Weird Origins of Funeral Traditions
Most of us have gone to at least one funeral in our lives, but have you ever wondered why we do some of the rituals that just seem, well, natural?
If you’ve ever been to an open casket wake, you know that the eyes on the deceased are always closed. Yes it would be a little earie to have the person in the coffin staring back at you, but the custom of closing the eyes actually comes from superstitions. People used to believe that bodies of deceased were entry ways for ghosts to cross over into the living world. Closing the dead persons eyes was an attempt to keep ghosts from using them as windows into our world. Covering dead bodies with a sheet also goes back to ghosts crossing over. There are some pagan beliefs that a persons mouth could be a gateway and the sheet was placed over it so as to hinder the ghost.
Tombstones are a tradition that was originally started in an attempt to “weigh down” a spirit so they couldn’t rise from the grave. Many ancient cemeteries have a series of mazes through them to keep ghosts trapped inside because people believed that ghosts could only travel in a straight line. Even today many cemeteries are set up so in the grave a persons head points to the west and their feet to the east. Pagans began this tradition for sun worshiping. Many Christians also do this because they believe that when Christ returns he will come from the east. The tradition of funeral bells and firing of the guns were started to scare off the spirits so they wouldn’t follow mourners home.
Cremation also has very strong roots in paganism. Most ancient religions involved burning animals, plants, and humans as sacrifices, so it’s only natural to understand why they would also burn the bodies of the deceased. In those religions they believed that the smoke rising from the body is actually the spirit of the deceased rising to the afterlife.
Most ceremonial things that are still done today has very different meanings at their origins. And now you see that even in a country where over 85% of the population claim to be christian, one of the biggest ceremonies performed in a persons life, a funeral, has many of it’s roots in pagan religions. Makes you wonder what other things we do come from other religious customs.
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