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Main article: Death rites

1 Religious funerals
- 1.1 Jewish funerals
- 1.2 Buddhist funerals
- 1.iii Catholic xian funerals
- i.4 Hindu funerals
- 1.5 Islamic funerals
- 1.6 Sikh funerals
2 Funerals in Japan
iii Funerals in gimmicky N America
- 3.1 Traditional funerals
  - 3.1.1 Visitation
  - three.1.two Funeral
  - iii.one.three Burial service
  - three.1.4 Luncheon
  - 3.1.5 Etiquette
- 3.2 Private services
- 3.3 Memorial services
- 3.4 Other types of funerals
  - three.4.1 New Orleans Jazz Funeral
  - 3.four.2 "Greenish" funeral
  - 3.4.iii Net visitation/funeral
4 Funerals in Eastern asia
five African funerals
6 Aboriginal funeral rites
- vi.i Funerals in ancient Rome
- vi.2 Funerals in Scotland
7 Mutes and professional mourners
8 Funerals for heroes
9 Final disposition of the dead
10 Control by the decedent of the details of the funeral
xi Anatomical gifts
12 Encounter also
13 External links

A funeral is a ceremony marker a person'southward decease. Funerary customs contain the circuitous of beliefs and practices used by a culture to recall the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. These community vary widely between cultures, and between religious affiliations within cultures. In some cultures the expressionless are venerated; this is unremarkably called antecedent worship. The word funeral comes from the Latin funus, which had a diversity of meanings, including the corpse and the funerary rites themselves.

Funeral rites are as old as the man race itself, as well every bit other hominids.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} For case, in the Shanidar cave in Iraq, Neanderthal skeletons take been discovered with a characteristic layer of pollen, which suggests that Neanderthals buried the dead with gifts of flowers. This has been interpreted as suggesting that Neanderthals believed in an afterlife, and in whatsoever case were aware of their own mortality and were capable of mourning.

Religious funerals

Jewish funerals

Main commodity: Bereavement in Judaism

Buddhist funerals

Main commodity: Funeral (Buddhism)

Cosmic xian funerals

Primary article: Catholic Funeral

Hindu funerals

Main commodity: Antyesti

Islamic funerals

Main commodity: Islamic funeral

Sikh funerals

In Sikhism decease is considered a natural process. An event that has accented certainty and merely happens as a direct upshot of God's Volition or Hukam. To a Sikh, birth and death are closely associated, because they are both part of the cycle of human life of "coming and going" ( ਆਵਣੁ ਜਾਣਾ , Aana Jaana) which is seen as transient phase towards Liberation ( ਮੋਖੁ ਦੁਆਰੁ , Mokh Du-aar), complete unity with God. Sikhs thus believe in reincarnation.

Nevertheless, by contrast, the soul itself is not subject to the cycle of nascency and death.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} Expiry is only the progression of the soul on its journey from God, through the created universe and back to God again. In life, a Sikh always tries to constantly remember death so that he or she may exist sufficiently prayerful, discrete and righteous to break the bike of nascency and death and return to God.

The public display of grief at the funeral or Antam Sanskar equally it is chosen in the Sikh civilisation, such as wailing or crying out loud is discouraged and should be kept to a minimum. Cremation is the preferred method of disposal, although if this is not possible any other methods such as burial or submergence at ocean are acceptable. Worship of the dead with gravestones, etc. is discouraged, because the body is considered to be only the trounce and the person'south soul is their real essence.

On the day of the cremation, the body is taken to the Gurdwara or home where hymns (Shabads) from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Scriptures are recited past the congregation, which induce feeling of consolation and courage. Kirtan may also be performed by Ragis while the relatives of the deceased recite "Waheguru" sitting near the coffin. This service normally takes from 30 to 60 minutes. At the determination of the service, an Ardas is said before the coffin is taken to the cremation site.

At the betoken of cremation, a few more than Shabads may be sung and final speeches are made most the deceased person. So the Kirtan Sohila, nighttime time prayer is recited and finally Ardas called the "Antim Ardas" ("Last Prayer") is offered. The eldest son or a close relative by and large starts the cremation process – light the burn down or press the button for the called-for to brainstorm. This service commonly lasts almost xxx to 60 minutes.

