Post-funerary rites and customs
Funerary rites do not usually terminate with the disposal of the corpse either by burial or cremation. Post-funerary ceremonies and customs may continue for varying periods; they have generally had two not necessarily mutually exclusive motives: to mourn the dead and to purify the mourners. The mourning of the dead, especially by near relatives, has taken many forms. The wearing of old or colourless dress, either black or white, the shaving of the hair or letting it grow long and unkempt, and abstention from amusements have all been common practice. The meaning of such action seems evident: grief felt for the loss of a dear relative or friend naturally expresses itself in forms of self-denial. But the purpose may sometimes have been intended to divert the ill humour of the dead from those who still enjoyed life in this world.
The purification of mourners has been the other powerful motive in much post-funerary action. Death being regarded as baleful, all who came in contact with it were contaminated thereby. Consequently, among many peoples, various forms of purification have been prescribed, chiefly bathing and fumigation. Parsis are especially intent also on cleansing the room in which the death occurred and all articles that had contact with the dead body.
In some post-funerary rituals, dancing and athletic contests have had a place. The dancing seems to have been inspired by various but generally obscure motives. There is some evidence that Egyptian mortuary dances were intended to generate a vitalizing potency that would benefit the dead. Dances among other peoples suggest the purpose of warding off the (evil) spirits of the dead. Funeral games would seem to have been, in essence, prophylactic assertions of vitalizing energy in the presence of death. It has been suggested that the funeral games of the Etruscans, which involved the shedding of blood, had also a sacrificial significance.
Another widespread funerary custom has been the funeral banquet, which might be held in the presence of the corpse before burial or in the tomb-chapel (in ancient Rome) or on the return of the mourners to the home of the deceased. The purpose behind these meals is not clear, but they seem originally to have been of a ritual character. Two curious instances of mortuary eating may be mentioned in this connection. There was an old Welsh custom of “sin eating”: food and drink were handed across the corpse to a man who undertook thereby to ingest the sins of the deceased. In Bavaria, Leichennudeln, or “corpse cakes,” were placed upon the dead body before baking. By consuming these cakes, the kinsmen were supposed to absorb the virtues and abilities of their deceased relatives.
A remarkable post-funerary custom has been observed in Islām; it is known as the Chastisement of the Tomb. It is believed that, on the night following the burial, two angels, Munkar and Nakīr, enter the tomb. They question the deceased about his faith. If his answers are correct, the angels open a door in the side of the tomb for him to pass to repose in paradise. If the deceased fails his grisly interrogation, he is terribly beaten by the angels, and his torment continues until the end of the world and the final judgment. In preparation for this awful examination the roof of the tomb is constructed to enable the deceased to sit up; and, immediately after burial, a man known as a fiqī (or faqih) is employed to instruct the dead in the right answers.
Cults and memorials of the dead
Commemorative rites and services
The attitude of the living toward the dead has also been conditioned by the particular belief held about the human nature and destiny. Where death is regarded as the virtual extinction of the personality, the dead should logically have no more importance beyond that which their memory might stir in those who knew them. Even in the negative eschatologies of ancient Mesopotamia and Greece, however, the dead were thought of as still existent and capable of malevolent action if food offerings were not made to them. In those religions that have envisaged a more positive afterlife, the tendance of the dead has been developed in varying ways. In Egypt, it led to the building and endowment of mortuary temples or chapels, in which portrait images preserved the memory of the dead and offerings of food and drink were regularly made. In China, an elaborate ancestor cult flourished. The ancestral shrine contained tablets, inscribed with the names of ancestors, which were revered and before which offerings were made. The number of tablets displayed in the shrine was determined by the social status of the family. When the tablet of a newly deceased member was added to the collection, the oldest tablet was deposited in a chest containing still older ones: offerings to the remoter ancestors were made collectively at longer intervals. In India, three generations of deceased ancestors are venerated at the monthly śrāddha festival, at which mortuary offerings were made.
The Christian cult of the dead found early expression in the catacombs, where mural paintings and inscriptions record the names of those buried there and the hopes of eternal peace and felicity that inspired them. Special chapels were made where the bodies of martyrs were entombed, and the anniversaries of their martyrdoms were commemorated by the celebration of the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper). The development of cults of martyrs and other saints in the medieval church centred on the veneration of their relics, which were often divided among several churches. The introduction of the doctrine of purgatory profoundly affected the postmortem care devoted to the ordinary dead. It was believed that the offering of the sacrifice of the mass could alleviate the sufferings of departed souls in purgatory. Consequently, the celebration of masses for the dead proliferated, and wealthy Christians endowed monasteries or chantry chapels where masses were said regularly for the repose of their own souls or those of their relatives. Prayers for the well-being of the dead have an important place in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and so-called “masses for the dead” were celebrated by Chinese Buddhists, influenced originally perhaps by the practice of the Nestorian Christians, who entered China in the 7th century ad.
In many religions, in addition to private cults of the dead, periodic commemorations of the dead have been kept. The oldest of the Hindu sacred texts, the Rigveda (Ṛgveda), records the practice of the ancient Aryan invaders of India. The sacred beverage called soma was set out on “the sacred grass,” and the ancestors were invited to ascend from their subterranean abode to partake of it and to bless their pious descendants. A similar ceremony, called the Anthesteria, was held in ancient Athens. On the day concerned, the souls of the dead (kēres) were believed to leave their tombs and revisit their former homes, where food was prepared for them. At sundown they were solemnly dismissed to the underworld with the formula: “out, kēres, the Anthesteria is ended.” Buddhist China kept a Feast of Wandering Souls each year, designed to help unfortunate souls suffering in the next world. The Christian All Souls’ Day, on November 2, which follows directly after All Saints’ Day, commemorates all the ordinary dead: requiem masses are celebrated for their repose, and in many Catholic countries relatives visit the graves and place lighted candles on them. After World War I the public commemoration of the fallen was instituted on November 11, the day of the armistice in 1918, in many of the countries concerned: the memory of the dead was solemnly recalled in a two-minute silence during the ceremony. The body of an unknown soldier, killed in the fighting, was also buried in the capital cities of many countries and has become the accepted focus of national reverence and devotion.