Perhaps the most valuable landmark of its kind in Louisiana is the Berthoud, or Fleming, Cemetery located on a large Indian mound on the bank of Bayou Barataria in the community of Barataria. It is an archaeological, historic, and scenic site of multiple educational, scientific, and recreational value. Tombs and graves are located on the sides and around the base of a large Indian mound approximately 12 feet high and 50 feet in diameter. A gigantic moss hung oak tree grows from the side of the grassy mound. The cemetery was named after the Berthoud brothers, one of whom was a nineteenth century owner of the Mavis Grove Plantation, within which the mound was located and for which it probably served as a plantation burial ground. The brothers are buried at the top of the mound. An iron fence enclosed their graver markers which read: "William Bakewell Berthoud, born October 17, 1820, died 1888; James Berthoud, born December 18, 1818, died December 13, 1890." They were the sons of Nicholas Berthoud and Eliza Bakewell, sister of Lucy Bakewell Audubon, wife of John James Audubon, the naturalist-artist. At some time after the death of the Berthouds, the Indian mound began to be used as a cemetery for the Barataria community. Until recent years some funeral processions made their way to the cemetery in boats on the bayou, the coffin, pallbearers, family, and priest in the first boat, followed by other boats containing relatives and friends. While the tombs in the Berthoud Cemetery are not of unusual architectural note, many graves are marked with quaint, traditionally local, memorials. Of particular interest are the homemade, glass-fronted, wooden boxes containing artificial wreaths and flowers, crucifixes, statues and pictures of saints, and mementos of the dead. While personal offerings for the dead are seldom seen in the boxes today, they originally served also as receptacles for trinkets beloved by the dead, children's toys, ornaments such as animal figurines, and jars, bottles and dishes of food or medicine. Some of the crosses and headstones are marble commercial products, but others are homemade varieties of wood or iron, with hand-painted inscriptions; they are interesting examples of folk art. Ground plots are heaped with white clam shells take from the Indian middens along the bank of the bayou. Several are covered with containers for a regional commodity: oil drums, cut in half lengthwise and whitewashed. Nearly every tomb, cross, and glass-fronted box is whitewashed yearly in preparation for All Saints' Day on November first. In the days preceding the holiday, bayou families gather to paint the tombs, clear the plots of weeds and decorate them with flowers. By November first, the mound is an enchanting and brilliant floral display, the white tombs gleaming beneath prismatic arrays of both artificial and living flowers. Similar treatment is given to the Lafitte Cemetery, the St. Anthony Cemetery, located in Barataria on the west side of Bayou Barataria near the bridge and numerous other small cemeteries that line the bayou. On All Saints' Day, a priest visits each burial ground and blesses the graves. On the vigil of All Souls' Day, candlelight ceremonies are held at the cemeteries. Following an old custom, family groups arrive after dark to illuminate the tombs and graves with numerous candles, pay respects to their ancestors and deceased loved-ones and pray while keeping vigil over the candles that bayou breezes extinguish now and then. During the evening, some families "make the rounds" to a number of cemeteries in Lafitte and Barataria to visit the resting places of their relatives. The Berthoud Cemetery is the loveliest on All Saints' Night. As darkness falls it becomes a mound of flickering lights dimly illuminating multicolored flower arrangements and swaying streamers of Spanish moss. (Source: sdragons)