The ashes are subsequently collected and disposed by immersing them in the nearest river. Sikhs do not cock monuments over the remains of the dead.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

After the cremation anniversary, in that location may be another service at the Gurdwara, the Sikh identify of worship, telephone call the Sahaj Paath Bhog Ceremony but this is optional.

Main commodity: Antam Sanskar

Funerals in Japan

Main article: Japanese funeral

Funerals in contemporary N America

Traditional funerals

File:Funeral.proper noun.tribute.arp.jpg

A floral proper noun tribute (spelling out the give-and-take "MUM") at a funeral in England.

Inside the United States and Canada, in nearly cultural groups and regions, the funeral rituals tin exist divided into iii parts: visitation, funeral, and the burial service.

Visitation

At the visitation (also called a "viewing" or "wake") the torso of the deceased person (or decedent) is placed on brandish in the coffin (also called a casket). The viewing often takes identify on one or two evenings before the funeral. The body is traditionally dressed in the decedent's best clothes, which may be slit up the back to facilitate dressing the torso. In recent times there has been more variation in what the decedent is dressed in. The body will also be adorned with the usual jewelry, including a watch. The jewelry and watch will remain in the casket after burial, but it might be removed before cremation. The body may or may not be embalmed, depending upon such factors every bit the amount of fourth dimension since the death has occurred, religious practices, or requirements of the place of burial.

The but prescribed aspects^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} of this gathering are that frequently the attendees sign a book kept by the deceased's survivors to tape who attended and that the attendees are expected to view the deceased'due south body in the coffin. In addition, a family may choose to brandish photographs taken of the deceased person during his/her life (often, formal portraits with other family members and candid pictures to bear witness "happy times"), prized possessions and other items representing his/her hobbies and/or accomplishments. A more contempo trend is to create a DVD with pictures and video of the deceased, accompanied past music, and play this DVD continuously during the visitation. Subsequently the services, the DVD is given to the family.

The viewing is either "open casket", in which the embalmed body of the deceased has been clothed and treated with cosmetics for display; or "closed casket", in which the coffin is closed. The coffin may be airtight if the torso was too badly damaged considering of an accident or burn, deformed from affliction or if someone in the grouping is emotionally unable to cope with viewing the corpse. During an open casket, if the deceased was of Roman Cosmic faith, a large rosary fabricated out of fresh flowers may be hung within of the coffin.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

However, this step is foreign to Judaism; Jewish funerals are held soon subsequently decease, and the corpse is never displayed. Also, Jewish police^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} forbids anyone to embalm the body of the deceased. Traditionally flowers (and music) are not sent to a grieving Jewish family as information technology is a reminder of the life that is now lost.(See as well Jewish bereavement.)

The decedent'south closest friends and relatives who are unable to attend frequently send flowers to the viewing, with the exception of a Jewish Funeral [1], where flowers would non exist appropriate (and donations are given to a charity instead). The viewing typically takes identify at a funeral home, which is equipped with gathering rooms where the viewing can be conducted, although the viewing may also take place at a church building. Information technology is also common exercise in some of united states in the southeastern United States that the torso is taken to the decedent's home or that of a relative for viewing. The viewing may cease with a prayer service; in the Catholic funeral, this may include a rosary.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

File:Stairway2heavensm.jpg

A visitation is often held the evening before the day of the funeral. However, when the deceased person is elderly the visitation may be held immediately preceding the funeral. This allows elderly friends of the deceased a take chances to view the body and nourish the funeral in one trip, since it may be difficult for them to accommodate travel.

A Traditional Fire Department funeral consists of two raised aerial ladders.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} The fire fighter(due south) travel under the aerials on their ride on the fire apparatus to the cemetery.

Funeral

A memorial service, often chosen a funeral and often officiated by clergy from the decedent's or bereaved'southward church or religion. A funeral may take place at either a funeral home or church building. A funeral is usually held iii to five days subsequently the death of the deceased. Some people consider it important ^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} to conduct the funeral exactly three days after the death.

