Catholic Death Rituals Essay

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

Chinese religion and strict cultural beliefs are inseparable from the death rites performed. Many different names for death are scattered throughout Chinese history, including an ideogram that depicts a person kneeling in front of their ancestor's bones 1. In Chinese culture, death rites are intricate and well thought out works on preparing one for the afterlife and rebirth. Chinese funeral rites have strict guidelines as to where the rites are to be performed, how the rites are performed (ritual bathing of the corpse), the dress of the attendees and the dead, the transfer of material goods on Earth to the dead, acknowledgement of the deceased and the actual burial of the body. All these sacred rites are performed by specialists (usually

Gatrad, A. R. (1994). Muslim customs surrounding death, bereavement, postmortem examinations, and organ transplants. Bmj, 309(6953), 521-523. doi:10.1136/bmj.309.6953.521

The two cultures that I decided to compare and contrast is the Mexican culture and ancient Egyptians. Mexicans have embraced death as a part of life. The Mayan and Aztecs practiced human sacrifices which gave and example of acceptance of death. In Mexico when a loved one passed on to a better life the viewing traditional takes place at the family’s home. A catholic priest comes to the family’s home and leads a mass in honor of the recently departed. The coffin in placed on a table along with candles on the side. After the funeral the family members get together and pray for nine days to guide the deceased into haven and ask forgiveness for their sins.On the other hand Egyptians were buried in pyramids directly in the ground. Often bodies were

Different cultures, countries, religions, and community with various behaviors and rituals that guides their belief and action when a loved one pass away. Religious and spiritual belief, type of life after death, superstitious beliefs after death and beliefs towards the meaning of life are all based on tradition and death ritual.

Jewish law and tradition have endowed funeral and mourning practices with profound religious significance. To this end, Jewish funerals avoid ostentation; family and visitors reflect in dress and deportment the solemnity of the occasion; flowers and music are inappropriate; embalming and viewing are avoided; and interment takes place as soon as possible after death.

In this paper, we will discuss the different death rituals performed in different cultures. We view death rituals from Native Americans, Africans, those of the Chinese decent, and endocannibalism from the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea. Death is universal to all people in every culture. Responses to how one deals with death and dying differ greatly. Death rituals are usually based on beliefs. This can come from religion, history, language, and art.

Dead?" AlterNet. In this article, Frankie Colmane looks into how dead bodies are treated in the United State even after Mitford's expose of the funeral industry was published. The article takes both a philosophical and scientific issue with the procedure of embalming sighting proven negative effects to human beings and the environment. Colmane shows that even though people are aware of the malfeasance and misappropriations of the funeral industry following pieces like Mitford's, very little has changed. Therefore problems that have been discussed in earlier works should not be forgotten. Rather they should be continually brought up until the issue is solved. During the 1800s, embalming became common practice because the dead family member would lie in state within the home for a period of days or weeks until it would be buried (Colmane 2010). The article shows the duplicity such as when "funeral directors were arguing forcefully against charges that their mediation between the living and the dead translated into social obstruction that barred the stricken from facing death with maturity, realism, and honest" (page 2). This article will be used to illustrate that things have not changed with funereal practices despite the publication of Mitford's essay.

This paper explores the many ways cultures deal with death, both before and after. Most cultures have different practices when it comes to rituals before and after death, but some rituals and beliefs are surprisingly similar. When it comes to health care, nurses need to be aware of any cultural needs of a client in this emotional time. Asking questions about what the patient and family want to happen is very important. For example, Muslims would like the same sex washing their loved one, and they would like the family to do it themselves. The nurse needs to know this to provide culturally competent care.

Jewish Funeral Traditions At a Jewish funeral a candle is placed by the deceased and they are never left alone. The reason the body is not left alone is because the soul stays near the body after its separation and is aware of the love and respect for its body. Shomrim, those who stay with the deceased, are assigned to stay and say prayers over the body on a 24-hour basis so that the holy prayers comfort the soul.

Every culture, country, religion, and community has certain behavior and rituals that govern their actions when a loved one dies. These traditions and death rituals are based upon religious and spiritual beliefs. Belief on whether there is life after death and what happens to the body and soul after death.

The Christian faith in relation to its death literature and its death systems presents very complex image, however patterns can be seen throughout the examples. Firstly, that death and society or death and religion seem to be linked in the sense that the death

The growth of the funeral industry was another factor in the American way of death. Rather than preparing and burying their own dead, families entrusted this job to professionals. The modern practice is several methods we use today being;

In the funeral world there are a lot of different styles of funerals. For example, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic funerals. Both very different, but at the same time they have several things in common. In funerals there is an abundance of things to compare and contrast. We will be looking at different ways the notification of death is handled in both of these religions, removal, embalming, dressing/casketing, visitation requirements/rituals, and interment or cremation.

A special custom observed in the Muslim culture upon death is the washing of the body. After death, the body is undressed and laid on a high table. A piece of white cloth is usually used to cover most of the body. Elders, skilled in the rules of Muslim burial, carry out this ritual. Washing starts from the top and goes to the bottom. The body is turned to the left side and warm water is splashed over the right side, then reversed. This process happens three times. Certain perfumes are usually applied over the body. Men wash the male body, but if no men are available, women who are related by birth or marriage may do so. Only women wash the female body. Any woman may touch the female body, but no men are allowed, even the husband, unless women