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International Funeral Rites And 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.

Whereas most funeral plans are different depending on individual cultures, no strict universal demands for funerals are around. Differing rites, when observed, vary with international localities. In China, how big the number of people in attendance apparently determines the luck levels a family will get. It is a representation of how well the deceased shall prosper in the afterlife. Professionally hired groups of mourners come to funerals to add the attendance numbers as a result.

In the Philippines and for the Pilipino around the world, funerals last for days, a minimum of three to as many as seven. Many people in attendance for the ceremony remain until the entire ceremony is over. Concerning Haitians, a deceased persons family members take full responsibility for a large part of the funeral planning. This involves dressing or preparing the deceased body in readiness for burial. Displays or expressions of grief have need suppression until all the possessions a departed owned have left their home.

All the members of the Amish community in a town or village come out to share every aspect of the ceremony. The family takes full responsibility in as far as every traditional plan is concerned and where most rites happen in the funeral home. Simplicity is the basic tenet where even a wooden but simple box is often used. Very little work in cosmetic form happens on the body. Flowers and ornate stones are discouraged. Mourners observe bare minimum mourning dressing codes.

Within the Thai community, cremation is almost universal. Customs include preparing a body for the rites with members of the family placing coins onto a deceased mouth. A white thread ties hands and feet of a deceased. Flowers, money and candles go into the hands. Additional flowers and monetary gifts adorn a deceased pyre as it goes into cremations.

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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