Postmortem Gentrification of Churchyards

[My Good Babushka]

A Christian burial is properly on the south side of the church oriented east to west. Stillborns, the excommunicated or suicides were buried on the north side of the church oriented north to south.

It later became fashionable to request burial on the north side of the church as it was less disturbed ground, and it was a grand gesture of one's penance and humility to request to be buried there.