eBay

RARE Original Billhead

H.B. Dewey

Undertaker & Embalmer
Clayton, New York

1902

For offer, a rare billhead! Fresh from an old prominent estate. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !!

Nice graphic lithograph illustration of building / store. Signed by Dewey - estate of Johanna O'Leary - casket. Back is blank. In very good condition - two small holes at top, often seen with billheads - fold marks, light age toning. NOTE: will be sent folded up in envelope as found. Please see photos. If you collect 20th century Americana advertisement ad history, post mortem, death, American mortuary, etc. this is a nice one for your paper or ephemera collection. Genealogy research importance as well. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins! 2491

Dewey, H. B., was born in the town of Orleans, Jefferson county, March 4, 1859, a son of B. W. and Ellen (Hallett) Dewey, natives of New York State. After receiving a liberal education Mr. Dewey taught school for ten winters and then went into the excursion business on the St. Lawrence; subsequently he embarked in the furniture and undertaking business and is the leader in Clayton because of his enterprise and progressive methods. Mr. Dewey is a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Odd Fellows and Foresters. In 1890 he married Mamie L. Swart of Clayton, and they have one daughter, Lois Gertrude. Mr. Dewey is a self-made man and his enterprises have always proved successful.

Source:

Our County and it's people

a descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York

Edited by: Edgar C. Emerson

The Boston History Co., Publishers, Syracuse, N. Y. 1898

Clayton is a town in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 5,153 at the 2010 census.[3] The town is named after John M. Clayton, a federal political leader from Delaware.

The town contains a village also named Clayton. Both are northwest of Watertown.

The village of Clayton, nearby Cape Vincent, and Alexandria Bay are popular tourist destinations on the New York mainland side of the Thousand Islands region.

History

The area was first settled around 1801.

The town was formed from parts of the towns of Orleans and Lyme in 1833. The town was named after statesman John M. Clayton. The village of Clayton became the main railroad terminus for the Thousand Islands resort region, during its heyday at the turn of the twentieth century. The town of Clayton offered several hotels to visitors, some grand, now mostly vanished.

In 1872, the community of Clayton voted to set itself apart from the town by incorporating as a village.

Fairview Manor, Swarthout Site-A04507.000038, and Grindstone Island Upper Schoolhouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[4][5]

A funeral is a ceremony connected with the burial, cremation, or interment of a corpse, or the burial (or equivalent) 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 honor. Customs vary between cultures and religious groups. Common secular motivations for funerals include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life, and offering support and sympathy to the bereaved; additionally, funerals may have religious aspects that are intended to help the soul of the deceased reach the afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation.

The funeral usually includes a ritual through which the corpse receives a final dispositon.[2] Depending on culture and religion, these can involve either the destruction of the body (for example, by cremation or sky burial) or its preservation (for example, by mummification or interment). Differing beliefs about cleanliness and the relationship between body and soul are reflected in funerary practices. A memorial service or celebration of life is a funerary ceremony that is performed without the remains of the deceased person.[3]

The word funeral comes from the Latin funus, which had a variety of meanings, including the corpse and the funerary rites themselves. Funerary art is art produced in connection with burials, including many kinds of tombs, and objects specially made for burial like flowers with a corpse.

Overview

Peasant funeral in the Mam Turk mountains of Connemara, Ireland, 1870

Funeral rites are as old as human culture itself, pre-dating modern Homo sapiens and dated to at least 300,000 years ago.[4] For example, in the Shanidar Cave in Iraq, in Pontnewydd Cave in Wales and at other sites across Europe and the Near East,[4] archaeologists have discovered Neanderthal skeletons with a characteristic layer of flower pollen. This deliberate burial and reverence given to the dead has been interpreted as suggesting that Neanderthals had religious beliefs,[4] although the evidence is not unequivocal – while the dead were apparently buried deliberately, burrowing rodents could have introduced the flowers.[5]

Substantial cross-cultural and historical research document funeral customs as a highly predictable, stable force in communities.[6][7] Funeral customs tend to be characterized by five "anchors": significant symbols, gathered community, ritual action, cultural heritage, and transition of the dead body (corpse).[2]

Religious funerals

Bahá'í

Funerals in the Bahá'í Faith are characterized by not embalming, a prohibition against cremation, using a chrysolite or hardwood casket, wrapping the body in silk or cotton, burial not farther than an hour (including flights) from the place of death, and placing a ring on the deceased's finger stating, "I came forth from God, and return unto Him, detached from all save Him, holding fast to His Name, the Merciful, the Compassionate." The Bahá'í funeral service also contains the only prayer that's permitted to be read as a group - congregational prayer, although most of the prayer is read by one person in the gathering. The Bahá'í decedent often controls some aspects of the Bahá'í funeral service, since leaving a will and testament is a requirement for Bahá'ís. Since there is no Bahá'í clergy, services are usually conducted under the guise, or with the assistance of, a Local Spiritual Assembly.[8]

Buddhist

Main article: Funeral (Buddhism)

A Buddhist funeral marks the transition from one life to the next for the deceased. It also reminds the living of their own mortality.

Christian

Funeral of Indian Syro-Malabar Eastern Catholic Venerable Varghese Payyappilly Palakkappilly on 6 October 1929.

Main articles: Christian burial and Cremation in the Christian World

Christian burials typically occur on consecrated ground. Burial, rather than a destructive process such as cremation, was the traditional practice amongst Christians, because of the belief in the resurrection of the body. Cremations later came into widespread use, although some denominations forbid them. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops said "The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine" (canon 1176.3).[9]

Congregations of varied denominations perform different ceremonies, but most involve offering prayers, scripture reading from the Bible, a sermon, homily, or eulogy, and music.[2][10] One issue of concern as the 21st century began was with the use of secular music at Christian funerals, a custom generally forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church.[11]

Hindu

Main article: Antyesti

Antyesti, literally "last rites or last sacrifice", refers to the rite-of-passage rituals associated with a funeral in Hinduism.[12] It is sometimes referred to as Antima Samskaram, Antya-kriya, Anvarohanyya, or Vahni Sanskara.

A dead adult Hindu is cremated, while a dead child is typically buried.[13][14] The rite of passage is said to be performed in harmony with the sacred premise that the microcosm of all living beings is a reflection of a macrocosm of the universe.[15] The soul (Atman, Brahman) is believed to be the immortal essence that is released at the Antyeshti ritual, but both the body and the universe are vehicles and transitory in various schools of Hinduism. They consist of five elements: air, water, fire, earth and space.[15] The last rite of passage returns the body to the five elements and origins.[13][15] The roots of this belief are found in the Vedas, for example in the hymns of Rigveda in section 10.16, as follows,

A Hindu cremation rite in Nepal. The samskara above shows the body wrapped in saffron red on a pyre.

Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni: let not his body or his skin be scattered,

O all possessing Fire, when thou hast matured him, then send him on his way unto the Fathers.

When thou hast made him ready, all possessing Fire, then do thou give him over to the Fathers,

When he attains unto the life that waits him, he shall become subject to the will of gods.

The Sun receive thine eye, the Wind thy Prana (life-principle, breathe); go, as thy merit is, to earth or heaven.

Go, if it be thy lot, unto the waters; go, make thine home in plants with all thy members.

— Rigveda 10.16[16]

The final rites of a burial, in case of untimely death of a child, is rooted in Rig Veda's section 10.18, where the hymns mourn the death of the child, praying to deity Mrityu to "neither harm our girls nor our boys", and pleads the earth to cover, protect the deceased child as a soft wool.[17]

Among Hindus, the dead body is usually cremated within a day of death. The body is washed, wrapped in white cloth for a man or a widow, red for a married woman,[14] the two toes tied together with a string, a Tilak (red mark) placed on the forehead.[13] The dead adult's body is carried to the cremation ground near a river or water, by family and friends, and placed on a pyre with feet facing south.[14] The eldest son, or a male mourner, or a priest then bathes before leading the cremation ceremonial function.[13][18] He circumambulates the dry wood pyre with the body, says a eulogy or recites a hymn in some cases, places sesame seed in the dead person's mouth, sprinkles the body and the pyre with ghee (clarified butter), then draws three lines signifying Yama (deity of the dead), Kala (time, deity of cremation) and the dead.[13] The pyre is then set ablaze, while the mourners mourn. The ash from the cremation is consecrated to the nearest river or sea.[18] After the cremation, a period of mourning is observed for 10 to 12 days after which the immediate male relatives or the sons of the deceased shave their head, trim their nails, recites prayers with the help of priest or Brahmin and invite all relatives, kins, friends and neighbours to eat a simple meal together in remembrance of the deceased. This day, in some communities, also marks a day when the poor and needy are offered food in memory of the dead.[19]

Islamic

Main article: Islamic funeral

1779 Algerian funerals

Funerals in Islam (called Janazah in Arabic) follow fairly specific rites. In all cases, however, sharia (Islamic religious law) calls for burial of the body, preceded by a simple ritual involving bathing and shrouding the body, followed by salat (prayer).

