Funerary Rite

The funerary rite is a whole of gestures and words accompanying the anguish then death by an human being. The anthropologists consider that the appearance of the funeral rituals constitute one of the foundations of a human community. If these practices constituted since always a ground privileged for the religion, the recognition in the contemporary world of an agnostic philosophy modifies the taking into account of the last moments of the life and/or allows the emergence of a new type of ceremony.

Their nature and their composition depend on the time, the social status of late, of the beliefs of a company, conditions of the death and will of the late one.

Its study can allow, recut with other indices, to delimit the geographical surface of a company. The indices left in the tombs of the companies most badly known constitute invaluable indices for the archeologists. In the same way for the ethnologists, the study of the funerary rites of a human group is essential with the comprehension of the relationship between the individuals. One calls also the whole of these rites the funeral , which is occasions of Sociabilité.

For an ordinary individual, the differences between the funerary rites pass primarily by the choice of the Embaumement, the Crémation or the ceremony of burial (burial).
For a famous character, the company will be able to organize national funeral. The choice to give to a character the ultimate homage of “great man” of the nation, as well as the setting in scene of the ceremony, varies according to the times and the periods.

Funerary rites were observed in the animals like the elephants and the hippopotamuses. One will be able to consult on this subject the work of Julian Huxley, the ritual Behavior at the man and the animal .

Prehistory

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Antiquity polytheist

Mesopotamy

Ancient Egypt

Family mourning

The family expresses her sorrow by covering the hair of silt; each member strikes the head with the left hand (hand of dead). The men of the family do not shave during 70 days, which corresponds to the duration of the cycle of the star Sirius.

Momification

The first tests of Egyptian momification go back to approximately 3000 av. J. - C. the technique knows its apogee with. The body is led in the workshop of momification: the priest-embalmers propose with the family several series mummies, more or less expensive.

The Livre of dead the is the whole of the papyrus containing of the magic formulas put inside the Sarcophage. The opening of the mouth of death symbolizes the return of the Ka in the body.

The body is wide on a stone bed to the feet having the shape of legs of lion. One injects into cranium a resin by a funnel. The priest affublé of the mask of Anubis, practical a notch at the left side (the vital breath enters by the right ear and arises by the left). It removes the internal organs except the heart, because it will be weighed by Anubis in beyond. The internal organs are washed with palm wine then Natron. They are preserved in 4 vases canopes. One can also place onions in the body, symbol of the rebirth. The bath of natron lasts approximately 70 days so on the other hand, since if the duration of the bath is too long the bones become breakable, it is too short, the skin as well as the bones will not be preserved long enough. The wound recousue is covered with a small metal or beeswax plate, decorated with a Oudjat (eye of Horus, removed by Seth and given by Thot). The face is made up, a wig is sometimes posed. As the natron destroys the eyes and the language, they should be replaced by false eyes in molten glass, stone, onions or gold sheets. One needs 150 meters of strips to surround the body of an adult. The last stage is the installation of a mask of paperboard, of wood (rare thus expensive), of plaster or gold-silver.

Sarcophagi

The first go back to 3300 av. J. - C. (in reed and of small size). On the lid, decorations represented:

Nout, with the spread wings
an eye oudjat which makes it possible death to see
a pillar Djed
the 4 wire of Horus
the goddesses Isis and Nephtys

Funeral

The Egyptians located the kingdom of dead on Western bank of the Nile, where lie down the sun: one thus transports the body of late with a procession the whining ones. The convoy brings gifts, food… the mummy is covered with flowers posed on a sledge in the shape of boat drawn by two oxen. At the head of the procession is a priest vêtu of a skin of leopard which draws aside the bad spirits thanks to incense, milk and water of the Nile. People are equipped in white, the color of mourning in Egypt. A second sledge brings the vases canopes. In front of the tomb, provided with an adze, the son of late touches the mouth, the nostrils, the eyes and the ears of death so that it can find his directions. This rite allows the ka and the Ba to reinstate the body. Then, the sacrifice of an ox is generally made. The widow embraces the mummy and a chain of flowers of blue lotus gives him, symbolizing the sky. Then one locks up it in his sarcophagus with the Livre of dead the . One draws up tents in front of the tomb for a banquet: it is the occasion to taste sacrificed ox. The guests carry a chain of flowers of blue lotus.

