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How Can My Religious Affiliation Help In My Time Of Grief?

Funeral rituals have a different meaning for each faith belief system. For the Christians, the funeral is an opportunity for those left behind to commemorate the life of the one who died and impart the message that the deceased is now with their Creator in paradise. On the other hand, the Buddhist custom views the demise of a person as a transition to the next level of existence; and the funeral ritual honors this transitions. Furthermore, in the Buddhist tradition, those left behind are reminded about the impermanence of everything in this world.

Dying is an inevitable portion of being here on this earth. Dying is a part of the wheel of life. In each passing, there are those who pass away and there are those who grieve their loss. The role of the faith system for those who are left behind is to perform a rite of letting go. This rite of relinquishing is what is known as the funeral.

Church rules regulate the rites of funerals in Christian communities. However, there are over 200 different factions of Christianity that have their own unique customs and rituals relating to the funeral ceremony.

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The first and foremost custom in a Christian funeral that is organized before the actual ceremony relates to gathering around the deceased for a night and reciting prayers for the departed soul. This important tradition is called wake. According to present day traditions, this is the time where friends and family members see the deceased for the final time and offer their heartfelt respects. The body is preserved and placed either at the home or in a Church with only a particular number of visiting hours. In old times, the wake was succeeded by the ritual of absolution, which involved absolving the deceased of all his or her sins in the present life, and placing a cross on the chest and performing offertory where visitors put gifts in the casket.

The following stage is the actual service itself in which the dead person is put into a coach and brought to the Church, where the priests and others chant prayers and hymns from the Bible. Following this, the clergy asks a relative or a friend to give a eulogy before the burial. In certain cases funeral rituals include the tolling of bells to signify the end of the ceremony. Then the casket with the dead person in it is brought to the burial site for the last set of rituals, known as the burial service which precedes the burying.

Finally, the funeral’s completion is marked by a mourners’ lunch organised for the family members and those present at the funeral service. The primary objective of such rituals is to provide support to the grieving family and assist them to overcome their grief and resign themselves to the fate.

Death is a sensitive time. After all, funeral present the family with a need to transition into moving on with life. Get the best casket for your loved one’s burial. Unique version for reprint here: How Can My Religious Affiliation Help In My Time Of Grief?.