Burial rituals should normally take place as soon as possible and include:

Bathing the dead body with water, camphor and leaves of ziziphus lotus,[20] except in extraordinary circumstances as in the Battle.[21]

Enshrouding the dead body in a white cotton or linen cloth except extraordinary cases such as battle. In such cases apparel of corpse is not changed.[22]

Reciting the funeral prayer in all cases for a Muslim.

Burial of the dead body in a grave in all cases for a Muslim.

Positioning the deceased so that when the face or body is turned to the right side it faces Mecca.

The mourning period is 40 days long.[23]

Jewish

Main article: Bereavement in Judaism

In Judaism, funerals follow fairly specific rites, though they are subject to variation in custom. Funerals in Judaism share many features with those of Islam. Jewish religious law (Halakha) calls for preparatory rituals involving bathing and shrouding the body accompanied by prayers and readings from the Hebrew Bible, and then a funeral service marked by eulogies and brief prayers, and then the lowering of the body into the grave and the filling of the grave. Traditional law and practice forbid cremation of the body; the Reform Jewish movement generally discourages cremation but does not outright forbid it.[24][25]

Burial rites should normally take place as soon as possible and include:

Bathing the dead body.

Enshrouding the dead body. Men are shrouded with a kittel and then (outside the Land of Israel) with a tallit (shawl), while women are shrouded in a plain white cloth.

Keeping watch over the dead body.

Funeral service, including eulogies and brief prayers.

Burial of the dead body in a grave.[24]

Filling of the grave, traditionally done by family members and other participants at the funeral.

In many communities, the deceased is positioned so that the feet face the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (in anticipation that the deceased will be facing the reconstructed Third Temple when the messiah arrives and resurrects the dead).[26]

Sikh

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In Sikhism death is not considered a natural process, an event that has absolute certainty and only happens as a direct result of God's Will or Hukam.[clarification needed] To a Sikh, birth and death are closely associated, because they are both part of the cycle of human life of "coming and going" ( ਆਵਣੁ ਜਾਣਾ, Aana Jaana) which is seen as transient stage towards Liberation ( ਮੋਖੁ ਦੁਆਰੁ, Mokh Du-aar), complete unity with God; Sikhs believe in reincarnation.

The soul itself is not subject to the cycle of birth and death;[citation needed] death is only the progression of the soul on its journey from God, through the created universe and back to God again. In life a Sikh is expected to constantly remember death so that he or she may be sufficiently prayerful, detached and righteous to break the cycle of birth and death and return to God.

The public display of grief by wailing or crying out loud at the funeral (called Antam Sanskar in the Sikh culture) is discouraged and should be kept to a minimum. Cremation is the preferred method of disposal, although if this is not possible other methods such as burial, or burial at sea, are acceptable. Markers such as gravestones, monuments,[citation needed] etc. are discouraged, because the body is considered to be only the shell and the person's soul is their real essence.

On the day of the cremation, the body is washed and dressed and then taken to the Gurdwara or home where hymns (Shabads) from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh Scriptures are recited by the congregation. Kirtan may also be performed by Ragis while the relatives of the deceased recite "Waheguru" sitting near the coffin. This service normally takes from 30 to 60 minutes. At the conclusion of the service, an Ardas is said before the coffin is taken to the cremation site.

At the point of cremation, a few more Shabads may be sung and final speeches are made about the deceased person. The eldest son or a close relative generally lights the fire. This service usually lasts about 30 to 60 minutes.

The ashes are later collected and disposed of by immersing them in the Punjab (five famous rivers in India).

The Sidaran Paath The ceremony in which the Sidharan Paath is begun after the cremation ceremony, may be held when convenient, wherever the Guru Granth Sahib is present:

Hymns are sung from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The first five and final verses of "Anand Sahib," the "Song of Bliss," are recited or sung. The first five verses of Sikhism's morning prayer, "Japji Sahib," are read aloud to begin the Sidharan paath. A hukam, or random verse, is read from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Ardas, a prayer, is offered. Prashad, a sacred sweet, is distributed. Langar, a meal, is served to guests. While the Sidharan paath is being read, the family may also sing hymns daily. Reading may take as long as needed to complete the paath.

This ceremony is followed by Sahaj Paath Bhog, Kirtan Sohila, night time prayer is recited 1 week and finally Ardas called the "Antim Ardas" ("Final Prayer") is offered the last week.

Western funerals

Classical antiquity

Ancient Greece

The lying in state of a body (prothesis) attended by family members, with the women ritually tearing their hair (Attic, latter 6th century BC)

Main article: Ancient Greek funerals and burial

The Greek word for funeral – kēdeía (κηδεία) – derives from the verb kēdomai (κήδομαι), that means attend to, take care of someone. Derivative words are also kēdemón (κηδεμών, "guardian") and kēdemonía (κηδεμονία, "guardianship"). From the Cycladic civilization in 3000BC until the Hypo-Mycenaean era in 1200–1100 BC the main practice of burial is interment. The cremation of the dead that appears around the 11th century BC constitutes a new practice of burial and is probably an influence from the East. Until the Christian era, when interment becomes again the only burial practice, both cremation and interment had been practiced depending on the area.[27]

The ancient Greek funeral since the Homeric era included the próthesis (πρόθεσις), the ekphorá (ἐκφορά), the burial and the perídeipnon (περίδειπνον). In most cases, this process is followed faithfully in Greece until today.[28]

Próthesis is the deposition of the body of the deceased on the funereal bed and the threnody of his relatives. Today the body is placed in the casket, that is always open in Greek funerals. This part takes place in the house where the deceased had lived. An important part of the Greek tradition is the epicedium, the mournful songs that are sung by the family of the deceased along with professional mourners (who are extinct in the modern era). The deceased was watched over by his beloved the entire night before the burial, an obligatory ritual in popular thought, which is maintained still.

Ekphorá is the process of transport of the mortal remains of the deceased from his residence to the church, nowadays, and afterward to the place of burial. The procession in the ancient times, according to the law, should have passed silently through the streets of the city. Usually certain favourite objects of the deceased were placed in the coffin in order to "go along with him." In certain regions, coins to pay Charon, who ferries the dead to the underworld, are also placed inside the casket. A last kiss is given to the beloved dead by the family before the coffin is closed.

Funeral with flowers on marble

The Roman orator Cicero[citation needed] describes the habit of planting flowers around the tomb as an effort to guarantee the repose of the deceased and the purification of the ground, a custom that is maintained until today. After the ceremony, the mourners return to the house of the deceased for the perídeipnon, the dinner after the burial. According to archaeological findings–traces of ash, bones of animals, shards of crockery, dishes and basins–the dinner during the classical era was also organized at the burial spot. Taking into consideration the written sources, however, the dinner could also be served in the houses.[29]

Two days after the burial, a ceremony called "the thirds" was held. Eight days after the burial the relatives and the friends of the deceased assembled at the burial spot, where "the ninths" would take place, a custom still kept. In addition to this, in the modern era, memorial services take place 40 days, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year after the death and from then on every year on the anniversary of the death. The relatives of the deceased, for an unspecified length of time that depends on them, are in mourning, during which women wear black clothes and men a black armband.[clarification needed]

Ancient Rome

Tomb of the Scipios, in use from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD

Main article: Roman funerals and burial

In ancient Rome, the eldest surviving male of the household, the pater familias, was summoned to the death-bed, where he attempted to catch and inhale the last breath of the decedent.

