In many religious belief systems and funeral traditions, there is a feature that is called funerary literature or in other words funerary texts. Funerary literature existed for thousands years since the dawn of ancient civilizations.
Specialists do not really know when funerary texts first appeared but obviously it was thousands of years ago. Obviously a magnificent example of funeral literature comes to us from the ancient Egypt like the famous Book of the Dead that archeologists unearthed in many mausoleums and tombs in the Valley of Kings.
After decoding this funerary text, we learned that the Book of the Dead was created toguide the deceased through the various trials that would be encountered before being allowed into the underworld. Specialists think that this peace of funeral literature was created as far as 26th century B.C.
In the times of New Kingdom, from 16th to 11th century B.C. three more funeral texts were found in the burial sites of pharaohs and aristocrats from the upper nobility. Their burial places became ornamented with “supplamental” funeral books such as Book of Gates, Amduat and Litany of Ra. It became a standard to cover the walls of the tombs with these texts.
For those who don’t know the embalming is the funeral science and art of preserving the body and help forestall decomposition. It is one of the earliest surgical procedures and funeral traditions in the history of the humankind. Nobody really knows who invented this process in the ancient past. Of course, we are aware of the mummification in ancient Egypt which in turn served as a catalyst of the art of embalming. We know that ancient Incas and China in the times of the Han dynasty also believed in the preservation of the body after death and developed their methods of embalming too.
Perhaps, the earliest attempt of embalming and mummification is the mummy known to the specialists as “Ginger”. This body found in the deserts of Egypt is positively dated to 3300 BC which means that it is older than other famous mummies of pharaohs discovered in the pyramids. Ginger is currently on display in the British Museum, but it is not very well-known to the general public.
The reason lies in the fact that Ginger’s burial still remains rather enigmatic. At first specialists thought that the preservation of Ginger occured unintentionally as it happened in the later discovery of Otzi the Iceman. However, they changed their mind later, as they found pottery and other artifacts in his grave and on the burial site. Ginger was ideally preserved lying in fetal position which also points out that there were stones on the grave that prevented the body from being eaten by jackals and other scavengers.
Our contemporary funeral eulogies, epitaphs and elegies originated in ancient Greece thousands years ago. They are all derivations of Greek funeral oration that was a formal speech presented when somebody passed away.
Ancients used funeral orations to remember the dead and his deeds. They were known at the times of Odyssey as we find some verses that Achilles dedicate to the funeral of Patroclus.
However, funeral orations became an official ritual in ancient Greece much later. Sources credit for this Solon, who was a famous poet, statesman and lawmaker in 7th century B.C. in Athens. He decided to make a part of funerary customs a special speech for those who died in the wars.
Within a century his decision became a part of the Athenian burial law. Archeologists still find at the ancient Greek burial sites not just depictions of the funerary scenes but even casualty lists.
Since those times many cultures of the world use all kinds of textual expressions to remember the dead, including not only funeral orations but also epitaphs on the monuments, prayers, poems and the like.
Elvis Presley funeral took place in 1977. Thousands of Elvis’s fans participated in funeral services. They lined the streets to see an open casket. Funeral pictures appeared on the cover of National Enquirer making it the fastest selling issue of that publication. Presley was buried next to his mother at Forest Hill Cemetery, Memphis. Later, there were several attempts to still his remains, so he and his mother were reburied at Graceland.
Over thirty years passed but the persistent rumor that the rock star did not die still consume imagination of people, creating some kind of national phenomenon and unusual funeral tradition. Although the idea that the Presley is alive and kicking and live in hiding for so many years seem bizarre, to say the least, it does not go away even in XXI century.
If he were alive, Elvis would be in his seventies and would most likely be amazed at all the stories about him circling the country . Rumors and gossip reached the new heights by adding all possible conspiracy theories - from an empty casket to extraterrestrial involvement. An army of impersonators seem to spread these stories around for publicity and advertising reasons. It is a sure bet that any tv program or show about Las Vegas will have Presley’s song or a short tune in it.
I wish there would be simple answer, why people just don’t let Elvis rest in peace. His former fans - baby boomers, have already retired or in the process of retiring. I don’t think that they are the ones who perpetuate the stories about undead Elvis Presley. Generations of talented musicians that came after him, respect the “king”, but don’t spread the rumors either. Except, maybe, the guy from Oasis who claimed in 2007 that he was drowning but Elvis Presley saved him.
