The "A Bit More About Burials" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a letter that was recently sent to Jack Brubaker, "The Scribbler" at my local newspaper, that asked him about the differences between a cemetery, a graveyard, and a churchyard.  Recently, "The Scribbler" wrote a story about the Schreiner-Concord Cemetery where Lancaster's Thaddeus Stevens is buried.  He called it both a cemetery and a graveyard in the same response and after receiving the latest question from a reader, thought it best if he searches Snopes.com to make sure he had not erred.  If you have never heard of Snopes.com, it is a most trusted website that determines whether practically anything is true or false, right or wrong, correct or incorrect.  If you are unsure of something, Snopes.com can be your guide as to what is right or wrong, in just about everything imaginable.  Snopes replied with..."Regardless of etymology or the history of burial grounds, ultimately everyone dies!  Wow...Snopes actually responded with a bit of graveyard humor which I guess means they are not sure if a graveyard is a churchyard is a cemetery or vice-versa or versa-vice.  Since "The Scribbler" didn't get the answer he wanted, he went next to what most of us would have used...Merriam-Webster's Dictionary which defined a "graveyard" and a "cemetery' as essentially synonymous.  They also defined a "cemetery" as a "burial ground."  Seems that "churchyards" are more specialized.  Their name clearly suggests that they are associated with churches.  Snopes.com says all burial grounds through the late 19th century were churchyards, that is the yard of a church and controlled by the church.  Cemeteries would be separate from a church.  Today there is essentially no difference between a graveyard and a cemetery according to Snopes.com.  But then, the Scribbler added his final note by typing...Now you know that if you are "whistling past the graveyard" on Halloween, you might also be whistling past the cemetery or burial ground or bone orchard or any other of the synonyms we use for the place we all are reluctantly approaching.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.