So that a heart is not wandering, it needed a residence. If it were not fixed in a tomb and were not fed by offerings, it wandered, unceasingly and was not long in becoming malfaisante. It tormented the alive ones, sent diseases to them and made frequent night appearances to remind alive that they owed him a burial.

This belief created a code of conduct. Death needing food and beverage, one estimated that it was a duty for the alive ones to satisfy these needs. In this condition, it protected all the members from his family, her tribe and even from its village.

The use of whining professional was current.

Ancient Greece

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Ancient Rome

In the ancient Rome, the membership of the social class influence the ostentation of the rites. The rich person are made in theory incinerate, poorest as the slaves are thrown in common graves without ceremony. The rites also changed with the abandonment of the Roman religion with the profit of the Eastern worships like the Christianisme. It is current that certain men, whose emperors through the worship Impérial, are the subject of a worship after their death.

Celts, German and Scandinavian

Judaism

the Judaism comprises many rites intended for endeuillés the. This section deals only with the person deceased.

Anguish

Purification

Taken care of the body

After the will tahara, when the burial cannot take place the day of the death (like that is practiced in Israel), one carries out a will shemira (" veillée") body.

A shomer can be a member of Hevra Kaddisha, but in a more general way, any person, preferably not a close relation of the patient (who is endeuillé), which takes care that the body of the missing person is not désécré, and recites Tehillim (Psalms) for the rise in its heart until the burial.

Lifting of the body

The ceremony is chaired by a rabbi, who reads Psalms, in the presence of the family and of the friends come to pay homage to the missing person and her family. One waits until the coffin left the residence or the mortuary before accompanying it, foot or in the car if the way is long to the cemetery. With the cemetery, one escorts the coffin to the last residence, by marking stops, during which some sound Shofar, because according to the tradition, the Messiah will sound some at the time of the resurrection of deaths. One does not greet and does not answer anybody until the ground setting. If one has a relative buried in the cemetery, one abstains from visiting it during the burial (before or afterwards, it is authorized).

Levaya (burial)

Levaya does not mean exactly Inhumation but Accompagnement (of dead). It is made without flowers nor crowns and music. In the tradition Ashkénaze , one recites a blessing while entering to the cemetery (if one has not gone there for one month). One goes then in a room where the rabbi pronounces the hesped (funeral praise). Death is moved the feet forwards. One recites the Psaume 91 at the time of the convoy of the cemetery, the hachkava and the El Male Rahamim . The rabbi throws three ground shovelfuls, imitated by the close relations then the assistants. Once the filled pit, one recites the Kaddish lehidhadeta, then the Tzidouk Haddine . One comforts then endeuillés by the formula " Hamaqom yéna' hem etkhèm bètokh shear bleak Tzion viYroushalaïm" (That the Place comforts you among endeuillés of Sion and Jerusalem). By leaving the cemetery, some tear off a grass handle (symbolizing resurrection). One washes the hands without wiping them. In the tradition Sépharade , one adds to the Psaume 91 the prayer of Rabbi Nehounia bar Haqana and, when it is about a woman, the Eshet 'Hayil (valiant Woman). It is at this time that one practices the Qeri' ah (tear). The prayer of consolation is a little longer.

