Death and Culture

We have recently experienced the death of two family members and while it has obviously been a sad and emotionally draining experience, it did make me wonder about the different cultural reactions to death. This might seem like quite a grim subject matter, but death inherently forms part of life and the way we decide to honour the departed says a great deal about our upbringing and our cultural influences. The experience of grief is obviously quite similar in all cultures – while we might have different cultural influences, we are all human.

The rituals involved in honouring our dead are of great importance, and by rituals I mean some form of honouring the deceased and the interment of the remains. While most of these rituals have more or less the same basis, the differences we see are the aspects of these rituals that highlight the deceased and his/her loved one’s cultures.

I have always felt that the rituals of honouring our dead are a very important aspect of the grieving process. Firstly it helps the loved ones of the deceased to accept the loss and say their final goodbyes while secondly it is a last celebration of somebody’s life, a final mark that person leaves on this earth.

Burial methods also have a direct cultural influence and oddly enough, tend to change according to fashion, especially in Western cultures. This is based on a direct observation I made last year at a relative’s funeral. As you moved from the older graves on to the more recent grave sites (with the exception of people who reserved these sites long before burial), you see a definite trend from the one section to the next. One section would be mostly tree-stump gravestones, the next would be crosses and so on.

Death is one of the few certainties in this life and we all have to cope with it at some point or another, just remember that when a loved one does pass away, the way you handle the rituals of that death will be very important. A funeral is after all a celebration of someone’s life that has passed.

Blessings,

Mel

Featured Image:

Old Man in Sorrow

Vincent Van Gogh

Oil on Canvas

1890

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/340/Old-Man-in-Sorrow-%28On-the-Threshold-of-Eternity%29.html