A cemetery in North Carolina has canceled a Halloween-themed movie night after receiving criticism by families of loved buried there.
Lafayette Memorial Park in Fayetteville, N.C. planned a free, kid-friendly film night with snacks scheduled for Oct. 26, according to a Facebook event post. The post said that the movie night was being held in honor of the late grandparents of Heather Bosher, the owner of the park. Bosher wrote in the post that her grandparents enjoyed going to the movies.
The post asked people to vote on which movie should be shown for the event. The choices were: “The Addams Family,” “Beetlejuice,” “Coco,” “Halloween Town,” “Hotel Transylvania,” “Monsters Inc.,” “The Witches” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.”
But the idea did not sit well with some families of those buried in the cemetery.
Veteran Sam Simpson and his family told WTVD-TV that they didn’t like the thought of crowds of people sitting around, possibly mistreating gravestones or leaving trash.
Though Bosher told the TV station that she received positive feedback about the event, the cemetery decided to cancel it.
The cemetery posted a statement to Facebook saying, “ Our only wish was to provide a family friendly event in a way that was safe and free to the public much like our other events that bring joy and peace to those that are grieving. No disrespect was intended, only a alternative way to share a positive evening with our loved ones that are no longer here.”
Another cemetery in Worcester, Mass. had similar plans this summer to hold a movie series on the burial grounds, but those plans were canceled after cemetery trustees and lot-owners complained.
But one high-profile cemetery, the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles, often hosts movie nights or cultural events, according to Fox News.
