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graveyard work shift usually starts 11:00 PM OR MIDNIGHT and ends after 8 - 9 hours. It is called graveyard because it is as dead as a graveyard during those hours. What I was told was that the origin of the 'graveyard shift' is not called 'graveyard' because it's so quiet. It was from around the 19th century when it was revealed that people were being buried alive. In response to this problem they would tie a string to the dead person's hand and the string would go up to the headstone where it was attached to a bell and a person was assigned to be on the cemetary grounds during the night after the burial to make sure that the bell did not ring. If the bell did ring then they would unbury the person. Another thought was that a person would be assigned to watch over the cemetary at night to deter grave robbers.

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13y ago

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