Funerals of the socially prominent usually were undertaken by professional undertakers called libitinarii. No direct description has been passed down of Roman funeral rites. These rites usually included a public procession to the tomb or pyre where the body was to be cremated. The surviving relations bore masks bearing the images of the family's deceased ancestors. The right to carry the masks in public eventually was restricted to families prominent enough to have held curule magistracies. Mimes, dancers, and musicians hired by the undertakers, and professional female mourners, took part in these processions. Less well-to-do Romans could join benevolent funerary societies (collegia funeraticia) that undertook these rites on their behalf.

Nine days after the disposal of the body, by burial or cremation, a feast was given (cena novendialis) and a libation poured over the grave or the ashes. Since most Romans were cremated, the ashes typically were collected in an urn and placed in a niche in a collective tomb called a columbarium (literally, "dovecote"). During this nine-day period, the house was considered to be tainted, funesta, and was hung with Taxus baccata or Mediterranean Cypress branches to warn passersby. At the end of the period, the house was swept out to symbolically purge it of the taint of death.

Several Roman holidays commemorated a family's dead ancestors, including the Parentalia, held February 13 through 21, to honor the family's ancestors; and the Feast of the Lemures, held on May 9, 11, and 13, in which ghosts (larvae) were feared to be active, and the pater familias sought to appease them with offerings of beans.

The Romans prohibited cremation or inhumation within the sacred boundary of the city (pomerium), for both religious and civil reasons, so that the priests might not be contaminated by touching a dead body, and that houses would not be endangered by funeral fires.

Restrictions on the length, ostentation, expense of, and behaviour during funerals and mourning gradually were enacted by a variety of lawmakers. Often the pomp and length of rites could be politically or socially motivated to advertise or aggrandise a particular kin group in Roman society. This was seen as deleterious to society and conditions for grieving were set. For instance, under some laws, women were prohibited from loud wailing or lacerating their faces and limits were introduced for expenditure on tombs and burial clothes.

The Romans commonly built tombs for themselves during their lifetime. Hence these words frequently occur in ancient inscriptions, V.F. Vivus Facit, V.S.P. Vivus Sibi Posuit. The tombs of the rich usually were constructed of marble, the ground enclosed with walls, and planted around with trees. But common sepulchres usually were built below ground, and called hypogea. There were niches cut out of the walls, in which the urns were placed; these, from their resemblance to the niche of a pigeon-house, were called columbaria.

North American funerals

A floral name tribute (spelling out the word "Mum") at a funeral in England.

Within the United States and Canada, in most cultural groups and regions, the funeral rituals can be divided into three parts: visitation, funeral, and the burial service.

A western-style funeral motorcade for a member of a high-ranking military family in South Korea.

Visitation

At the visitation (also called a "viewing", "wake" or "calling hours"), in Christian or secular Western custom, the body of the deceased person (or decedent) is placed on display in the casket (also called a coffin, however almost all body containers are caskets). The viewing often takes place on one or two evenings before the funeral. In the past, it was common practice to place the casket in the decedent’s home or that of a relative for viewing. This practice continues in many areas of Ireland and Scotland. The body is traditionally dressed in the decedent's best clothes. In recent times there has been more variation in what the decedent is dressed in – some people choose to be dressed in clothing more reflective of how they dressed in life. The body will often be adorned with common jewelry, such as watches, necklaces, brooches, etc. The jewelry may be taken off and given to the family of the deceased prior to burial or be buried with the deceased. Jewelry has to be removed before cremation in order to prevent damage to the crematory. The body may or may not be embalmed, depending upon such factors as the amount of time since the death has occurred, religious practices, or requirements of the place of burial.

The most commonly prescribed aspects of this gathering are that the attendees sign a book kept by the deceased's survivors to record who attended. In addition, a family may choose to display photographs taken of the deceased person during his/her life (often, formal portraits with other family members and candid pictures to show "happy times"), prized possessions and other items representing his/her hobbies and/or accomplishments. A more recent trend is to create a DVD with pictures and video of the deceased, accompanied by music, and play this DVD continuously during the visitation.

The viewing is either "open casket", in which the embalmed body of the deceased has been clothed and treated with cosmetics for display; or "closed casket", in which the coffin is closed. The coffin may be closed if the body was too badly damaged because of an accident or fire or other trauma, deformed from illness, if someone in the group is emotionally unable to cope with viewing the corpse, or if the deceased did not wish to be viewed. In cases such as these, a picture of the deceased, usually a formal photo, is placed atop the casket.

The tombstone of Yossele the Holy Miser. According to Jewish bereavement tradition, the dozens of stones on his tombstone mark respect for the Holy Miser.

However, this step is foreign to Judaism; Jewish funerals are held soon after death (preferably within a day or two, unless more time is needed for relatives to come), and the corpse is never displayed. Torah law forbids embalming.[30] Traditionally flowers (and music) are not sent to a grieving Jewish family as it is a reminder of the life that is now lost. The Jewish shiva tradition discourages family members from cooking, so food is brought by friends and neighbors.[23] (See also Jewish bereavement.)

The decedent's closest friends and relatives who are unable to attend frequently send flowers to the viewing, with the exception of a Jewish funeral,[31] where flowers would not be appropriate (donations are often given to a charity instead).

Obituaries sometimes contain a request that attendees do not send flowers (e.g. "In lieu of flowers"). The use of these phrases has been on the rise for the past century. In the US in 1927, only 6% of the obituaries included the directive, with only 2.2% of those mentioned charitable contributions instead. By the middle of the century, they had grown to 14.5%, with over 54% of those noting a charitable contribution as the preferred method of expressing sympathy.[32] Today, well over 87% of them have such a note – but those statistics vary demographically.[citation needed]

The viewing typically takes place at a funeral home, which is equipped with gathering rooms where the viewing can be conducted, although the viewing may also take place at a church. The viewing may end with a prayer service; in a Roman Catholic funeral, this may include a rosary.

A visitation is often held the evening before the day of the funeral. However, when the deceased person is elderly the visitation may be held immediately preceding the funeral. This allows elderly friends of the deceased a chance to view the body and attend the funeral in one trip, since it may be difficult for them to arrange travel; this step may also be taken if the deceased has few survivors or the survivors want a funeral with only a small number of guests.[citation needed]

Funeral

Traditional flower arrangement for funeral (Denmark)

A memorial service, often called a funeral, is often officiated by clergy from the decedent's, or bereaved's, church or religion. A funeral may take place at either a funeral home, church, or crematorium or cemetery chapel. A funeral is held according to the family's choosing, which may be a few days after the time of death, allowing family members to attend the service. This type of memorial service is most common for Christians, and Roman Catholics call it a mass when Eucharist (communion) is offered, the casket is closed and a priest says prayers and blessings. A Roman Catholic funeral must take place in a parish church (usually that of the deceased, or that of the family grave, or a parish to which the deceased had special links). Sometimes family members or friends of the dead will say something. If the funeral service takes place in the funeral home (mostly it takes place in the funeral home's chapel) it can be directed by a clergy (mostly for Protestant churches and sometimes for Catholic churches) or hosted by a very close family member most common a parent. In some traditions if this service takes place in a funeral home it is the same if it would take place in a church. These services if taking place in a funeral home consists of prayers, blessings and eulogies from the family.

The open-casket service (which is common in North America) allows mourners to have a final opportunity to view the deceased and say good-bye. There is an order of precedence when approaching the casket at this stage that usually starts with the immediate family (siblings, parents, spouse, children); followed by other mourners, after which the immediate family may file past again, so they are the last to view their loved one before the coffin is closed. This opportunity can take place immediately before the service begins, or at the very end of the service.[33] A Roman Catholic funeral must be closed-casket, and relatives are expected to attend the few days before the service.[citation needed]

Open casket funerals and visitations are very rare in some countries, such as the United Kingdom and most European countries, where it is usual for only close relatives to actually see the deceased person and not uncommon for no one to do so. The funeral service itself is almost invariably closed casket. Funeral homes are generally not used for funeral services, which are almost exclusively held in a church, cemetery, or crematorium chapel.

