find her there, dogwood braided into her hair.
i enjoy the idea of abaddon visiting the graveyard in which the minister (priest) lies.
historical facts that tie into this piece below the cut.
puritanical christians — a form of protestant — were very strict in their worship. they did not wear crosses or cruxifixes like catholics or other branches of christianity did, viewing it as impure, vain, and a form of idolatry that went against the second commandment, which forbid physical images of God or those in Creation from being worshipped. in turn, they did not utilise these symbols on their graves, instead using a symbol called a death's head.
the death's head is depicted as a skull with wings, as seen on hezekiah's grave. this represented mortality, as puritanical christians believed heavily in momento mori — or "remember death". many such symbols on puritanical graves resembled a similar meaning. the candle on constance's (headcanon name for the vessel, based upon puritanical nomenclature which derived from biblical names and virtues) headstone being another form, representing life. in many depictions with a candle, a skeleton or cherub would snuff the candle out. as the vessel — constance — never died, but was taken over and later bound to abaddon, i adjusted the wording to be that of "here lyes y soul of" rather than "here lyes y body of". because he never properly died either, his candle will not be depicted as being snuffed.
puritans did not call their priests, well, priests. rather, they were called ministers or elders. this is why hezekiah has "minister" on his grave, rather than father, reverend, priest, et cetera.
when looking up historical puritanical graves, many had epitaphs that were similar to "remember to die" or "momento mori" or the standard "thou art with thy lord". hezekiah has two lines of epitaphs; one states "in inceptum finis est" which means "in the begining is the end" which i believed fitting for how he died, and the other is "remember to die." we obviously know the land where abadon resides is an incredibly weak point in the veil, and i do imagine hezekiah still resides (likely where abaddon picked up bugs eat your bones from.) constance notably does not have an epitaph.
puritans, like many others, viewed 666 as the number of the beast per the book of revealations. they viewed anything antichristian, including the pope as they were heavily against roman catholicism, as aligning with the antichrist. it represented the ultimate failure, being imperfect and evil, and meant they had to worship harder to prove their worship was not false in the eyes of God. abaddon coming in 1666, a number of the devil, likely only solidified the beliefs. especially given hezekiah and constance had then deceased.
puritans did not celebrate christmas. in fact, many new england colonies had even banned the celebration of it between 1659 and 1681. even after the ban had lifted, many continued to not celebrate, believing it to be unscriptual, rooted in paganism, and portrayed Christ as a sort of glutton or even a devil. this plays into the previous point of the year being 1666, another marking of the devil.
