death: death-and-funeral-customs

Early Funeral Rites funerals and customs

Funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. Every culture and civilization attends to the care of their dead. Every culture and civilization ever discovered has three major things in common relating to death and burial:

1. funeral rites, rituals and ceremonies

2. Remembrance of the dead

3. a sacred place for the placement of the dead body (in ash or whole)

Archeologists have found ancient burial grounds of Neanderthal man dating to around 60,000 BC with animal antlers on the body and flower fragments next to the corpse indicating some type of ritual and gifts of remembrance. With no great psychological knowledge or custom to draw from, Neanderthal man instinctively buried their dead with ritual and ceremony.

Current Funeral Rites

Fear of death, and to be in awe of it, inspired many peoples from this Neanderthal to modern man. we follow the same 3 customs all the way to the present. Today however, we have devolved, evolved religions, and most people subscribe to one or the other. These religions all seem to have their own set of burial and remembrance guidelines, and some are very elaborate indeed!

It is most peoples custom to honor their dead.

In our modern world most of us associate funerals with either a conventional graveyard or cremation. Throughout history, though, various peoples had different ways of sending their dead on their final journey. What has not changed is the fact that the grandeur of the funeral service will be affected by your status or your wealth.

Below is a listing of categories in the SKR pertaining to death: death-and-funeral-customs

Home: death: death-and-funeral-customs

Links:

Aging and Death in Folklore
Aging and Death in Folklore
Examples of aging and death in folklore, sorted by subject rather than region. *
(Added: Thu Jan 01 2004) ID 8

Backcountry Death Ways
Backcountry Death Ways
A page on the backcountry ways of how they deal with death and dying. *
(Added: Thu Jan 01 2004) ID 9

Deadly Superstitions
Deadly Superstitions
Folk beliefs on Deadly Superstitions. *
(Added: Thu Jan 01 2004) ID 14

Gravestone Symbolism & Iconography
Gravestone Symbolism & Iconography
Tomb With A View's Guide to Commemorative Motifs, Mourning Images, and Memento Mori. *
(Added: Thu Jan 01 2004) ID 2

History Of Funeral Customs
History Of Funeral Customs
History Of Funeral Customs, discusses early funeral rites, the role of fear, religion and gender in funeral practices.
(Added: Thu Jan 01 2004) ID 3

Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
The Customs of Death - Omens of an impending death: Death, like birth and marriage, is a major rite of passage and was regarded as a time when the living were vulnerable to the influences of the supernatural. In Orkney, the fears surrounding death were allayed somewhat by an elaborate series of rituals and customs.
(Added: Thu Jan 01 2004) ID 11

Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Whether foretold or not, when a death occurred, amid the grief and mourning lurked the fear that the deceased's spirit might return to torment the living. So steps had to be taken to ensure the dead person's spirit was bound to the burial place. Binding the dead to their coffin, or grave, was a key element in Scandinavian tradition and unsurprisingly featured heavily in Orcadian folk belief.
(Added: Thu Jan 01 2004) ID 12

Overcoming Fear of Death
Overcoming Fear of Death
Online Bible study from Christian perspective on overcoming the fear of dying
(Added: Mon Feb 05 2007) ID 120721

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