The deceased is usually transported from the funeral home to a church in a hearse, a specialized vehicle designed to carry casketed remains. The deceased is often transported in a procession (also called a funeral cortège), with the hearse, funeral service vehicles, and private automobiles traveling in a procession to the church or other location where the services will be held. In a number of jurisdictions, special laws cover funeral processions – such as requiring most other vehicles to give right-of-way to a funeral procession. Funeral service vehicles may be equipped with light bars and special flashers to increase their visibility on the roads. They may also all have their headlights on, to identify which vehicles are part of the cortege, although the practice also has roots in ancient Roman customs.[34] After the funeral service, if the deceased is to be buried the funeral procession will proceed to a cemetery if not already there. If the deceased is to be cremated, the funeral procession may then proceed to the crematorium.

Beethoven's funeral as depicted by Franz Xaver Stöber.

Religious funeral services commonly include prayers, readings from a sacred text, hymns (sung either by the attendees or a hired vocalist) and words of comfort by the clergy. Frequently, a relative or close friend will be asked to give a eulogy, which details happy memories and accomplishments rather than criticism. Sometimes the eulogy is delivered by clergy. Church bells may also be tolled both before and after the service.

In some religious denominations, for example, Roman Catholic, and Anglican, eulogies from loved ones are somewhat discouraged during this service. In such cases, the eulogy is only done by a member of the clergy. This tradition is giving way to eulogies read by family members or friends. In these religions the coffin is traditionally closed at the end of the wake and is not re-opened for the funeral service.[citation needed]

During the funeral and at the burial service, the casket may be covered with a large arrangement of flowers, called a casket spray. If the deceased served in a branch of the armed forces, the casket may be covered with a national flag; however, in the US, nothing should cover the national flag according to Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1, Paragraph 8i. If the funeral service is held in a church, the casket is normally covered in a white pall, which recalls the white garments of baptism.

Funeral customs vary from country to country. In the United States, any type of noise other than quiet whispering or mourning is considered disrespectful. A traditional fire department funeral consists of two raised aerial ladders.[35] The firefighter(s) travel under the aerials on their ride, on the fire apparatus, to the cemetery. Once there, the grave service includes the playing of bagpipes. The pipes have come to be a distinguishing feature of a fallen hero's funeral. Also a "Last Alarm Bell" is rung. A portable fire department bell is tolled at the conclusion of the ceremony.

Burial service

John Everett Millais – The Vale of Rest

At a religious burial service, conducted at the side of the grave, tomb, mausoleum or cremation, the body of the decedent is buried or cremated at the conclusion.

Sometimes, the burial service will immediately follow the funeral, in which case a funeral procession travels from the site of the memorial service to the burial site. In some other cases, the burial service is the funeral, in which case the procession might travel from the cemetery office to the grave site. Other times, the burial service takes place at a later time, when the final resting place is ready, if the death occurred in the middle of winter.

If the decedent served in a branch of the Armed forces, military rites are often accorded at the burial service.

In many religious traditions, pallbearers, usually males who are relatives or friends of the decedent, will carry the casket from the chapel (of a funeral home or church) to the hearse, and from the hearse to the site of the burial service. The pallbearers often sit in a special reserved section during the memorial service.

Most religions expect coffins to be kept closed during the burial ceremony. In Eastern Orthodox funerals, the coffins are reopened just before burial to allow mourners to look at the deceased one last time and give their final farewells. Greek funerals are an exception as the coffin is open during the whole procedure unless the state of the body does not allow it.

Medieval depiction of a royal body being laid in a coffin.

Morticians may ensure that all jewelry, including wristwatch, that were displayed at the wake are in the casket before it is buried or entombed. Custom requires that everything goes into the ground; however this is not true for Jewish services. Jewish tradition stipulates that nothing of value is buried with the deceased.

In the case of cremation such items are usually removed before the body goes into the furnace. Pacemakers are removed prior to cremation – if left in they could explode.

Private services

The family of the deceased may wish to have only a very small, private service, with just the deceased's closest family members and friends attending. This type of ceremony is not open to the public, but only to those invited.

Memorial services

Order of exercises, local memorial service in Nashua, New Hampshire for U.S. President William McKinley on September 19, 1901, shortly after his assassination.

A memorial service, or a commemoration is one given for the deceased when the body is not present. The service takes place after cremation or burial at sea, after donation of the body to an academic or research institution, or after the ashes have been scattered. It is also significant when the person is missing and presumed dead, or known to be deceased though the body is not recoverable. These services often take place at a funeral home; however, they can be held in a home, school, workplace, church or other location of some significance. A memorial service may include speeches (eulogies), prayers, poems, or songs to commemorate the deceased. Pictures of the deceased and flowers are usually placed where the coffin would normally be placed.

After the sudden deaths of important public officials, public memorial services have been held by communities, including those without any specific connection to the deceased. For examples, community memorial services were held after the assassinations of US presidents James A. Garfield and William McKinley.

European funerals

In Wales

A good funeral (as they were called) had one draw the curtains for a period of time; at the wake, when new visitors arrived, they would enter from the front door and leave through the back door. The women stayed at home whilst the men attended the funeral, the village priest would then visit the family at their home to talk about the deceased and to console them.[36]

The first child of William Price, a Welsh Neo-Druidic priest, died in 1884. Believing that it was wrong to bury a corpse, and thereby pollute the earth, Price decided to cremate his son's body, a practice which had been common in Celtic societies. The police arrested him for the illegal disposal of a corpse.[37] Price successfully argued in court that while the law did not state that cremation was legal, it also did not state that it was illegal. The case set a precedent that, together with the activities of the newly-founded Cremation Society of Great Britain, led to the Cremation Act 1902.[38] The Act imposed procedural requirements before a cremation could occur and restricted the practice to authorised places.[39]

In Finland

In Finland, religious funerals (hautajaiset) are quite ascetic. The local priest or minister says prayers and blesses the deceased in their house. The mourners (saattoväki) traditionally bring food to the mourners' house. Nowadays the deceased is put into the coffin in the place where they died. The undertaker will pick up the coffin and place it in the hearse and drive it to the funeral home, while the closest relatives or friends of the deceased will follow the hearse in a funeral procession in their own cars. The coffin will be held at the funeral home until the day of the funeral. The funeral services may be divided into two parts. First is the church service (siunaustilaisuus) in a cemetery chapel or local church, than the burial.

In Iceland

Further information: Icelandic funeral

In Italy

The majority of Italians are Roman Catholic and follow Catholic funeral traditions. Historically, mourners would walk in a funeral procession to the gravesite; today vehicles are used.

In Greece

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In Poland

See also: Institute of Civil Funerals

Civil funerals are an alternative to religious or humanist ceremonies in the UK. Unlike a humanist funeral, a civil funeral can contain some religious content, such as hymns or reading if the family wish.[58]

Police/fire services

Traditional "crossed-ladders" for a fire department funeral

Funerals specifically for fallen members of fire or police services are common in United States and Canada. These funerals involve honour guards from police forces and/or fire services from across the country and sometimes from overseas.[59] A parade of officers often precedes or follows the hearse carrying the fallen comrade.[59]

Masonic

A Masonic funeral is held at the request of a departed Mason or family member. The service may be held in any of the usual places or a Lodge room with committal at graveside, or the complete service can be performed at any of the aforementioned places without a separate committal. Freemasonry does not require a Masonic funeral.

There is no single Masonic funeral service. Some Grand Lodges (it is a worldwide organisation) have a prescribed service. Some of the customs include the presiding officer wearing a hat while doing his part in the service, the Lodge members placing sprigs of evergreen on the casket, and a small white leather apron may being placed in or on the casket. The hat may be worn because it is Masonic custom (in some places in the world) for the presiding officer to have his head covered while officiating. To Masons the sprig of evergreen is a symbol of immortality. A Mason wears a white leather apron, called a "lambskin," on becoming a Mason, and he may continue to wear it even in death.[60][61]

Asian funerals

See also: Chinese funerary art, Chinese veneration of the dead, Ancestor veneration in China, wu (shaman), shi (personator), joss paper, and Culture of Vietnam § Funeral

Funeral procession in Beijing, 1900

A traditional armband indicating seniority and lineage in relation to the deceased, a common practice in South Korea.