The deceased is usually transported from the funeral home to a church in a hearse, a specialized vehicle designed to comport casketed remains. The deceased most ofttimes transported in a procession, with the hearse, funeral service vehicles, and private automobiles traveling in a procession to the church or other location where the services volition be held. In a number of jurisdictions, special laws cover funeral processions - such equally requiring other vehicles to give correct-of-way to a funeral procession. Funeral service vehicles may exist equipped with light confined and special flashers to increase their visibility on the roads. Subsequently the funeral service, if the deceased is to be buried the funeral procession will proceed to a cemetery if non already there. If the deceased is to be cremated the funeral procession may then proceed to the crematory.

Funeral services include prayers; readings from the Bible or other sacred texts; hymns (sung either by the attendees or a hired vocaliser); and words of condolement by the clergy. Frequently, a relative or close friend volition be asked to give a eulogy, which details happy memories and accomplishments; oft commenting on the deceased'southward flaws, especially at length, is considered impolite. Sometimes the delivering of the eulogy is done by the clergy. Clergy are ofttimes asked to deliver eulogies for people they have never met.

Tradition ^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} too allows the attendees of the memorial service to accept ane last opportunity to view the decedent's body and say good-good day; the firsthand family (siblings (and their spouses); followed past the decedent's spouse, parents and children) are always the very last to view their loved one before the coffin is closed. This opportunity can take place immediately before the service begins, or at the very end of the service.

During funerals, bagpipes are sometimes played. Curiously, at a police officeholder's or fireman'south funeral, the pipes are usually Great Highland Bagpipes, not the Uillean pipes ordinarily played past Irish musicians. In the United states, police officers and firefighters are often of Irish gaelic, but seldom of Scottish descent ^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}. This custom was quite obvious in the funerals of emergency workers killed in the September 11, 2001, Earth Trade Heart attacks.

During the funeral and at the burial service, the casket may be covered with a big system of flowers, called a casket spray. If the decedent served in a branch of the Military, the catafalque may be covered with a national flag; withal nothing should cover the national flag according to Title 4, Usa Code, Chapter 1, Paragraph 8i.

Funeral customs vary from country to country. In the United States, any blazon of dissonance other than quiet whispering or mourning is considered disrespectful.

Note: In some religious denominations, for example, Roman Catholic and Anglican, eulogies are prohibited or discouraged during this service, in club to preserve respect for traditions. Also, for these religions, the coffin is traditionally closed at the end of the wake and is non re-opened for the funeral service.

Burial service

File:Millais - Das Tal der Stille.jpg

John Everett Millais - The Vale of Residue

A burial service, conducted at the side of the grave, tomb, mausoleum or crematorium, at which the body of the decedent is buried or cremated at the conclusion.

Sometimes, the burial service volition immediately follow the funeral, in which case a funeral procession travels from the site of the memorial service to the burial site. Other times, the burying service takes identify at a subsequently time, when the final resting place is gear up.

If the decedent served in a branch of the Military, military rites are often accorded at the burial service.

In many religious traditions, pallbearers, unremarkably males who are close, simply not immediate relatives (such as cousins, nephews or grandchildren) or friends of the decedent, will carry the catafalque from the chapel (of a funeral dwelling house or church building) to the hearse, and from the hearse to the site of the burial service. The pallbearers oftentimes sit in a special reserved section during the memorial service.

According to most religions, coffins are kept closed during the burial ceremony. In Eastern Orthodox funerals, the coffins are reopened just before burial to allow loved ones to look at the deceased one final time and give their final farewells.

The morticians will typically ensure that all jewelry, including wristwatch, that were displayed at the wake are in the casket before it is buried or entombed. It would exist unseemly to take the decedent's heirs squabbling over a Rolex or an engagement ring. Custom requires that everything goes into the footing.

There is an exception, in the instance of cremation. Such items tend to cook or endure harm, so they are usually removed before the torso goes into the furnace. Pacemakers are removed prior to creamation - if they were left in they could possibly explode and impairment the crematorium.

Luncheon

In many traditions, a meal or other gathering frequently follows the burial service. This gathering may be held at the decedent'south church or another off-site location. Some funeral homes accept large spaces set aside to provide funeral dinners. ^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

For Irish descendants, An Irish Wake usually lasts 3 total days. On the day afterward the wake the funeral takes place. Family unit members and friends volition ensure that there is always someone awake with the body, traditionally saying prayers.

