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A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. [1] Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect the dead, from interment, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honour.
Ideal funeral practices meant burning an ornamental pyre for the deceased, that would burn with enough heat and a long enough time to only leave ashes and small bone fragments. Having to use another's pyre was a sign of poverty or emergency cases. [22] The process of constructing and properly burning a funeral pyre is a skilled task.
A wake, funeral reception [1] or visitation is a social gathering associated with death, held before a funeral. Traditionally, a wake involves family and friends keeping watch over the body of the dead person, usually in the home of the deceased. Some wakes are held at a funeral home or another convenient location.
In England, an ancient custom was the ringing of church bells at three specific times before and after the death of a Christian. Sometimes a passing bell was first rung when the person was still dying, [1] [2] then the death knell upon the death, [3] and finally the lych bell, which was rung at the funeral as the procession approached the church.
The arrangement for Princess Louisa's funeral during 1768, held the first announcement that women were to be utilised as contributors of the pall at the funeral. [13] Garter King of Arms then promptly notified the Lord Chamberlain that ladies had only gone into a funeral process by mourning or attendants under the chief mourners. [ 13 ]
Historically, a bell would be rung on three occasions around the time of a death. The first was the "passing bell" to warn of impending death, followed by the death knell which was the ringing of a bell immediately after the death, and the last was the "lych bell", or "corpse bell" which was rung at the funeral as the procession approached the church. [1]
At the funeral, mourners wear an outer garment that is torn before the procession in a ritual known as keriah. In some traditions, mourners wear a black ribbon that is cut in place of an everyday garment. [3] [4] The torn article is worn throughout the entirety of shiva. Typically, the seven days begin immediately after the deceased has been ...
In 2002, a 65-year-old woman by the name of Kuttu died after sitting on her husband's funeral pyre in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh. [150] On 18 May 2006, Vidyawati, a 35-year-old woman allegedly committed sati by jumping into the blazing funeral pyre of her husband in Rari-Bujurg Village, Fatehpur district, Uttar Pradesh. [151]