Easter Egg hunt at cemetery scrapped over claims it’s disrespectful to the dead
An easter egg hunt set to be held at a cemetery in Wrexham has been cancelled after it was said to be ‘disrespectful’ to the dead.
The Friends of Wrexham Cemetery organised the chocolate egg hunt as part of their Easter celebrations, and invited children to ‘hop on over for egg-citing fun’ on April 3.
But the event soon caught the ire of locals who were furious over the prospect of their relatives’ graves being disturbed, leading to the whole event getting called off at the last minute.
Sophie Lloyd said: ‘How absolutely tasteless! My best friend has her great-grandad buried there – how would you feel if it was your relative and someone was invited to hop over their last resting place to beat other people to an Easter egg?’
The cemetery acts as the main burial site for Wrexham, and has buried around 100 people a year since it opened in 1876.
It includes memorials dedicated to servicemen from the World Wars, along with a Polish servicemen memorial.
One person said ‘It’s not a playground, nor was it ever acceptable to think that this event should happen.’
On their Facebook page, the Friends group said they thought the event would be a good idea to get young people ‘interested in local genealogy’.
They insisted local children would stick to the paths and would not be ‘climbing on graves’.
But people pointed out a poster advertising the event invited entrants to ‘hop on over’ and claimed it expected children to ‘1hop over a grave’.
As the row continued to escalate, one supporter of the event said: ‘Those saying it is disrespectful and that graveyards shouldn’t be played on forget that Ruthin road cemetery is now a playground part of Victoria Junior School.
‘The section that will be used is occupied by the dead from a century ago and will not affect any recent interments.
‘Children will undoubtedly be on the paths not climbing on graves.
‘I am at a loss as to why anyone would be angered by children enjoying an outdoor space – it should be encouraged.’
Following the backlash, the Friends group said: ‘We as friends of Wrexham Cemetery have had to make an emergency decision to cancel our event to safeguard the young people that we’re going to participate in the garden and paths of our outdoor museum.’
The cemetery was laid out to serve as Wrexham’s unofficial first park.
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