Etiquette

Generally speaking, the number of people who are considered obliged to attend each of these three rituals past etiquette decreases at each step:

Distant relatives and acquaintances may be called upon to attend the visitation.
The decedent's closer relatives and local friends attend the funeral or memorial service, and subsequent burial (if information technology is held immediately after the memorial service).
If the burial is on the day of the funeral, only the decedent's closest relatives and friends attend the burial service (although if the burial service immediately follows the funeral, all attendees of the memorial service are asked to attend).

Traditionally etiquette dictated^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} that the bereaved and other attendees at a funeral vesture semi-formal wearable—such as a suit and tie for men or a dress for women. The most traditional and respectful color is solid black (with a matching solid blackness necktie for men) preferably without any underlying pinstripes or patterns in the weave. Only failing that charcoal gray or dark navy blue may be worn. Wearing brusk skirts, low-cutting tops, t-shirts with advert slogans or suggestive images, or, at Western funerals, a large corporeality of white (other than a button-down shirt or blouse, or a military uniform) is often seen as disrespectful.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} Women who are grieving the death of their husband or a close partner sometimes wear a veil to conceal the confront, although the veil is non common now.

Individual services

On occasion, the family unit of the deceased may wish to have just a very small service, with just the decedent'due south closest family members and friends attending. This type of ceremony means it is closed to the public. I may only go to the funeral if he or she was invited. In this example, a private funeral service is conducted. Reasons vary but oftentimes include the post-obit:

The decedent was an infant (possibly, they may accept been stillborn) or very aged, and therefore has few surviving family members or friends.
The decedent may be a crime victim or a convicted criminal who was serving a prison sentence. In this case, the service is made private either to avoid unwanted media coverage (especially with a criminal offence victim); or to avert unwanted intrusion (especially if the decedent was bedevilled of murder or sexual attack).
The family unit does non feel able to endure a traditional service (due to emotional shock) or simply wants a quiet, unproblematic funeral with just the nigh important people of the decedent's life in attendance.
The family and/or the decedent, equally more frequently preplanned, adopt simplicity and lower cost to that of traditional arrangements. The choice of cremation every bit an pick to casketed burial is increasing and often includes disposition of the cremains at a time privately convenient to the descendent'due south family members.
The decedent is of a distinct glory condition, and holding public ceremony would event in too many guests who are not acquainted with the decedent to participate. On the other mitt, if a state funeral is offered and accustomed by the decedent'due south immediate family, a public funeral would ensue. A recent example of this is the death of glory Steve Irwin, in which his family was offered a state funeral but refused. They held a private anniversary for Irwin on nine September 2006.

In some cases (particularly the latter), the family unit may schedule a public memorial service at a later time.

Memorial services

The memorial service is a service given for the deceased without the body nowadays. This may accept place after an globe burial, donation of the torso to an establishment such as a school, cremation (sometimes the cremations are nowadays), entombment, or burial at sea. Typically these services take place at the funeral home and may include prayers, poems, or songs to recollect the deceased. Pictures of the deceased are usually placed at the altar where the body would normally be to pay respects by.

Other types of funerals

File:20000 graveyard.jpg

Underwater funeral in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

New Orleans Jazz Funeral

A unique funeral tradition in the United States occurs in New Orleans, Louisiana. The unique tradition arises from African spiritual practices, French martial musical traditions and uniquely African-American cultural influences. A typical jazz funeral begins with a march by the family unit, friends, and a jazz ring from the dwelling house, funeral home or church to the cemetery. Throughout the march, the band plays very somber dirges. In one case the last ceremony has taken place, the march proceeds from the cemetery to a gathering place, and the solemn music is replaced past loud, upbeat, raucous music and dancing where onlookers join in to celebrate the life of the deceased. This is the origin of the New Orleans dance known as the "second line" where celebrants practice a dance-march, oftentimes while raising the hats and umbrellas brought along as protection from intense New Orleans weather condition and waving handkerchiefs above the head that are no longer being used to wipe away tears.

"Green" funeral

Those with concerns near the effects on the surroundings of traditional burial or cremation may choose to exist buried in a manner more suited to their beliefs. They may choose to be buried in a coffin fabricated of cardboard or other easily-biodegradable materials. Further, they may choose their final resting identify to be in a park or woodland, known every bit an eco-cemetery, and may have a tree planted over their grave every bit a contribution to the surroundings and a remembrance.

