Tamagotchi graveyards and cemeteries emerged as an unusual cultural phenomenon in the 1990s when children, deeply attached to their digital pets, sought ways to commemorate them after their inevitable “deaths.” One well-known example was a section of a pet cemetery in Pontsmill, Cornwall, where Tamagotchis were interred alongside traditional pets. This cemetery, run by Terry Squires, attracted international interest, with mourners from as far away as Switzerland, Canada, and the U.S. sending their Tamagotchis for burial.
Beyond physical cemeteries, online memorial sites also became popular in the late 1990s. These websites allowed users to post eulogies, record causes of death, and share memories, with each memorial often reflecting the emotional attachment that young owners had to their Tamagotchis. Although many of these digital memorials have since disappeared, a few, like Tama Talk’s Memorial Page, still exist as reminders of a time when virtual pet loss became a significant early experience with concepts of care, grief, and loss.
These “graveyards” underscore the attachment many had to their Tamagotchis and mark one of the first instances where digital and real-world rituals merged to deal with virtual mortality. This is similar to what could be observed in the aibo funerals or generally in Animism.