrated as Springfield Cemetery with its entrance on Male Street, near the intersection with Central Street.

First established in 1841, the cemetery looks like a park in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The founder of The Republican Samuel Bowles bought a home on Central Street with a view of the cemetery from his back yard.

In 1848, the relatively new cemetery became the new place of rest for the graves from the city’s earliest times. The graves from the Old Burying ground near the Connecticut River were moved there.

I enjoy going through cemeteries, as they are a place where history collides with spiritual imagery and where people have a final moment to try to define themselves for the future.

The Springfield cemetery is a favorite because of its variety of graves and the number of people of historical significance resting there.  While today grave markers have relatively little information, those of the colonial era give far more information.

Here is one of my favorite gravestones: “In memory of Mr. Jonathan Lyman born in Lebanon and educated at Yale College where five years he successfully and worthily discharged the duties of a tutor. Last winter he was an instructor in the Academy School in Hatfield and for twelve years past a preacher universally approved. Returning from Hatfield from a visit to his parents, he was taken ill in this town.”

A large mushroom blocked the rest of the inscription. The top of the stone is adorned for a carving of a smiling angel.

The daughter of William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, is buried in the cemetery as well. Mary (Pynchon) Holyoke was married to Elizur Holyoke and died in 1657.

Other people who figured prominently in the area’s history who were laid to rest there include Milton Bradley, the board game pioneer; Thornton W. Burgess, the children’s author and naturalist; and Horace Moses, who co-founded Junior Achievement, among others. There is the grave of a Titanic victim and one for a man who was in the British battle of the Crimean War the Charge of the Light Brigade.

I marvel at graves that have either apparent or hidden meaning. There is one with a stone cube adorning the top of gravestone. What does it mean?

The meaning is not exactly clear, either, of the lifestyle bronze stature of a woman going through a doorway with flowers in her hand at the grace of Winthrop and Elizabeth Bliss Fuller. It’s beautiful yet somewhat eerie.

On the other hand, the grave of Titus family is a stone house reflecting the fact that Alexander Titus was a successful real estate developer.

And the family plot for Thomas Allen is opulent with stairs into the area and a very large monument to the family.

There is both sadness and celebration, humility and ego on display.

This Halloween season take a stroll through an old graveyard. You may not see ghosts, but you will get messages from the past.