Internet visitation/funeral

A Funeral Habitation in North Syracuse, New York was the beginning funeral home to offering and broadcast a visitation and funeral "live" on the Internet. A Funeral Director at the Dwelling house said "It'southward non new technology, merely a new application." The use of a web-camera allows relatives who could non otherwise attend services to do and then from any computer. Family members and friends separated by distance, weather or circumstance can now become part of the support network past being connected electronically to the ceremonies. ^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

Funerals in Due east Asia

In most Eastward Asian, South Asian and many Southeast Asian cultures, the wearing of white is symbolic of death. In these societies, white or off-white robes are traditionally worn to symbolize that someone has died and tin exist seen worn amid relatives of the deceased during a funeral ceremony. In Chinese culture, red is strictly forbidden as it is a traditionally symbolic color of happiness. Contemporary Western influence however has meant that night-colored or black attire is now oft also adequate for mourners to wear (particularly for those exterior the family). In such cases, mourners wearing dark colors at times may as well wear a white or off-white armband or white robe.

A traditional Chinese gift to the attendees upon entering is a white envelope, usually enclosing a small sum of coin (in odd numbers, unremarkably one dollar), a sweet and a handkerchief, each with symbolic pregnant. Chinese custom also dictates that the said sum of money should non be brought home. The sweet should be consumed the twenty-four hours of and anything given during the funeral must non be brought habitation. The repetition of 3 is common where people at the funeral may brush their hair three times or spit three times before leaving the funeral to ward off bad luck. This custom is likewise establish in other East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

Most Japanese funerals are conducted with Buddhist rites. Many characteristic a ritual that bestows a new proper noun on the deceased; funerary names typically utilise obsolete or archaic kanji and words, to avoid the likelihood of the proper noun existence used in ordinary speech or writing. The new names are typically chosen by a Buddhist priest, after consulting the family of the deceased. Near Japanese are cremated.

African funerals

The custom of burying the expressionless in the floor of home-houses has been to some degree prevalent on the Gold Coast of Africa. The ceremony is purely animist, and manifestly without whatsoever gear up ritual. The main exception is that the females of the family unit of the deceased and their friends may undergo mournful lamentations. In some instances they work their feelings upwardly to an ostentatious, frenzy-like caste of sorrow. The revelry may be heightened by the use of alcohol, of which drummers, flute-players, bards, and singing men may partake. The funeral may last for as much as a week. Another custom, a kind of memorial, oft takes place seven years later the person's death. These funerals and especially the memorials may be extremely expensive for the family in question. Cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry, may be offered in remembrance and and so consumed in festivities.

Some funerals in Ghana are held with the deceased put in elaborate "fantasy coffins" colored and shaped after a certain object, such equally a fish, crab, boat, and fifty-fifty an airplane.^[1]

Aboriginal funeral rites

The most uncomplicated and natural kind of funeral monuments, and therefore the most ancient and universal, consist in a mound of earth, or a heap of stones, raised over the body or ashes of the departed: of such monuments mention is fabricated in the Book of Joshua, and in Homer and Virgil.

The place of burial amongst the Jews was never specially determined. Ancient Jews had burial-places upon the highways, in gardens, and upon mountains. In the Hebrew Bible (known as the Christian Erstwhile Testament), Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife, in the cave in Machpelah, the field he bought from Ephron the Hittite; David, king of Israel, and the other kings after him (including Uzziah of Judah) "rested with [their] ancestors" in the burial field that pertained to the kings.

The archaic Greeks were cached in places prepared for that purpose in their own houses; only later they established burying grounds in desert islands, and outside the walls of towns, by that means securing them from disturbance, and themselves from the liability of communicable infection from those who had died of contagious disorders.

Funerals in ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, the eldest surviving male of the household, the pater familias , was summoned to the death-bed, where he attempted to take hold of and inhale the concluding breath of the decedent.

Funerals of the socially prominent were unremarkably undertaken by professional undertakers chosen libitinarii. No direct description has been passed down of Roman funeral rites. These rites ordinarily included a public procession to the tomb or pyre where the body was to be cremated. The most noteworthy thing about this procession was that the survivors bore masks bearing the images of the family's deceased ancestors. The right to carry the masks in public was eventually restricted to families prominent enough to have held curule magistracies. Mimes, dancers, and musicians hired by the undertakers, equally well as professional female mourners, took role in these processions. Less well to practise Romans could join benevolent funerary societies (collegia funeraticia) who undertook these rites on their behalf.

