Popular Country Song 'If I Die Young' By Band Perry

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.

Ancient Egyptian embalming was a very sacred process performed by experienced embalmers. Ancient Egyptians used to bury the deceased underground, but because of that they decayed faster in a coffin when they aren’t exposed to the hot sand of the desert. That is how they developed the process of embalming to preserve the bodies.

Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece both believed in life after death, though the process in which they follow that belief differ greatly. The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the spirit leaves the body in the form of a little gust of wind or a puff of breath. The Greeks believed in proper burial rights that were performed in three parts, and the relatives mostly women are the ones that conduct these rituals for the deceased. Much like the modern world these rituals consist of the first step; laying out the body to be dressed, the second funeral procession, and the third step was the cremation of the body. Unlike the Greeks the Egyptians developed a process in which they prepared and preserved the dead for the afterlife, known as mummification. This process is believed to have been the purpose of the Egyptians famous pyramids, believed to be the stairs that would lead the Pharaohs to their kingdom in the afterlife. Artifacts are buried in their tombs such as gold, wine, and sculptures to accompany the dead in life after death.

Ancient Egyptian civilization was based on religion. Their belief in the rebirth after death became their driving force behind their funeral practices. Death was simply a temporary interruption, rather than an end to life, and that eternal life could be ensured by means of worship to the gods, preservation of the physical form thru mummification, substantial ceremonies and detailed burial policies and procedures. Even though many today have varying views of an afterlife, many of the funerary practices that originated in Egypt can be seen in present day funeral services.

Regardless of social strata, death and the afterlife were almost always valued by the living in ancient Egypt. The afterlife was birthed and designed for great societal rulers but eventually trickled down and was adopted by other levels of society (Murnane in Obayashi, 1992, p. 42). Death was interpreted as “new life in another state” by ancient Egypt, and the ultimate goal of immortality could be attained if specific burial arrangements were made for the dead. This was to avoid a final death of the soul known as the “second death,” and measures such as burial with food, drink, and personal possessions, were taken to aid the soul on its journey into immortality (Murnane in Obayashi, 1992, p. 36).

Funerary customs are practises and beliefs that the Ancient Egyptians used to respect their dead, and preserve their bodies in preparation for the afterlife which was a universe that mirrored their life on Earth, where they would live with the Gods in eternal Egypt. The body of the deceased could be mummified, which was where a body is dried, packed with minerals and wrapped in linen cloths, whereas another form would be embalming which is the use of salts and spices to preserve a body and took 70 days in total. However, there were many tests and dangers on the way to the afterlife, including fire-filled lakes, poisonous snakes and executioners. Because of this, there were many ceremonies and tests to see if the deceased person was worthy of the Afterlife. Such as the opening of the mouth ceremony which was when a priest touched parts of the deceased body at a funeral in order for the

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.

The mummification process is done in two phases, the first being embalming and the latter being wrapping and burial. There was a special place for embalming to take place known as the ibu. The ibu was called the place of purification. The first thing the embalmers do is to clean his body with aromatic palm wine and rinse it with Nile water. The next step involves removing all but a select few of the internal organs. The process used to remove the internal organs changed over time and varied with the wealth of the body in question. The heart was left in the body because of its necessity as the focal point of mental and emotional stability. The body’s fluids and rags used in this phase are left with the body for its burial. The body is left for a period of

Burial has long been considered an important component of death; it is the mourners’ final encounter with the recognizable, substantial body of the deceased. Every culture has to determine how to deal with the physical remains of the dead, to find a way to honour their memory, and to go on living in a society that is now deprived of one of its members. Burial traditions and practices have developed throughout history and around the world to meet this human need. This paper will examine Jewish death and burial practices from the Old Testament, the Gospels, and other New Testament accounts, as well as archaeological evidence from first century Palestine; this evidence, when compared to recent arguments against the burial of

If someone died from natural causes, their death ceremony depended on their social standing and how they died. If they died of old age, people would prepare the corpse by wrapping the body in paper, then cremating it along with a dog so they would have a companion to travel the underworld with. If you died a hero death or by sacrifice, the hero was buried in the ground with objects resembling images of the mountain gods. The Aztecs wrapped their bodies in cloth decorated with birds and butterflies to show the greatness of their

these organs in canopic jars and put them in tombs. The canopic jars were to contain

Once the body was prepared, a spiritual ceremony where death rites are made by priests over a dead body began. People of higher social status could have a their death rites read for a week while most working class people had a fairly quick funeral. The body would then be buried near their family home. They were buried as it makes the journey to the underworld easier for them. The grave of the dead was near the family

Egyptians did not want to die. They saw no reason why life should not go on when they were dead. When the Egyptians thought about what happened when they died, they decided that there would be another life in store for them. A life

Another ritual that took place to ensure life after death is the process of mummification. When completing this ritual, all of the organs are removed except for the heart because they believed the ba or the spirit would stay in the mummy in the living world (Holland, pg 61). After finishing the preparation of the inside of the body, it was wrapped in linen and funeral texts were inscribed to help on the journey to Osiris in the underworld (Holland, pg 62). These rituals continue to portray how Egyptians thought of the afterlife as being more of a transition from one world to another rather than the end of

Mankind’s history of burial practices and funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. There is no specific way to planning a funeral. Every civilization and culture has provided for their dead in different ways. Religion and personal beliefs play an important role in the burial practices and funeral customs of a given culture or civilization. Furthermore, each civilization and cultured ever studied have three things in common: some type of funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies; A sacred place for the dead; and memorialization of the dead. As far back as the time of Christ, burials have been noted to take place. In time burial and funeral customs have become very distinct, interesting and