FUNERAL HABITS

Different Cultural Funeral Habits

Different Cultural Funeral Habits

Introduction

Ours is a world that is full of traditions. For every occasion even with the death of a loved one, there are practices done during the funeral service which people have started applying before and we still continue to do until now (Matsunami, 2010). In different cultures, there are also different conventions about deaths and funerals that are being practiced in the society. For example the funeral flowers, in most cultures flowers are sent as sympathy gifts but there are also some cultures who do not consider them as appropriate gifts for a funeral. As a matter of fact, these practices are quite interesting to know and will even make a person wonder the basis for the traditions (Matsunami, 2010).

Just like some cultures whose funeral practices are gender-respective. Perhaps if a primitive men in United States have done the same thing, it would be easier to identify the gender of the excavated human relics (Suzuki, 2000). The Cochieans from Georgia had their dead men hang from the trees while dead women are buried in the ground. While the Ghonds from India had their dead men cremated and their dead women buried too (Matsunami, 2010). Dead Bonga men are buried facing the North direction and dead Bonga women are buried towards the south.

Discussion and Analysis

Some funeral customs are even incorporated with some concepts about the living. These customs are done not just for the dead individual but for the family and relatives of the deceased. There are parts in China where citizens believe that if more people will attend the funeral, the more luck shall come to the family and relatives of the dead person (Matsunami, 2010). For this reason, people would think of different ways to attract others to attend the funeral or viewing. A best ever attraction is to have strippers in the wake which automatically attracted a lot of men to the funeral (Filippi & Rigopoulos, 1996).

Some traditions are symbolisms that represent various things in life and death. Deceased people from the Scottish highlands are buried with some amounts of soil and salt placed on their chest (Matsunami, 2010). The soil stands for the physical body that will soon be decayed and return to the ground while the salt symbolizes the soul of a person which is not like the body and will not perish (Suzuki, 2000).

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that some death beliefs are brutal, well that is how we may see it but for those people who practice them, they are sacred and revered. Such as the Buddhist people from Tibet who believe that the soul eventually leaves a dead body and so dead body need not be placed in a vessel of coffin (Matsunami, 2010). So for practicality too, since their land terrain in the mountains is impossible to have actual burials, they place the dead remains on a large rock in one location. This Tibetan death ritual with a monk and somebody breakers called rogyapas is held in the sky involves dismembering the body, grinding the parts and fed to the vultures (Suzuki, 2000)...