I believe there is only one Museum of Funeral Customs in the world. It is located in Springfield, Illinois, near Oak Ridge Cemetery, the site of Abraham Lincoln’s tomb. Our team of web analysts, came to visit the museum along with the rest of the staff. The museum contained exhibits dealing with American funerary and mourning customs and various related collections. Basically, it provides resources to scholars for researching funeral customs, hosts tours and special events.
We were amazed to find all kinds of funeral paraphernalia from various cultures and times. Personally, I liked rare books collection on embalming dating as early as the 16th century. We saw at the museum recreated 19th century middle class American home funeral setting, recreated embalming room from Jazz generation of the 1920s. There were exhibits of embalming equipment and instruments, examples of postmortem photography and even the scale models of Lincoln’s tomb and funeral train.
Naturally, there is humor in everything, even death. We found confirmation of this when we visited museum’s gift shop. It did not make much sense to us that this shop was selling plain polo shirts or sweatshirts. But my co-workers and I purchased plenty of hilarious stuff, like milk chocolate coffins, wooden and silver casket key rings, casket-shaped paper weights. One of our guys still wears at work the t-shirt with a morbid sign that says “Everybody’s Gotta Go Sometime…”
Here is another beautiful poem that was written by Alan Seeger creator of the great verses at the dawn of the twentieth century. I hope you appreciate this poem as I do. It is called “I Have A Rendezvous With Death”. All our web analysts really enjoyed it.
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade
When Spring comes round with rustling shade
And apple blossoms fill the air.
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath;
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow flowers appear.
God knows ’twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear . . .
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
Our friends from various places around the country help me heavily by responding to our web analytics company by e-mail or by sending regular snail mail. I want to thank them all. Lately, I was receiving many pieces of a beautiful funeral poetry. With a few exceptions, I never really had a chance to post these funeral poems in this blog. I am gonna change that and publish several poems in a row. I would like to start with beautiful poem from “Holy sonnets” written by famous John Donne, that was sent to me by a funeral director. There is no need to comment on any of these poems, they are beautiful as they are….
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure: then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
You live - you learn. What else can I say? While researching funeral rites and cultural funeral traditions of nations all over the planet an interesting story came my way. The story of excarnation, which was, I must say, a very exotic way of saying goodbye to their dead by ancient Zoroastrians.
In order to be frief, I must explain that excarnation is the practice of removing the flesh from the corpse without interment. Ancient Zoroastrians traditionally left their dead on Towers of Silence, where the flesh of the corpses was let to be devoured by vultures and other carrion-eating birds. Alternatively, excarnation can also mean butchering the corpse by hand to remove the flesh.
Let me tell you about other ancient ways of dealing with the dead. There was another ancient practice that was called gibbeting. It was the ancient practice of publicly displaying remains of criminals. And how about hanging coffins? These are the coffins which have been placed on cliffs. They can be found in various locations, including China and the Philippines. And there is also a sky burial that involves placing the body on a mountaintop. Who knows, maybe, in future we will have a space burial as well. Remeber, sci-fi movies, when they fire the coffin into space?
I never exactly knew what it meant. It even seemed like a silly expression, at first glance. What are funeral alternatives anyways? But a funeral director proved me wrong. He gave me a brief but powerful explanation.
Well, you already know, that human bodies are not always buried, and many cultures may not bury their dead in every case. In most cases these funeral alternatives are still intended to maintain respect for the dead, but some are intended to prolong the display of remains. Here is a couple of examples…
Ash jump: skydivers often elect to have their cremated remains released by their loved ones during free fall. Burial at sea is the practice of depositing the body in an ocean or other large body of water instead of soil. It may be disposed in a coffin, or without one. Funerary cannibalism is the practice of eating the remains. This may be for many reasons: for example to partake of their strength, to spiritually “close the circle” by reabsorbing their life into the family or clan, to annihilate an enemy. For example, the Yanomami people have the habit of cremating the remains and then eating the ashes with banana paste.
From my multiple researches for local web analytics company I knew that, in addition to burying human remains, many human cultures also regularly bury animal remains. Pets and other animals of emotional significance are often ceremonially buried. Most families bury deceased pets on their own properties, mainly in a yard, with a shoe box or any other type of container served as a coffin.
This is all that I knew about pet burials, basically. But a funeral director told me more about this subject. It turns out that ancient Egyptians are known to have mummified and buried cats, which they considered deities. And humans are not always the only species to bury their dead. Chimpanzees and elephants are known to throw leaves and branches over fallen members of their family groups.