Christianity

See also: Jesus de Nazareth, Catacombs, Sarcophagi paléochrétiens

Time mérovingiens

The practice of the mite with Charon remains during the beginning of the time mérovingienne, in spite of progress of Christianity. In the tombs of the frank warriors, officially catholic since the baptism of Clovis (towards 496), the use to be made bury close to the tomb of a saint, in the nave or near the basilicas is increasingly current. The bodies were buried the arms along the body, the slightly isolated legs; later, the position changes (arms crosseds on the chest). The tombs are laid out in lines (character mérovingien appeared at the end of the 4th century in the north of Gaulle). The orientation of the body is initially not fixed. During the 5th century, the feet are put at the east and the head in the west. At the 8th century, under the influence of the clergy, the funerary uses of the Francs change radically: only the aristocrats then are buried equipped with funerary furniture. The deposit of food in the tomb is also increasingly rare. The cities obtain necropoles urban, whereas the Romans had rejected them in periphery.

Extreme unction and money

The Extrême-onction belongs to the 7 Sacrement S of the life of the Christian (the first of these sacraments is the Baptême). In the beginning, it was managed by a priest with patients so that they cure. After the 12th century, the ritual ones comprised prayers, an oiling and the laying on of hands. It is not reserved for dying contrary to the commonly allowed idea. Today, one calls the extreme unction sacrament of the patients and it can be managed to the believers who make the request of it when they are reached of a grave disease, to attract each other the divine benevolence and the cure of their evil.

Islam

Anguish

Dying is taken care by a Imam and the close relations who recite the Coran. It is installed in such a way that its glance carries towards Mecque. If it can it, it owes déclamer the Shah ada , i.e. the profession of faith of the Moslem, one of the five pillars of the faith. If it is unable to speak, it is a member of its family, an religious authority or a Moslem doctor who undertake some, while raising the index of dying so that God recognizes the person. Two angels then take it along dead to the sky.

The burial

It must be done promptly, in theory before laying down it sun. Islam authorizes the burial in nonMoslem country, in a “Moslem square”, traditionally in the only presence of the men and that to avoid with the women attending a scene which can move them… and preferably Friday. Coran proscribes co-education men/women only with the mosque. The toilet of late is done with great decency.

With the Dogon country

The funerary rite at the Dogons proceeds in three times:

At the time of the death, a burial is organized. The body of late is washed before being deposited with the free air in the faults of the cliffs which are used as cemetery. Its heart remains in the village.
A few months later, are organized funeral which allows the family and the close relations of paying a homage to the late one. Its heart leaves the continuous family home then but to wander in the neighborhoods.
the third time is rammed it. This ceremony is collective and concerns all the people died during the previous years (rammed it is organized all the 3 to 5 years). The hearts have to join the ancestors. During the ceremony which lasts three days, the various masks left and ravel and dance in the village. This ceremony marks the end of mourning.

Asian religions

In India

Incineration hindouist.

In Tibet

The funerary rites practiced by the Tibetans vary according to the constraints imposed by the nature of the place and its climate, but also according to the quality of the late one. The body of late dissolves in one of the five elements. Celestial funeral for the air, the funeral of water for water, the cremation for fire and the burial for the ground.

The practice of the burials is not very frequent. The nature of the ground, often very hard, is the primary reason, but the conviction that this practice blocks the Réincarnation the late ones is sometimes called upon. According to certain sources indeed, it would be reserved to the criminals, whom one does not wish to see réincarnés, and with the people deceased of contagious diseases, for which the other funerary rites are not possible.

In the same way, in the areas of high-altitude where wood is rare, the Crémation is not employed that for spangled and the personalities, except however more high religious dignities whose body is preserved by Embaumement. The officiants are the ragyapa , caste Tibetan specialized in these functions. The latter, after having placed the body of late on a crowned rock, dissect it, then crush its bones, which they sometimes mix with Tsampa , letting the vultures take care of the elimination of the funerary remainders.

The contemporary time

Anguish

August 1st

Laic ceremonies

August 1st In addition to the Cremation, a process developed in Sweden, the Promession, is in the course of legislation in some countries, like the Sweden, the Germany or the South Korea.

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