DEATH RITUALS

At grief so deep the tongue must wag in vain; the language of our sense and memory lacks the vocabulary of such pain. Dante Alighieri, Inferno

R I T UA L F O R T H O S E L E F T B E H I N D

o Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. ~Emily Dickinson o Although it's difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, May looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow. ~Author Unknown o For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to

eternity. ~William Penn

Death rites are for those left behind. A way to both remember the living and come to terms with our own mortality. Remember me as you pass by, as you are now so once was I. As I am now you soon will be, prepare for death and follow me.

FACING THE INEVITABLE

o One thing that we all share is death. The natural ending to our individual story. o Whatever belief is held about afterward, every culture has set ideas about the preparation of the body for its final rest. o These ideas reflect both our hopes for ourselves at passing, and the bonds that we build as a group.

BURIAL
From 43,000 B.C.E rights to honor the dead have been observed. Many cultures hold the belief that the realm of the dead is below our very feet. As far back as ancient Sumeria bodies were treated and interred in large underground vaults with food and tools. Beyond practical purposes of simply getting rid of the body, placing people below the earth is meant to make the final journey that much easier. Having the things they may need at hand symbolizes our hope for something more.

EGYPTIAN MUMMIES
o Egyptian society, among others, believed that the spirit would come back to the shell left behind after death. To reflect this, the bodies of poor and rich alike were preserved. Though very

differently. Because of the hot dry climate, the

poor were sometimes packed in salt but always then buried in the sand and left to dry. Those who could afford it, most notably the Pharos and their families were preserved in more elaborate

rituals that involved removing the organs and

wrapping the body in linen.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE RUN OUT OF ROOM?

THE EMPIRE OF DEATH

o By 1786 the city of Paris had been inhabited for well over a thousand years. Cemeteries had become a public health issue. o During the dark of night over a 75 year span priests moved between 6-7 million

remains from cemeteries all around Paris to used limestone quarries deep
beneath the city. o Originally, the remains were blessed, but placed unceremoniously any where they would fit. o It was not until the early 1800 that Hricart Thury became Inspector of the

tunnels.

Hricart Thury is responsible for the macabre patterns the bones take now. Creating a creepy, but touching tribute to Parisians who came before. "The gloomy aspect presented within our Catacombs, the feeling of deep melancholy that imprinted the sadness which generally could not defend themselves. Thury respected the remains in his care by designing and in some cases personally stacking them into elaborate structures.

TIBETAN SKY BURIALS

o Tibetan Buddhists believe that a body is merely a discarded shell, upon death the remains are prayed over for three days, then carried to a sacred spot called drtro by a friend or family member. o The rogyapa or burial master cuts the body into pieces and feeds it to vultures. In this culture, they are not seen as scavengers, but as spirits of the holy sky. When the flesh is gone the rogyapa crushes the bones,

mixes in barley flour and feeds what's left to crown and hawks.

Sky burial is a ritual that has great religious meaning. In fact, the Tibetan people are encouraged to watch this ritual, to face death openly and to feel the impermanence of life. Tibetan residents believe that the body is no more than an empty vessel spirit, or soul, of someone out of the body that will continue the cycle of life to another life TravelChinaGuide.com

CRYOGENICS
o Cryonics is a technique intended to hopefully save lives and greatly extend lifespan. It involves cooling legally-dead people to liquid nitrogen temperature where physical decay essentially stops, in the hope that future technologically advanced scientific procedures will someday be able to revive them and restore them to youth and good health. A person held in such a state is said to be a "cryopreserved patient", because we do not regard the cryopreserved person as being really "dead".

Cheating Death?
Somewhere between 250 and 300 people have been frozen in the hope that someday science will be able to cure their chronic illness. So far, none have been revived.

FLOWERS ON THE GRAVE

o Leaving flowers on the grave was documented as early as the 1770s allowing the plants to grow on the grave as opposed to simply leaving them there. Based on the

deceased age daffodils, primroses violets

{infants}, roses {mid age}or rosemary {elderly}. o This is thought to come from the Greek tradition of preparing the grave as a small piece of their best thoughts on the afterlife. A place for the spirit of the departed to rest.

STONES
o Stones are placed on the marker of Jewish dead to mark that the grave has been visited. It memorializes the death of a man who broke the custom of the Shabbat. Their day of rest.

PENNIES
o Closing the eyes was a simple practicality, but placing pennies over them stems from the Greek

tradition of placing a coin inside

the mouth. This comes from the belief that the departed would have to pay the guardian of the river of death for their safe passage.