As the moon burns bright on All Hallow's Eve, maybe the spookiest place of all is a cemetery, but it wasn't always that way.
In the 19th century, there weren't many public parks. Folks who wanted to picnic outdoors didn't have many places to go. But there were some huge public tracts of peaceful lands — the cemeteries.
And these were put to good use.
Folks came together in cemeteries dressed in their church clothes, gathered around the stones of relatives (or strangers), lounged on the ground and broke out the sandwiches.
According to Atlas Obscura, cemeteries began to be established away from crowded churchyards into large rural tracts of land with trees and grass.
Unfortunately, the pleasant vistas were soon laden with trash, according to one Nebraska observer in 1900, who said the gatherings left grounds scattered with sardine cans, beer bottles and lunch boxes.
After 1900, cities began building public parks, which probably put an end to the practice. Today, city cemeteries have rules against picnicking.