A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service. Gravediggers have historically often been members of the church, though in modern secular cemeteries, they may be temporary or full-time staff. In many cultures, gravediggers are stigmatized for their association with the dead, which many religions consider unclean. Gravediggers have often been depicted in media, particularly in gothic and crime novels.
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Evstafiev-bosnia-sarajevo-grave-digger-shovels.jpg
A grave digger at a cemetery in Sarajevo, 1992.
Gravedigger's template - geograph.org.uk - 1184113.jpg
Gravedigger's template. The coffin-shaped template was used before the mechanical digger took over t...
Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret - Hamlet and the Gravediggers.jpg
Vasnetsov Grave digger.JPG
Women at work during the First World War, Luton, Bedfordshire Q31234.jpg
Women at work during the First World War, Luton, Bedfordshire
Mrs Kitchener, a female gravedigger, s...