In most East Asian, South Asian and many Southeast Asian cultures, the wearing of white is symbolic of death. In these societies, white or off-white robes are traditionally worn to symbolize that someone has died and can be seen worn among relatives of the deceased during a funeral ceremony. In Chinese culture, red is strictly forbidden as it is a traditionally symbolic color of happiness. Exceptions are sometimes made if the deceased has reached an advanced age such as 85, in which case the funeral is considered a celebration, where wearing white with some red is acceptable. Contemporary Western influence however has meant that dark-colored or black attire is now often also acceptable for mourners to wear (particularly for those outside the family). In such cases, mourners wearing dark colors at times may also wear a white or off-white armband or white robe.

Contemporary South Korean funerals typically mix western culture with traditional Korean culture, largely depending on socio-economic status, region, and religion. In almost all cases, all related males in the family wear woven armbands representing seniority and lineage in relation to the deceased, and must grieve next to the deceased for a period of three days before burying the body. During this period of time, it is customary for the males in the family to personally greet all who come to show respect. While burials have been preferred historically, recent trends show a dramatic increase in cremations due to shortages of proper burial sites and difficulties in maintaining a traditional grave. The ashes of the cremated corpse are commonly stored in columbaria.

In Japan

Main article: Japanese funeral

Sudangee or last offices being performed on a dead person, illustration from 1867

Most Japanese funerals are conducted with Buddhist and/or Shinto rites.[62] Many ritually bestow a new name on the deceased; funerary names typically use obsolete or archaic kanji and words, to avoid the likelihood of the name being used in ordinary speech or writing. The new names are typically chosen by a Buddhist priest, after consulting the family of the deceased. Most Japanese are cremated.

Religious thought among the Japanese people is generally a blend of Shintō and Buddhist beliefs. In modern practice, specific rites concerning an individual's passage through life are generally ascribed to one of these two faiths. Funerals and follow-up memorial services fall under the purview of Buddhist ritual, and 90% Japanese funerals are conducted in a Buddhist manner. Aside from the religious aspect, a Japanese funeral usually includes a wake, the cremation of the deceased, and inclusion within the family grave. Follow-up services are then performed by a Buddhist priest on specific anniversaries after death.

According to an estimate in 2005, 99.82% of all deceased Japanese are cremated.[63] In most cases the cremated remains are placed in an urn and then deposited in a family grave. In recent years however, alternative methods of disposal have become more popular, including scattering of the ashes, burial in outer space, and conversion of the cremated remains into a diamond that can be set in jewelry.

In the Philippines

Main article: Funeral practices and burial customs in the Philippines

Funeral practices and burial customs in the Philippines encompass a wide range of personal, cultural, and traditional beliefs and practices which Filipinos observe in relation to death, bereavement, and the proper honoring, interment, and remembrance of the dead. These practices have been vastly shaped by the variety of religions and cultures that entered the Philippines throughout its complex history.

Most if not all present-day Filipinos, like their ancestors, believe in some form of an afterlife and give considerable attention to honouring the dead.[64] Except amongst Filipino Muslims (who are obliged to bury a corpse less than 24 hours after death), a wake is generally held from three days to a week.[65] Wakes in rural areas are usually held in the home, while in urban settings the dead is typically displayed in a funeral home. Friends and neighbors bring food to the family, such as pancit noodles and bibingka cake; any leftovers are never taken home by guests, because of a superstition against it.[23] Apart from spreading the news about someone’s death verbally,[65] obituaries are also published in newspapers. Although the majority of the Filipino people are Christians,[66] they have retained some traditional indigenous beliefs concerning death.[67][68]

In Korea

Yukgaejang is a spicy soup with a beef and vegetables in it. It is a Korean traditional food and served during funerals.

In Korea, funerals are typically held for three days and different things are done in each day.

The first day: on the day a person dies, the body is moved to a funeral hall. They prepare clothes for the body and put them into a chapel of rest. Then food is prepared for the deceased. It is made up of three bowls of rice and three kinds of Korean side dishes. Also, there has to be three coins and three straw shoes. This can be cancelled if the family of the dead person have a particular religion.[69]

Soju is a Korean vodka and it is served during funerals.

On the second day the funeral director washes the body and shrouding is done. Then, a family member of the dead person puts uncooked rice in the mouth of the body. This step does not have to be done if the family has a certain religion. After putting the rice in the mouth, the body is moved into a coffin. Family members, including close relatives, of the dead person will wear mourning clothing. Typically, mourning for a woman includes Korean traditional clothes, Hanbok, and mourning for man includes a suit. The color has to be black. The ritual ceremony begins when they are done with changing clothes and preparing foods for the dead person. The ritual ceremony is different depending on their religion. After the ritual ceremony family members will start to greet guests.[70]

On the third day, the family decides whether to bury the body in the ground or cremate the body. If they decide to bury the body in the ground, three people from the family sprinkle dirt on the coffin three times. In case of cremation, there are no specific things to be done like ground burial. The only thing needed is a jar to place burned bones in and a place to keep the jar.

Other than these facts, in Korea, people who come to the funeral bring condolence money. Also, a food called Yukgaejang is served to guests oftentimes with Korean alcohol called soju.[71]

In Mongolia

Like many other cultures, funeral practices in Mongolia are the most important rituals that they follow. They have mixed their rituals with Buddhists due to creating a new, unique way of death.[72]

For Mongolians who are very strict when it comes to their traditions, there were three different ways of burial that families could choose from. The main one being open-air burial, and the others being cremation and embalming. There were many factors that went into deciding which funeral practice to do. These consisted of the family's social standing, the cause of death and the specific location they died at. The main people that were chosen to be embalmed were the people apart of the Lamaistic Church, by choosing this practice, they are usually buried in a sitting position. This would show that they would always be in the position of prayer. Also, more important people such as Nobles would be buried with weapons, horses and food in their coffins to help them prepare for the next world.[73]

The coffin is built specifically designed by three to four relatives, mainly men. In order to determine how big the coffin will be, the builders bring planks to the hut that the dead is located and put together the box and the lid to go with it. The same people who help put together the coffin also help decorate the funeral. Most of this work is done after the sun goes down. With very specific instruction, they work on decorations inside the youngest daughters house. The reason for this is so the deceased is not disturbed at night.[74]

In Vietnam

In Vietnam, Buddhism is the most commonly practiced religion, however, most burial methods do not coincide with the Buddhist belief of cremation.[75]

The body of the deceased is moved to a loved one’s house and placed in an expensive coffin. The body usually stays there for about three days, allowing time for people to visit and place gifts in the mouth.[75] This stems from the Vietnamese belief that the dead should be surrounded by their family. This belief goes so far as to include superstition as well. If somebody is dying in Vietnamese culture, they are rushed home from the hospital so they can die there, because if they die away from home it is believed to be bad luck to take a corpse home.[76]

Many services are also held in the Vietnamese burial practices. One is held before moving the coffin from the home and the other is held at the burial site.[77] After the burial of the loved one, incense is burned at the gravesite and respect is paid to all the nearby graves. Following this, the family and friends return to the home and enjoy a feast to celebrate the life of the recently departed.[77] Even after the deceased has been buried, the respect and honor continues. For the first 49 days after the burying, the family holds a memorial service every 7 days, where the family and friends come back together to celebrate the life of their loved one. After this, they meet again on the 100th day after the death, then 265 days after the death, and finally they meet on the anniversary of the death of their loved one, a whole year later, to continue to continue to celebrate the glorious life of their recently departed.[78]

African funerals

Funerary dance ritual. A blacksmith carries the dressed body. Kapsiki people, North Cameroon.

Ancient Egypt

Main article: Ancient Egyptian funerary practices

West African

African funerals are usually open to many visitors. The custom of burying the dead in the floor of dwelling-houses has been to some degree prevalent on the Gold Coast of Africa. The ceremony depends on the traditions of the ethnicity the deceased belonged to. The funeral may last for as much as a week. Another custom, a kind of memorial, frequently takes place seven years after the person's death. These funerals and especially the memorials may be extremely expensive for the family in question. Cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry, may be offered and then consumed.