Nine days after the disposal of the body, by burial or cremation, a feast was given (cena novendialis) and a libation poured over the grave or the ashes. Since well-nigh Romans were cremated, the ashes were typically collected in an urn and placed in a niche in a collective tomb called a columbarium (literally, "dovecote"). During this nine day menstruation, the house was considered to exist tainted, funesta, and was hung with yew or cypress branches to warn by passers. At the end of the catamenia, the house was swept in an attempt to purge it of the dead person'southward ghost.

Several Roman holidays commemorated a family'south dead ancestors, including the Parentalia , held Feb 13 through 21, to award the family'due south ancestors; and the Lemuria , held on May 9, 11, and 13, in which ghosts (larvæ) were feared to be active, and the pater familias sought to appease them with offerings of beans.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

The Romans prohibited burning or burial in the city, both from a sacred and civil consideration, so that the priests might non be contaminated by touching a dead body, and and then that houses would not be endangered by funeral fires.

Restrictions on the length, ostentation, expense of and behaviour during funerals and mourning were gradually restricted by a diverseness of police force-givers. Often the pomp and length of rites could be politically or socially motivated to annunciate or aggrandise a particular kin grouping in Roman lodge. This was seen as deleterious to society and weather for grieving were gear up - for case, under some laws, women were prohibited from loud wailing or lacerating their faces and limits were introduced for expenditure on tombs and burial wearing apparel.

The Romans commonly built tombs for themselves during their lifetime. Hence these words frequently occur in ancient inscriptions, 5.F. Vivus Facit, V.Southward.P. Vivus Sibi Posuit. The tombs of the rich were usually constructed of marble, the ground enclosed with walls, and planted round with trees. Just common sepulchres were usually built below ground, and chosen hypogea. There were niches cut out of the walls, in which the urns were placed; these, from their resemblance to the niche of a pigeon-firm, were called columbaria.

Funerals in Scotland

An old funeral rite from the Scottish Highlands is to bury the deceased with a wooden plate resting on his breast. In the plate were placed a small corporeality of globe and table salt, to correspond the future of the deceased. The earth hinted that the body would decay and become one with the world, while the salt represented the soul, which does not decay. This rite was known equally "earth laid upon a corpse".^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

Mutes and professional mourners

From about 1600 to 1914, there were ii professions in Europe now almost totally forgotten. The mute is depicted in art quite frequently simply in literature is probably best known from Dickens' "Oliver Twist". Oliver is working for Sowerberry's when this chat takes identify: "There's an expression of melancholy in his confront, my dear ... which is very interesting. He would make a delightful mute, my dear". The master purpose of a funeral mute was to stand around at funerals with a distressing, pathetic confront. The professional mourner, mostly a woman, would shriek and wail (often while clawing her face up and tearing at her vesture), to encourage others to weep. These people are mentioned^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} in ancient Greek plays, and were employed throughout Europe, only the do largely died out in the nineteenth century. They go along to be in Africa and the Centre East.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

The 2003 award-winning Philippine comedy Crying Ladies revolves around the lives of three women who are role-time professional mourners for the Chinese-Filipino community in Manila's Chinatown. Co-ordinate to the film, the Chinese use professional mourners to help expedite the entry of a deceased loved one's soul into sky by giving the impression that he or she was a skillful and loving person, well-loved by many.

Funerals for heroes

Viking chieftains were placed in ships afterwards their death, together with tools and weapons.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} The ships were then prepare on a course out to sea and set afire. This is still re-enacted as role of festivals in the north of Europe, particularly at Up Helly-Aa and the Delamont Viking Festival. Military heroes such as Nelson, Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill had their coffins paraded through the city of London, placed on gun carriages. The guns were originally pulled by horses, simply are now pulled by sailors. This is chosen a State Funeral.

