Death Rituals and Funerals may vary depending on the country, religion or tradition but the ultimate goal of the process is to mourn and pray for the departed soul and help the bereaved cope up with the death. Below is the list of 6 death rituals and funerals which were/still performed in different parts of the world which might shock you:
A trend has started in South Korea where instead of burying the body in a cemetery it is burnt to ashes and from ashes converted into beautiful beads. Cremation is carried out at ultra-high temperature which turns the dead body into a ceramic bead. The bead is generally kept in a jar as a showcase or in a utensil as a way to keep the deceased close by. The beads come in many colours from shiny blue-green to pink and black. Source: Death Beads
A person might confuse a funeral procession with some wild party where the relatives of the deceased hire strippers and dancers to add pomp and glamour to the Funeral ceremony. Yes, indeed people like to send off the deceased in a grand manner so as to attract large number of mourners as in Taiwan and some parts of China people have established a direct relationship between the number of people who attend the funeral ceremony to the greatness, respect, class of the deceased person. Source: Strippers
The female members and children of the Dani tribe in Papua New Guinea voluntarily cut a segment of their finger to express grief and suffering for the loss of a relative.The finger is tightly tied with a string for about 30 minutes so as to benumb the area. After that it is cut using a special cutting tool by a male member of the family. The severed portion of the finger is either dried or burned to ashes and stored in a special place. The remaining portion of the finger is wrapped with healing plants. Source: Finger cut
Aboriginal society has a series of death rituals to make sure the spirit returns to its birth place to be reborn again. It starts with the smoking ceremony in the living area of the deceased person to drive the spirit away. Next a feast is held where people eat and dance. The body is wrapped with leaves, branches and placed on an elevated wooden platform for decomposition. Fluids coming out of the corpse is collected and rubbed over the bodies of young people which transfers the good qualities of the deceased.Source:Aboroginals
Malagasy people in Madagascar surely know how to party around the dead. Every 7 years family members of the deceased exhume the dead body, wrap it in fine silk, spray wine or perfume over it and dance around to the tune of live music. The celebration is joined not only by the close family members of the deceased but by the extended family members too. When the festivity ends the body is placed in a tomb. Source: Famadihana
Tana Toraja people of Sulawesi islands in Indonesia build special traditional houses called Tongkonan which houses only the dead people. When a person dies the corpse is embalmed and placed inside Tongkonan. The family members raise money for the funeral process which is a grand affair like a sendoff party and often runs into thousands of dollars. It can even take a few weeks to years to raise money. During this period the corpse is considered to be alive but suffering from an illness. People make sure to include the deceased family member in their day-to-day life by changing the clothes, feeding and taking the deceased family member out for a walk.After an extravagant funeral ceremony the dead is buried in a cave with special tools as they believe the tools would help the dead in its afterlife. Source: Tana Toraja
Feel free to share some more strange death rituals in the comment below if you are aware of it!
