Funeral Rites and Practices for Handling of the Dead

Every society has some form of funeral rights or practice for handling their dead. Some of these means can be bizzare, disturbing, or incredibly unique.

So what burial practices have been practiced and why?

What sort of purpose do the various Practices of handling the dead serve, outside of controlling potentially dangerous contaminates?

What are some of the more famous funeral practices?

What are some of the more common funeral myths?

edited 3rd Sep '11 2:18:43 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I remember hearing that one burial rite involved putting the dead body up on a platform to rot. Also, you couldn't say the name of the person who died for a certain amount of time.

That sounds like the Sky burial kind of thing.

This is going to annoy me until I point it out - funeral rites, not rights.

A fact I find interesting: Elephants have something like a funeral rite. If one of them dies, before they leave that place the whole herd gathers around the body and says goodbye to it before they move on. They've been known to return to the body every time they pass the place again, and pass the bones around for a while.

Face Palm. Your right Loni. It should have been Rite. I forgot about animals having some form of this.

Well, funeral rights were Serious Business as early as Ancient Greece, if I'm going to take their theatre plays as a proof. Right here and now, a cut of the funeral subsidy led some people to claim their right to a proper funeral is infringed.

edited 3rd Sep '11 4:41:34 PM by lordGacek

Heh nice one Lord Gacek. Speaking of the Greeks what sorts of forms of handling of the dead did they practice?

edited 3rd Sep '11 4:36:56 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Tuefel: that is not really sky burial, at least not as practiced by the Tibetans.

The "put the body on a platform, let it rot, gather the bones after x time has passed and have a taboo against mentioning the dead person by name" thing is more from the Pacific islands (Melanesia and Micronesia).

Sky burial implies deliberate dismemberment of the body, and actively feeding the pieces to carrion birds.

A variety of the latter is used by the Parsis (Zoroastrians) in their "towers of silence", although they are having problems due to the indian vulture being on the verge of extinction.

Regarding the Greek, they cremated their dead.

edited 3rd Sep '11 4:40:38 PM by JoseB

I know only the coin-in-the-mouth thing, to pay off Charon the Styx ferryman.

You know, it seems to me now, I'd like to know if anyone did a comparison of cultures through their funeral rites. You know — earth burial versus the pyre, and what it speaks of the culture.

edited 3rd Sep '11 4:40:47 PM by lordGacek

As i mentioned earlier, Gacek, the Greek cremated their dead. And it was enormously important for them not to abandon their dead (for instance, after a battle). There were even truces made explicitly for both sides to gather their dead and take them for honourable cremation.

How important was this for the Greek? Well, towards the end of the Peloponnesian wars, Athens prosecuted several of its admirals and sentenced them to death because, after a battle, they didn't do everything in their hand to gather the Athenian dead. Of course, the charges were just an excuse to justify a political prosecution, but *still*...

Ahh if there is that much of a difference between exposure for decaying remains vs sky burial quite a bit of a difference.

How accurate is the coins on the eye or coin in the mouth to pay the ferry man?

edited 3rd Sep '11 6:09:46 PM by TuefelHundenIV

jewish burials are interesting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bereavement_in_Judaism

To work with the modern side of things a little bit, the military has plenty of elaborate funeral rights. Honor Guard details for burial, gun salutes, flag draped caskets accompanied by honor guard all the way back home, and hanging up a dead troops rifle, helmet, dog tags, and boots in the area they recently died in.

We take our dead very seriously. We'll risk the lives of our own men to get back a body in enemy territory, and amongst the troops, we would willingly torch a whole village if they dragged our dead around and disfigured them and made a mockery of them.(most regular troops would, it wouldn't happen because the officers wouldn't condone it, but the desire is there.)

Well, the way I'd like to go is basically this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_funeral

Note that if possible, I'd prefer the use of the 1962 missal, mainly to emphasize that I am not to be eulogized at the Funeral Mass or at the graveside ceremony, but at the wake. Also, because Dies Irae is an awesome hymn.

edited 4th Sep '11 11:53:14 AM by Cojuanco

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-unusual-death-rituals.php

http://myfunkyfuneral.com/triviaplaces.php

i think the most interesting is China,