Terminal disposition of the dead

Some cultures place the dead in tombs of various sorts, either individually, or in specially designated tracts of state that firm tombs. Burying in a graveyard is i common class of tomb. In some places, burials are impractical because the footing water is too high; therefore tombs are placed above footing, every bit was the case in New Orleans, Louisiana. Elsewhere, a separate building for a tomb is usually reserved for the socially prominent and wealthy. Especially grand above-ground tombs are called mausoleums. Other buildings used as tombs include the crypts in churches; burial in these places is once again usually a privilege given to the socially prominent expressionless. In more recent times, even so, this has often been forbidden by hygiene laws.

Burial was non always permanent. In some areas, burying grounds needed to exist re-used because of limited infinite. In these areas, one time the dead have decomposed to skeletons, the bones are removed; after their removal they tin be placed in an ossuary.

"Burial at sea" means the deliberate disposal of a corpse into the ocean, wrapped and tied with weights to brand sure information technology sinks. It is a mutual exercise in navies and bounding main-faring nations; in the Church of England, special forms of funeral service were added to the Book of Common Prayer to comprehend it. Science fiction writers have frequently analogized with "Burial in space".

File:StJosephsChapelMausoleum.jpg

St. Joseph's Chapel Mausoleum at Mountain Olivet Cemetery in Key West (rural Dubuque), Iowa. This mausoleum has traditional mausoleum crypts as well as columbarium niches for cremated remains.

Cremation, besides, is an old custom; it was the usual mode of disposing of a corpse in ancient Rome (along with graves covered with heaped mounds, also found in Greece, particularly at the Karameikos graveyard in Monastiraki). Vikings were occasionally cremated in their longships, and later the location of the site was marked with standing stones. In recent years, despite the objections of some religious groups, cremation has become more and more widely used. Orthodox Judaism and the Eastern Orthodox Church prevent cremation, as do most Muslims. Orthodox Judaism forbids cremation according to Jewish law ( Halakha ) assertive that the soul of a cremated person cannot find its terminal quiet. The Roman Catholic Church forbade it for many years, merely since 1963 the church has allowed it then long as information technology is non done to express disbelief in actual resurrection. The church specifies that cremated remains are either cached or entombed. They do not allow cremated remains to be scattered or kept at home. Many Catholic cemeteries now have columbarium niches for cremated remains, or specific sections for those remains. Some denominations of Protestantism allow cremation, the more conservative denominations more often than not do not.

Hindus consider the funeral every bit the final "samskar" or ritual of life.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} Cremation is by and large mandatory for all Hindus, except for saints and children under the age of 5 years.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} Cremation is seen every bit the just mode in which all the five elements of burn down, h2o, globe, air and space would be satisfied by returning the body to these elements as subsequently cremation the ashes are poured into the sacred river Ganges or into the sea. After death the trunk of the deceased is placed on the ground with the head of the deceased pointing towards s which is considered the direction of the dead. The torso is all-powerful with sacred items such as sandalwood paste and holy ashes, tulsi (basil) leaves and water from the river Ganges. The eldest son would whisper "Om namah shivay" or "Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya" near the ear of the deceased.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} An oil lamp is lit besides the deceased and capacity from the holy Bhagavad Gita or Garud Purana are recited. Traditionally the body has to be cremated inside 24 hours afterward death, as keeping the torso longer is considered to pb to impurity and hinder the passage of the dead to afterlife. Hence before cremation as the body lies in country, minimal physical contact with the body is observed.

A priest is chosen in to lead the formal religious rituals, after which the body is taken to the cremation basis, where the eldest son ordinarily lights the funeral pyre, this act is considered to be the most important duty of a son as it is believed that he leads his parents from this earth into moksha. Immediately after the cremation, the family members of the deceased all take to take a purifying bath and observe a 12-day mourning menses. This mourning flow ends on the morning of the thirteenth day on which a Shraddh ceremony is conducted in which offerings are given to ancestors and other gods in order to grant liberation or moksha to the deceased.

Recently a new method of disposing of the torso, called promession or an Ecological funeral, has been patented by a Swedish company.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} Its main purpose is to return the trunk to soil speedily while minimizing pollution and resource consumption.