The Ashanti and Akan ethnic groups in Ghana typically wear red and black during funerals. For special family members, there is typically a funeral celebration with singing and dancing to honor the life of the deceased. Afterwards, the Akan hold a sombre funeral procession and burial with intense displays of sorrow. Other funerals in Ghana are held with the deceased put in elaborate "fantasy coffins" colored and shaped after a certain object, such as a fish, crab, boat, and even airplanes.[78] The Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop in Teshie, named after Seth Kane Kwei who invented this new style of coffin, has become an international reference for this form of art.

Some diseases, such as Ebola can be spread by funerary customs including touching the dead.[79][80] However, safe burials can be achieved by following simple procedures. For example, letting relatives see the face of the dead before bodybags are closed and taking photographs, if desired, can greatly reduce the risk of infection without impacting too heavily on the customs of burial.[81][82][83]

East African

In Kenya funerals are an expensive undertaking. Keeping bodies in morgues to allow for fund raising is a common occurrence more so in urban areas. Some families opt to bury their dead in the countryside homes instead of urban cemeteries, thus spending more money on transporting the dead.

Historical mausoleums

China

Tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang

Main article: Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor

Terracotta warriors of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum.

The first emperor of the Qin dynasty, Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum is located in the Lintong District of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Qin Shi Huang’s tomb is one of the World Heritage sites in China. Its remarkable feature and size have been known as one of the most important historical sites in China.[84] Qin Shi Huang is the first emperor who united China for the first time. The mausoleum was built in 247 BC after he became the emperor of Qin Dynasty.

Ancient Chinese mausoleums have unique characteristics compared to other cultures. Ancient Chinese thought that the soul remains even after death, (immortal soul) regarded funeral practices as an important tradition.[85] From their long history, the construction of mausoleums has developed over time, creating monumental and massive ancient emperor’s tomb.

Archeologists have found more than 8,000 life-sized figures resembling an army surrounding the emperor’s tomb.[86] The primary purpose of the placement of Terracotta Army is to protect the emperor’s tomb. The figures were composed of clay and fragments of pottery. The Terracotta Army resembles the soldiers, horses, government officials, and even musicians. All of the figures were made so acutely and delicately. The arrangement and the weapons they are carrying resembled entirely to the real weapons at that time. Furthermore, their facial features weren’t identical, but with unique features and details.

Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Main article: Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Ming Tomb in Beijing, China.

The Imperial Tombs of Ming and Qing Dynasties are included as World Heritage Sites. The three Imperial Tombs of Qin Dynasty were additionally inscribed in 2000 and 2003.[87] The three tombs were all built in the 17th century. The tombs have been constructed to praise the emperors of Qing Dynasty and their ancestors. In tradition, Chinese have followed the Feng Shui to build and decorate the interior. All of the tombs are strictly made followed by the Feng Shui theory. Harmony between the architecture and the surrounding topographical structure were seen as an integral part of nature. According to the Feng Shi theory, to build a tomb, there must be a mountain on the northern side and low land on the south. In the west and east, a river must be located.

The Imperial Tombs of Ming and Qing Dynasties clearly shows the cultural and architectural tradition that has swayed the area for more than 500 years. There is a great harmony between the surrounding nature and the architecture. In Chinese culture, the tombs were considered as a portal between the world of the living and the dead. Chinese believed that the portal would divide the soul into two parts. The half of the soul would go to heaven, and the other half would remain within the physical body.[88]

Mutes and professional mourners

Further information: Professional mourning

From about 1600 to 1914 there were two professions in Europe now almost totally forgotten. The mute is depicted in art quite frequently but in literature is probably best known from Dickens's Oliver Twist. Oliver is working for Mr. Sowerberry when this conversation takes place: "There's an expression of melancholy in his face, my dear... which is very interesting. He would make a delightful mute, my love". And in Martin Chuzzlewit, Moult, the undertaker, states, "This promises to be one of the most impressive funerals,...no limitation of expense...I have orders to put on my whole establishment of mutes, and mutes come very dear, Mr Pecksniff." The main purpose of a funeral mute was to stand around at funerals with a sad, pathetic face. A symbolic protector of the deceased, the mute would usually stand near the door of the home or church. In Victorian times, mutes would wear somber clothing including black cloaks, top hats with trailing hatbands, and gloves.[89]

The professional mourner, generally a woman, would shriek and wail (often while clawing her face and tearing at her clothing), to encourage others to weep. Forms of professional mourning are recorded from Ancient Greece,[90][91] and were commonly employed throughout Europe until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The 2003 award-winning Philippine comedy Crying Ladies revolves around the lives of three women who are part-time professional mourners for the Chinese-Filipino community in Manila's Chinatown. According to the film, the Chinese use professional mourners to help expedite the entry of a deceased loved one's soul into heaven by giving the impression that he or she was a good and loving person, well-loved by many.

State funeral

Main article: State funeral

High-ranking national figures such as heads of state, prominent politicians, military figures, national heroes and eminent cultural figures may be offered state funerals.

Final disposition

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Some cultures place the dead in tombs of various sorts, either individually, or in specially designated tracts of land that house tombs. Burial in a graveyard is one common form of tomb. In some places, burials are impractical because the groundwater is too high; therefore tombs are placed above ground, as is the case in New Orleans, Louisiana, US. Elsewhere, a separate building for a tomb is usually reserved for the socially prominent and wealthy; grand, above-ground tombs are called mausoleums. The socially prominent sometimes had the privilege of having their corpses stored in church crypts. In more recent times, however, this has often been forbidden by hygiene laws. Burial was not always permanent. In some areas, burial grounds needed to be reused due to limited space. In these areas, once the dead have decomposed to skeletons, the bones are removed; after their removal they can be placed in an ossuary.

Burial at sea

"Burial at sea" in past generations has meant the deliberate disposal of a corpse into the ocean, wrapped and tied with weights to make sure it sinks. It has been a common practice in navies and seafaring nations; in the Church of England, special forms of funeral service were added to the Book of Common Prayer to cover it. In today's generation, "burial at sea" may also refer to the scattering of ashes in the ocean, while "whole body burial at sea" refers to the entire uncremated body being placed in the ocean at great depths.[citation needed] Laws vary by jurisdictions.

Science fiction writers have frequently extended the concept to a "burial in space".

Cremation

Main article: Cremation

Cremation is also an old custom; it was the usual mode of disposing of a corpse in ancient Rome (along with graves covered with heaped mounds, also found in Greece, particularly at the Karameikos graveyard in Monastiraki). Vikings were occasionally cremated in their longships, and afterwards the location of the site was marked with standing stones.

Since the latter part of the twentieth century, despite the objections of some religious groups, cremation has become increasingly popular. Jewish law (Halakha) forbids cremation, believing that the soul of a cremated person will be unable to find its final repose. The Roman Catholic Church forbade it for many years, but since 1963 the church has allowed it, as long as it is not done to express disbelief in bodily resurrection. The church specifies that cremated remains are either buried or entombed; they do not allow cremated remains to be scattered or kept at home. Many Catholic cemeteries now have columbarium niches for cremated remains, or specific sections for those remains. Some denominations of Protestantism allow cremation; the more conservative denominations generally do not. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Islam also forbid cremation.[92]

Among Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some sects of Buddhists such as those found in Japan, cremation is common.

Feeding to scavenger animals

See also

The burial of a bird

Dead bell

Funerary art

List of funerals

Wake (ceremony)

Burial

A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the arrangements for the funeral ceremony (although not the directing and conducting of the funeral itself unless clergy are not present). Funeral directors may at times be asked to perform tasks such as dressing (in garments usually suitable for daily wear), casketing (placing the human body in the coffin), and cossetting (applying any sort of cosmetic or substance to the best viewable areas of the corpse for the purpose of enhancing its appearance). A funeral director may work at a funeral home or be an independent employee.

