vendredi 24 avril 2015

An Introduction To International Funeral Customs

By Alta Alexander


Making plans for funerals is not something unique to the United States or western cultures. There has always been rites and ways to celebrate and honour the passage of life into death. They have around as long as humans have been in existence. Most of the funeral rites are rooted in various regions. International funeral customs that still exist today have become a means of unique celebrations for various countries and cultures.

In as much as funeral plans differ depending on cultures, there does not exist a universal demand plan for a funeral. There are differing customs as observed with varying international localities. For the Chinese, the bigger the number of attending people, the higher the luck a family attains. Attending numbers represent the level of prosperity the deceased shall attain in their afterlife. This leads to hiring of mourners to grace funeral ceremonies for those that can afford this.

Where the Philippines is concerned, funeral ceremonies in honour of a deceased, last from three to more than seven days. It is also common to have big numbers of visitors coming and staying for the entire ceremony. In Haiti, the family members have to take responsibility for most of the hands on planning for a funeral. This includes dressing and preparing the deceased body for the burial. Displays and expressions of grief are often set aside until every possession owned by the deceased leaves the home.

In Amish community based funerals, everybody in the town shares everything about the event. The families are responsibility for particular choices as far as traditional funeral plans are concerned and which take place in a funeral home. Simplicity is the theme of focus and a simple wooden box is used. There is very little cosmetic work on a deceased body. Ornate stones, flowers and such things as mourning codes remain at a bare minimum.

Members of the Thai community observe almost universal cremation funeral rites. Their customs have certain distinct actions such as placing of coins on a deceased mouth by their family. White threads tie the feet and hands of the deceased. Money, candles and flowers adorn the deceased hands. Additionally, monetary gifts and flowers go on to a cremation pyre.

For the traditional Bolivians customs, there are certain unique traits not seen elsewhere in the world. These include having entirely separate cremation ceremonies for the deceased clothes. This rite releases the soul of the departed deceased into the after world according to Bolivian believes.

In many cases, internationally observed funeral rites are simply extensions of funeral plans most people are familiar about. There is also collective reverence for a deceased and attention to their personal items. It is comes as an opportunity for families and friends to gather together and mourn irrespective of where they are all respectively traveling from.

The incorporation of traditional as well as religious rites offers people a means to personalize plans for funerals. In most instances, the ceremony is a means to assent to the wishes and beliefs of a departed. In a bid to adhere to time honoured practices or rites, people often leave instructions about the manner their families shall handle their funerals. Many people place such instructions in their written wills.




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