Rarer forms of disposal of the dead include excarnation, where the corpse is exposed to the elements. This was done past some groups of Native Americans; it is still practiced by Zoroastrians in Bombay, where the Towers of Silence/Daxmas allow vultures and other carrion eating birds to dispose of the corpses. Zoroastrianism believes that burn is sacred and should not be defiled by cremating a human body. It is as well good past some Tibetan Buddhists and is sometimes called Sky burial.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

Cannibalism is also skillful mail service-mortem in some countries. The practise has been linked to the spread of a prion disease called kuru.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

Mummification is the drying of bodies to preserve them. The most famous practitioners of mummification were ancient Egyptians: many nobles and high-ranked bureaucrats of the old Egyptian kingdom had their corpses embalmed and stored in luxurious sarcophagi within their funeral mausoleum or, in the cases of some Pharaohs, a pyramid.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

Control by the decedent of the details of the funeral

In police in the United States, the deceased have picayune say in the manner in which their funerals tin be conducted. The law more often than not holds^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} that the funeral rituals are for the benefit of the survivors, rather than to express the personal whims and tastes of the deceased.

The decedent may, in well-nigh U.S. jurisdictions, provide instructions as to his funeral past ways of a Final Will and Testament. These instructions can be given some legal effect if bequests are fabricated contingent on the heirs conveying them out, with alternative gifts if they are not followed. This assumes, of course, that the decedent has enough of an estate to brand the heirs suspension before doing something that volition invoke the alternate bequest. To be effective, the will must be easily available, and some notion of what it provides must be known to the decedent's survivors.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

Some people^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} dislike the clutter and brandish of flowers at funerals, and experience that at that place is an unseemly competition in the number and size of the floral arrangements sent. Many newspapers^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} refuse to print an obituary that requests that flowers not exist sent; to do and so would be to offend the florists' industry. Many obituaries exercise, however, comprise notices regarding "memorial gifts" to a charitable organization. It is commonly understood in these situations that a souvenir to the charity made in retention of the decedent relieves the donor of the social duty of sending flowers.

Anatomical gifts

Some other manner of avoiding some of the rituals and costs of a traditional funeral is for the decedent to donate some or all of her or his body to a medical school or similar institution for the purpose of instruction in anatomy, or for like purposes. Students of medicine and osteopathy frequently study anatomy from donated cadavers; they are as well useful in forensic research.

Making an anatomical gift is a split transaction from being an organ donor, in which whatever useful organs are removed from the unembalmed cadaver for medical transplant. Nether a Uniform Act in force in most jurisdictions of the United States, beingness an organ donor is a simple process that can often be achieved when a commuter's license is renewed.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]} There are some medical conditions, such as amputations, or various surgeries, that can make the cadaver unsuitable for these purposes. Conversely, the bodies of people who had certain medical conditions are useful for research into those weather. All US medical schools rely on the generosity of "anatomical donors" for the teaching of anatomy. Typically the remains are cremated once the students have completed their anatomy classes, and many medical schools now hold a memorial service at that time also.^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}

See too

Bereavement in Judaism
Burial
Celebrant (The states)
Cremation
Funeral Consumers Alliance
Funeral director
Icelandic funeral
Living funeral
Mourning
Military funeral
Museum of Funeral Customs
Requiem
State funeral
Ban Grong Greng (discusses Theravada Buddhist funeral customs in Northern Thailand)

External links

National Funeral Directors Clan
Museum of Funeral Customs homepage
Funeral Consumers Alliance
Vietnamese Funeral ceremonies
The Rosicrucian Method of Caring for the Dead

v·d·e Death and dying
Clinical issues	Advance directives · Dissection · Assisted suicide · Brain expiry · Causes of death by rate · Clinical death · Death anxiety · Death instinct · Euthanasia · Palliative intendance · Persistent vegetative state · Suicide · Last illness · Witholding handling
Mortality	Concept of decease and aligning · Decease attitudes · Expiry attitudes in childhood · Death didactics · Capital punishment · Immortality · Infant mortality · Maternal death · Mortality charge per unit · Terminally ill patients ·
After expiry	Afterlife · Burial · Cremation · Death rites · Funeral · Grief · Mourning · Kübler-Ross model of grief · Spiritualism · Customs ·Veneration of the expressionless ·
Fields of inquiry	Well-nigh-death feel · Near-death studies · Reincarnation enquiry ·Thanatology ·
Other	Genocide · Fascination with decease · Martyrdom · Sacrifices(Human · Animal) ·

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