Etymology

The term mortician is derived from the Latin word mort- (“death”) + -ician. In 1895, the trade magazine The Embalmers' Monthly put out a call for a new name for the profession to distance itself from the title undertaker, a term that was then perceived to have been tarnished by its association with death. The term Mortician was the winning entry.[1][2]

History

As the societal need to account for the dead and their survivors is as ancient as civilization itself, death care is among the world's oldest professions. Ancient Egypt is a probable pioneer in supporting full-time morticians; intentional mummification began c. 2600 BC, with the best-preserved mummies dating to c. 1570 to 1075 BC. Specialized priests spent 70 full days on a single corpse. Only royalty, nobility and wealthy commoners could afford the service, considered an essential part of accessing eternal life.[3]

Across successive cultures, religion remained a prime motive for securing a body against decay and/or arranging burial in a planned manner; some considered the fate of departed souls to be fixed and unchangeable (e.g., ancient Mesopotamia) and considered care for a grave to be more important than the actual burial.[4]

In Ancient Rome, wealthy individuals trusted family to care for their corpse, but funeral rites would feature professional mourners: most often actresses who would announce the presence of the funeral procession by wailing loudly. Other paid actors would don the masks of ancestors and recreate their personalities, dramatizing the exploits of their departed scion. These purely ceremonial undertakers of the day nonetheless had great religious and societal impact; a larger number of actors indicated greater power and wealth for the deceased and their family.[5]

Modern ideas about proper preservation of the dead for the benefit of the living arose in the European Age of Enlightenment. Dutch scientist Frederik Ruysch's work attracted the attention of royalty and legitimized postmortem anatomy.[6] Most importantly, Ruysch developed injected substances and waxes that could penetrate the smallest vessels of the body and seal them against decay.[5]

Historically, from Ancient Egypt to Greece and Rome to the early United States, women typically did all of the preparation of dead bodies.[7] They were called "Layers out of the dead". Mid nineteenth century, gender roles within funeral service in the United States began to change. They were referred to as “layers out of the dead”. Late nineteenth century it became a male dominated industry with the development of Funeral Directors, which changed the funeral industry both locally and nationally.[8]

Role in the United States

As recently as 2003 15% of corporately owned funeral homes are owned by one of three corporations.[9] The majority of morticians work in small, independent family run funeral homes. The owner usually hires two or three other morticians to help them. Often, this hired help is in the family, perpetuating the family's ownership. Other firms that were family-owned have been acquired and are operated by large corporations such as Service Corporation International, though such homes usually trade under their pre-acquisition names.[9]

Most funeral homes have one or more viewing rooms, a preparation room for embalming, a chapel, and a casket selection room. They usually have a hearse for transportation of bodies, a flower car, and limousines. They also normally sell caskets and urns.[10]

Organizations and licensing in the United States

Licensing requirements in the US are determined at the state level. [1]. Most require a combination of post-secondary education (typically an associate's degree), passage of a National Board Examination,[11] passage of a state board examination, and one to two years' work as an apprentice.[12]

Role in the UK

The role that a funeral director will play in the UK includes most of the administrative duties and arrangement of funeral service, including flower arrangements, meeting with family members, overseeing the funeral and burial service. This does not include embalming or cremation of the body until further training is completed.[13]

Organizations and licensing in the UK

In the UK, as with most trades no formal licence is required to become an undertaker (funeral director). There are national organisations such as the British Institute of Funeral Directors who offer training courses and voluntary membership of "best practice" standards schemes [13].

Role in Canada

The role of a funeral director in Canada can include, embalming, sales, oversight of funeral services as well as other aspects of needed funeral services.[14] Family owned funeral homes are common.[15]

Organizations and licensing in Canada

A funeral director in Canada will assume many responsibilities after proper education and licensing. Courses will include science and biology, ethics, and practical techniques of embalming.[14] There are a number of organizations available to Canadian Funeral Directors.[2][3]

Employment opportunities

Mortuary science graduates may have to relocate to find jobs.[10]

Syracuse (/ˈsɪrəkjuːz, ˈsɛr-, -kjuːs/)[3][4][5] is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, in the United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, and Yonkers.

At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,252, and its metropolitan area had a population of 662,577. It is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over one million inhabitants. Syracuse is also well-provided with convention sites, with a downtown convention complex. Syracuse was named after the classical Greek city Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily.

The city has functioned as a major crossroads over the last two centuries, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals, then of the railway network. Today, Syracuse is at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90. Its airport is the largest in the region. Syracuse is home to Syracuse University, a major research university, as well as Le Moyne College, a nationally recognized liberal arts college. In 2010, Forbes rated Syracuse fourth among the top 10 places in the U.S. to raise a family.[6]

Nearby towns :

A map of towns, cities, and villages in Onondaga County, NY

Syracuse, the county seat, is the only city in Onondaga County. The following is a list of official towns, villages, and hamlets:[18]

Towns

Camillus

Cicero

Clay

DeWitt

Elbridge

Fabius

Geddes

LaFayette

Lysander

Manlius

Marcellus

Onondaga

Otisco

Pompey

Salina

Skaneateles

Spafford

Tully

Van Buren

Villages

Baldwinsville

Camillus

East Syracuse

Elbridge

Fabius

Fayetteville

Jordan

Liverpool

Manlius

Marcellus

Minoa

North Syracuse

Skaneateles

Solvay

Tully

Census-designated places

Brewerton

Bridgeport

Fairmount

Galeville

Lakeland

Lyncourt

Mattydale

Nedrow

Seneca Knolls

Village Green

Westvale

Hamlets

Amber

Apulia

Borodino

Cardiff

Delphi Falls

Jack's Reef

Jamesville

Kirkville

Marietta

Mattydale

Memphis

Messina Springs

Mottville

Mycenae

Navarino

Onondaga Hill

Oran

Otisco

Otisco Valley

Plainville

Pompey Center

Rose Hill

Shepard Settlement

Skaneateles Falls

South Spafford

Spafford Valley

Split Rock

Taunton

Warners

Native American reservations

Onondaga Reservation

A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation.

The word took two different paths, cofin in Old French originally meaning basket, became coffin in English and became couffin in modern French which nowadays means a cradle.[note 1] A distinction is often made between coffin and casket: the latter is generally understood to denote a four-sided (almost always rectangular) funerary box, while a coffin is usually six-sided.[1] However, coffins having a one-piece side with a curve at the shoulder instead of a join are more commonly used in the United Kingdom (UK).

Etymology[edit]

The side of an Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus

First attested in English in 1380, the word coffin derives from the Old French cofin, from Latin cophinus, which means a basket,[2] which is the latinisation of the Greek κόφινος (kophinos), "basket".[3] The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek ko-pi-na, written in Linear B syllabic script.[4]

Any box in which the dead are buried is a coffin, and while a casket was originally regarded as a box for jewelry, use of the word "casket" in this sense began as a euphemism introduced by the undertaker's trade.[5] A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" and "caskets", using coffin to refer to a tapered hexagonal or octagonal (also considered to be anthropoidal in shape) box and casket to refer to a rectangular box, often with a split lid used for viewing the deceased as seen in the picture above. Receptacles for cremated and cremulated human ashes (sometimes called cremains[6][7]) are called urns.

Practices[edit]

Plain bespoke stone coffin, circa 7th century

A coffin may be buried in the ground directly, placed in a burial vault or cremated. Alternatively it may be entombed above ground in a mausoleum, a chapel, a church, or in a loculus in catacombs. Some countries practice one form almost exclusively, whereas in others it may depend on the individual cemetery.

A Karo coffin in Northern Sumatra

In part of Sumatra, Indonesia, ancestors are revered and bodies were often kept in coffins kept alongside the longhouses until a ritual burial could be performed. The dead are also disinterred for rituals. Mass burials are also practiced. In northern Sulawesi, some dead were kept in above ground sarcophagi called waruga until the practice was banned by the Dutch in the 19th century.

The handles and other ornaments (such as doves, stipple crosses, crucifix, symbols etc.) that go on the outside of a coffin are called fittings (sometimes called 'coffin furniture' - not to be confused with furniture that is coffin shaped) while organising the inside of the coffin with fabric of some kind is known as "trimming the coffin".

Cultures that practice burial have widely different styles of coffin. In Judaism, the coffin must be plain, made of wood and contain no metal parts or adornments. These coffins use wooden pegs instead of nails. All Jews are buried in the same plain cloth shroud from shoulder to knees, regardless of status in life, gender or age. In China and Japan, coffins made from the scented, decay-resistant wood of cypress, sugi, thuja and incense-cedar are in high demand. Certain Aboriginal Australian groups use intricately decorated tree-bark cylinders sewn with fibre and sealed with adhesive as coffins. The cylinder is packed with dried grasses.[8]

Sometimes coffins are constructed to permanently display the corpse, as in the case of the glass-covered coffin of the Haraldskær Woman on display in the Church of Saint Nicolai in Vejle, Denmark or the glass-coffin of Vladimir Lenin which is in the Red Square in Moscow.

