A Wisdom Archive on Funeral Ceremonies

The custom of burying the dead in the floor of dwelling-houses has been to some degree prevalent on the Gold Coast of Africa. The ceremony is purely animist, and apparently without any set ritual. The main exception is that the females of the family of the deceased and their friends may undergo mournful lamentations. In some instances they work their feelings up to an ostentatious, frenzy-like degree of sorrow. The revelry may be heightened by the use of alcohol, of which drummers, flute-players, bards, and singing men may partake. The funer ...

Read more here: » Funeral: Encyclopedia II - Funeral - African funerals

In most East 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 can be seen worn among relatives of the deceased during a funeral ceremony. Contemporary Western influence however has meant that dark- or black colored attire is now often also acceptable for mourners to wear (particularly for those outside the family). When a coffin is lowered into the ground the mourners will bow their heads and must no ...

Read more here: » Funeral: Encyclopedia II - Funeral - Funerals in East Asia

A funeral is a ceremony marking a person's death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. These customs vary widely between cultures, and between religious affiliations within cultures. In some cultures the dead are worshipped; this is commonly called ancestor worship. The word comes from the Latin funus, which had a variety of meanings, including ... Including:

• Funeral - Funerals in contemporary North America
• Funeral - Traditional funerals
• Funeral - Private services
• Funeral - Memorial services
• Funeral - Non-traditional funerals
• Funeral - Funerals in East Asia
• Funeral - African funerals
• Funeral - Ancient funeral rites
• Funeral - Funerals in ancient Rome
• Funeral - Funerals in Scotland
• Funeral - Final disposition of the dead
• Funeral - Control by the decedent of the details of the funeral
• Funeral - Anatomical gifts

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Sraddha (Sanskrit) A ceremony in honor and for the welfare of dead relatives, observed with great strictness at various fixed periods and on occasions of rejoicing as well as mourning by the surviving relatives.
 
It is not a funeral ceremony, but an act of reverential homage to a deceased person performed by relatives, and is supposed to supply the dead with strengthening nutriment after the performance of the previous funeral ceremonies has endowed them with ethereal bodies. In Hinduism, the deceased relative is considered a preta (wandering ghost) until the first sraddha ceremony, when he attains a position among the spiritual pitris in their blissful abode.

 
(See also: Sraddha, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

Aryaman: (Sanskrit) "Close friend; matchmaker; Sun God." A Vedic Deity who personifies hospitality, the household and grihastha life. He presides over matrimonial alliances, and protects tradition, custom and religion. He is also invoked during shraddha (funeral-memorial) ceremonies.

(See also: Aryaman, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul )

Buddhism: Funeral Rites as practiced in Thailand and other South East Asian Countries.
Funeral rites are the most elaborate of all the life-cycle ceremonies and the ones entered into most fully by the monks. It is a basic teaching of Buddhism that existence is suffering, whether birth, daily living, old age or dying. This teaching is never in a stronger position than when death enters a home. Indeed Buddhism may have won its way the more easily in Thailand because it had more to say about death and the hereafter than had animism.
 

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Suttee [from Sanskrit sati faithful wife, one who burns herself on a funeral pyre, either on the same pyre as her husbands corpse or at a distance]
 
The practice of voluntary self-immolation by widows was prohibited by the British in India and finally abolished. When its cessation was first commanded, the Brahmins -- who were principally responsible for the continuance of this dreadful custom -- maintained that their sacred scriptures approved of the practice, but Orientalists have demonstrated that the texts so cited had been altered. "Professor Wilson was the first to point out the falsification of the text and the change of ''yonim agre'' into ''yonim agneh'' [womb of fire]
 
. . . According to the hymns of the ''Rig-Veda,'' and the Vaidic ceremonial contained in the ''Grihya-Sutras,'' the wife accompanies the corpse of her husband to the funeral pile, but she is there addressed with a verse taken from the ''Rig-Veda,'' and ordered to leave her husband, and to return to the world of the living" (Max Muller, Chips from a German Workshop 2:35).
 
The original Sanskrit of the Rig-Veda, supported by the Commentaries and the ceremonials without variation of text or meaning, is: a rohantu janayo yonim agre, "the wives (or mothers, i.e., women) may first ascend to the sacred place." These words finally were misread by the Brahmins as: a rohantu janayo yonim agneh, "wives (mothers, women) may or should ascend to the sacred place of fire" i.e., womb of fire -- construed as the funeral pyre).
 
Suttee therefore has been confused by the West as the custom of the burning of widows itself; but the word really means the widow herself who, because of her great virtue in unfailing fidelity to her one husband, prefers to sacrifice her life on the funeral pyre rather than to live on earth alone after his death. The custom is not commanded or even approved by Vedic or other Hindu scriptural authority, but on the contrary is, indirectly if not directly, forbidden. How the custom ever arose is still obscure, but may be ascribed to a mixture of priestcraft and unreasoning sentimental and religious devotion on the part of the ignorant masses.

 
(See also: Suttee, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

Buddhist Rituals: Traditional Chinese Funeral Arrangements On the passing away of the father, the eldest son becomes the head of the family. f the eldest son passes away, his second brother does not assume leadership of the family. Leadership passes to the eldest son of the eldest son or the grandson of the father. He must assume the responsibilities and duties to the ancestors on behalf of the family
 

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Hinduism Rituals: Hindu Samskaras
Hinduism prescribes both ritual and spiritual practices for the final liberation of men. The ritual aspect is meant to make man more spiritual in the end, not vice versa. Each and every important event in the life a Hindu, who has chosen to lead a normal householder's life calls for the performance of certain rites. These rites are intended mainly to invoke the blessings of various gods and ensure success in the performance of his ordained duties. They are performed during various stages in his life for different ends. Some of the important rites of Hinduism are described here.
 

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Hinduism and Children: Hindus loves their children dearly. They believe that their children are gifts from gods and products of their previous karma. Many presume that their children were related to them in their past lives or were their close friends. Since a Hindu firmly believes in rebirth, he views his own life from a wider perspective that encompasses not just this life but many other lives that preceded it as well as succeed it, and his individual existence as a part of a great cosmic cycle.

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The rites that pertain to the stages of life of man are called Samskaras. The Samskaras are purificatory rites which sanctify the life of the Hindu. They give a spiritual touch to the important events in the life of the individual from conception to cremation. They mark the important stages of a mans life. Just as the outline of a picture is lighted up slowly with the filling in of many colours, so also is Brahmanya with scriptural Samskaras. There are the Samskaras of childhood, of boyhood, of manhood and of old age and death.
 
Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda
 

Read more here: » Hindu Rituals: The Ten Scriptural Samskaras

Surat Ya-Seen (Arabic: سورة يس ) (Ya-Seen) is the 36th sura of the Qur'an with 83 ayat. This Sura is memorized by many Muslims and is read by some people at religious ceremonies. The reason for this is because in one of the Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad stated, that if everything in the world had a heart, the Qur'an's heart would be Surat Ya-Seen, and so it is often referred to as 'The Heart of the Qur'an.' It is often recited at funeral services and ceremonies in remembrance o ...

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