When a coffin is used to transport a deceased person, it can also be called a pall, a term that also refers to the cloth used to cover the coffin.

Design[edit]

The glass-covered coffin of the Haraldskær Woman.

Coffins are traditionally made with six sides plus the top (lid) and bottom, tapered around the shoulders, or rectangular with four sides. Another form of four-sided coffin is trapezoidal (also known as the "wedge" form) and is considered a variant of the six-sided hexagonal kind of coffin. Continental Europe at one time favoured the rectangular coffin or casket, although variations exist in size and shape. The rectangular form, and also the trapezoidal form, is still regularly used in Germany, Austria, Hungary and other parts of Eastern and Central Europe, with the lid sometimes made to slope gently from the head down towards the foot. Coffins in the UK are mainly similar to the hexagonal design, but with one-piece sides, curved at the shoulder instead of having a join. In Medieval Japan, round coffins were used, which resembled barrels in shape and were usually made by coopers. In the case of a death at sea, there have been instances where trunks have been pressed into use as a coffin. Coffins usually have handles on the side so they will be easier to carry.

They may incorporate features that claim to protect the body or for public health reasons. For example, some may offer a protective casket that uses a gasket to seal the casket shut after it is closed for the final time. In England, it has long been law that a coffin for interment above ground should be sealed; this was traditionally implemented as a wooden outer coffin around a lead lining, around a third inner shell. After some decades have passed, the lead may ripple and tear. In the United States, numerous cemeteries require a vault of some kind in order to bury the deceased. A burial vault serves as an outer enclosure for buried remains and the coffin serves as an inner enclosure. The primary purpose of the vault is to prevent collapse of the coffin due to the weight of the soil above.

Some manufacturers offer a warranty on the structural integrity of the coffin. However, no coffin, regardless of its construction material (e.g., metal rather than wood), whether or not it is sealed, and whether or not the deceased was embalmed beforehand, will perfectly preserve the body. In some cases, a sealed coffin may actually speed up rather than slow down the process of decomposition. An airtight coffin, for example, fosters decomposition by anaerobic bacteria, which results in a putrefied liquefaction of the body, and all putrefied tissue remains inside the container, only to be exposed in the event of an exhumation. A container that allows air to pass in and out, such as a simple wooden box, allows for clean skeletonization. However the situation will vary according to soil or air conditions, and climate.

Coffins are made of many materials, including steel, various types of wood, and other materials such as fiberglass or recycled kraft paper. There is emerging interest in eco-friendly coffins made of purely natural materials such as bamboo, X-Board, willow or banana leaf.[9]

Custom coffins are occasionally created and some companies also make set ranges with non-traditional designs. These include printing or painting of peaceful tropical scenes, sea-shells, sunsets, cherubs and patriotic flags. Some manufacturers have designed them to look like gym carry bags, guitar cases, cigar humidors, and even yellow dumpster bins. Other coffins are left deliberately blank so that friends and family can inscribe final wishes and thoughts upon them to the deceased. In Taiwan, coffins made of crushed oyster shells[10] were used in the 18th and 19th centuries.[citation needed] In the 1990s, the rock group Kiss released a customized Kiss Kasket, which featured their trademark makeup designs and KISS logo and could also be used as a cooler. Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was buried in one.[11]

Xanita has developed a new grade of environmentally-friendly coffin board which is designed to cleanly incinerate using around half the gas needed to incinerate traditional veneered MDF coffins. This assists Crematoriums meet their CO2 emissions targets.[12]

Design coffins in Ghana[edit]

Daniel Mensah (Hello), 2006

Coffins as an aircraft, a hen, a crab, a cocoa pod in Teshie(Ghana)

Design coffins in Ghana, also called fantasy coffins or figurative coffins, are only made by specialized carpenters in the Greater Accra Region. These colourful objects, which are not only coffins, but considered real works of art, were shown for the first time to a wider Western public in the exhibition Les Magiciens de la terre at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1989. The seven coffins which were exposed in Paris were done by Seth Kane Kwei (1922–1992) and by his former assistant Paa Joe (b.1947).[13] Since then coffins of Kane Kweis successors Paa Joe, Daniel Mensah, Kudjoe Affutu or Eric Adjetey Anang and others have been displayed in many international art museums and galleries around the world.[14] The design coffins of the Ga have long been celebrated in the Western art world as the invention of a single, autonomous artist, the coffin maker Kane Kwei (1924-1992) of Teshie. But as Regula Tschumi shows with her recent research this assumption was false. Design coffins have existed already before Kane Kwei and other Ga carpenters like Ataa Oko (1919-2012) from La have built their first figurative coffins around 1950.[15][16] Kane Kwei and Ataa Oko had only continued a tradition that already existed in Accra where the kings were using figurative palanquins in the forms of their family symbol. And as those chiefs who were using figurative palanquins had to be buried in a coffin looking like their palanquin, their families used figurative coffins which were formerly nothing else than the copies of the design palanquins. Today figurative coffins are of course no more reserved for the traditional Ga and their kings, many families who use figurative coffins are indeed Christians. For them design coffins have no longer a spiritual function, their appeal is more aesthetic, aimed at surprising mourners with strikingly innovative forms like automobiles or aeroplanes, fish or pigs, onions or tomatoes.[17] So the figurative coffins, rather than constituting a new art form as it was long believed, were developed from the figurative palanquins which had existed already a long time.[15]

Cremation[edit]

With the resurgence of cremation in the Western world, manufacturers have begun providing options for those who choose cremation. For a direct cremation a cardboard box is sometimes used. Those who wish to have a funeral visitation (sometimes called a viewing) or traditional funeral service will use a coffin of some sort.

Some choose to use a coffin made of wood or other materials like particle board or low-density fibreboard. Others will rent a regular casket for the duration of the services. These caskets have a removable bed and liner which is replaced after each use. There are also rental caskets with an outer shell that looks like a traditional coffin and a cardboard box that fits inside the shell. At the end of the services the inner box is removed and the deceased is cremated inside this box.

Industry[edit]

A coffin shop in Macau.

The rise of consumerism: a Universal Casket sales kiosk within a U.S. Costco warehouse retail store in California. Steel caskets are available from $799. Delivery direct to a funeral home is available in 48 hours to 33 states and Washington, D.C. The cost with shipping (about $1500) is about a third of comparable costs of a similar casket bought through a funeral home. This is an example of an increasingly competition-driven and direct-to-consumer marketing funeral system.[18]

Traditionally, in the Western world, a coffin was made, when required, by the village carpenter, and he would frequently manage the whole funeral. The design and workmanship would reflect the skills of that individual carpenter, with the materials and brasses being the materials that were available at the time. In past centuries, if a pauper's funeral was paid for by the parish, the coffin might have been made of the cheapest, thinnest possible pine. At the other extreme, a coffin bought privately by a wealthy individual might have used yew or mahogany with a fine lining, plated fittings and brass decorations, topped with a decorated velvet drape.

In modern times coffins are almost always mass-produced. Some manufacturers do not sell directly to the public, and only work with funeral homes. In that case, the funeral director usually sells the casket to a family for a deceased person as part of the funeral services offered, and in that case the price of the casket is included in the total bill for services rendered. Some funeral homes will have a small showroom to present families with the available caskets that could be used for a deceased family member. In many modern funeral homes the showroom will consist of sample pieces that show the end pieces of each type of coffin that can be used. They also include samples of the lining and other materials. This allows funeral homes to showcase a larger number of coffin styles without the need for a larger showroom. Other types may be available from a catalogue, including decorative paint effects or printed photographs or patterns.

Under a United States federal regulation, 16 CFR Part 453 (known as the Funeral Rule), if a family provides a casket they purchased elsewhere (for example from a United States retail warehouse store, as illustrated here), the establishment is required to accept the casket and use it in the services. If the casket is delivered direct to the funeral home from the manufacturer or store, they are required to accept delivery of the casket. The funeral home may not add any extra charges or fees to the overall bill if a family decides to purchase a casket elsewhere. If the casket was bought from the funeral home, these regulations require bills to be completely itemized.