Death customs

removal of flesh prior to burial

thumb|350px|Roman marbled glass piriform unguentarium (front and back) thumb|upright|Unguentarium carved from a 2860-carat Colombian emerald, Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure, [[Imperial Treasury, Vienna.]] An unguentarium (: unguentaria), also referred to as balsamarium (: balsamaria), lacrimarium (: lacrimaria) or tears vessel, is a small ceramic or glass bottle found frequently by archaeologists at Hellenistic and Roman sites, especially in cemeteries. Its most common use was probably as a container for oil, though it is also suited for storing and dispensing liquid and powdered substan

thumb|Pallbearers carrying the casket of Major Douglas A. Zembiec of the [[United States Marine Corps]] A pallbearer is one of several participants who help carry the casket at a funeral. They may wear white gloves in order to prevent damaging the casket and to show respect to the deceased person.

marriage in which one or both parties are deceased in Chinese tradition

flight formation

interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to recycle naturally

any one of a series of monuments to Eleanor of Castile in England

biographical information in Wikipedia about death

thumbnail|Kannam Parambu Maqbarah in Kozhikode The Arabic word '''' ( "mausoleum"; plural: maqâbir'') is derived from the word qabr, which means grave. Though refers to the graves of all Muslims, it refers especially to a Muslim cemetery. In some Islamic cultures (especially Indo-Pak-influenced) it refers also to the graves (raula or rauza) of religious figures or Waliyullahs considered to have dedicated their life to Islam, striving to be true Muslims and training others to follow Islam as preached by the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Latin inscription on funerary items

thumb|Zoroastrian Tower of Silence|Towers of Silence are examples of excarnation. In archaeology and anthropology, the term excarnation (also known as defleshing) refers to the practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead before burial. Excarnation may be achieved through natural means, such as leaving a dead body exposed to the elements or for animals to scavenge; or by butchering the corpse by hand. Following excarnation, some societies retrieved the excarnated bones for burial. Excarnation has been practiced throughout the world for hundreds of thousands of years. The earliest arch

shrine in traditional East Asian religions

A sin-eater is a person who consumes a ritual meal in order to spiritually take on the sins of a deceased person. The food was believed to absorb the sins of a recently dead person, thus absolving the soul of the person.

overview of Japanese funerals

funerary prayers for deceased people

architectural name for small stone tower found chiefly in the centre and west of France

decorative material for funerals

thumb|292x292px|A woman keening at a wake in County Kerry in the early nineteenth century, depicted from the memories of [[Samuel Carter Hall. She had "black, uncombed locks" and a blue cloak, and held her hands above the body then dramatically waved them in the air "as if by sudden inspiration".]] Keening (, ) is a traditional form of vocal lament for the dead in the Gaelic Celtic tradition, known to have taken place in Ireland and Scotland. Keening, which can be seen as a form of sean-nós singing, is performed in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages (the Scottish equivalent of keening is

outdoor assembly of people carrying candles, held after sunset in order to show support for a specific cause

form of joss paper printed to resemble bank notes

type of carved standing stone

bag designed to contain a human body

Albanian dirge or lamentation of the dead

Ngaben, also known as Pitra Yadnya, Pelebon or cremation ceremony, is the Hindu funeral ritual of Bali, Indonesia. A Ngaben is performed to release the soul of a dead person so that it can enter the upper realm where it can wait for it to be reborn or become liberated from the cycles of rebirths. The Balinese Hindu theology holds that there is a competition between evil residents of the lower realm to capture this soul, and a proper cremation enhances the chance that it may reach the upper realm.

public funerary custom

place for the burial of unknown or indigent people or prisoners

thumb|Pan de muerto altar commemorating a deceased man in Milpa Alta, México DF

thumb|right|Viktor Vasnetsov. Trizna after Oleg, 1899

contests associated with the funeral observances for ancient heroes

right|thumb|200px|A Totenpass in the form of an inscribed metal leaf was sometimes rolled up and inserted into a necklace capsule, as shown in this 2nd-century Fayum mummy portraits|funerary portrait from Egypt.

social meetup concept with a topic of death

wooden statue from New Ireland in Papua New Guinea

burial custom

portrait of the deceased used to decorate a coffin during a funeral service

religious practices of Buddhism

thumb|The reconstructed gallows-style gibbet at [[Caxton Gibbet, in Cambridgeshire, England]] Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called hanging in chains.

Buddhist devotional practice

marker on a street that commemorates a site where a person died

Eastern Orthodox exclamation at funerals

thumb|Hair cutting - Solidarity with Iranian Protests in Australia Gisuborān meaning haircutting (Persian: گیسوبران) is one of the mourning rituals in Iranian culture. This ritual gives a sad and emotional state to mourning. In 2022 women in Iran and later internationally used haircutting as a protest against the treatment of women in Iran. The BBC included an unknown woman cutting her hair as one of their 100 Women in 2022.

candle lit in memory of the dead

The Quarup or Kuarup is the principal funeral ritual of the Indigenous people of the Xingu. It is a gathering of all neighbouring tribes to celebrate life, death, and rebirth. One of its central events is the presentation of all young girls who have experienced menarche since the last quarup and whose time has come to choose a partner, they tint their bodies and wear many ornaments and dance. It is a festival for the dead.

In ancient Roman funerals, an ustrinum (plural ustrina) was the site of a cremation funeral pyre whose ashes were removed for interment elsewhere. The ancient Greek equivalent was a (). Ustrina could be used many times. A single-use cremation site that also functioned as a tomb was a bustum.

burial niche

thumb|Malagan masks from the Ethnological Museum of Berlin

psychotherapy for physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and cognitive responses to loss

prayer for or a declaration of absolution of a dead person's sins that takes place at the person's religious funeral

finger ring worn in memory of someone who has died

thumb|250px|Wooden statues or '''''' ('wooden person', from Mapuche 'people' and 'wood') are Mapuche statues made of wood used to signal the grave of a deceased person.

religious teaching/practice centred on veneration of the dead in which the living confer benefits on the dead or appease wrathful ghosts

support for the casket of Abraham Lincoln while his body lay in state

thumb|Mortsafes at a church yard in Logierait, [[Perthshire, Scotland]] A mortsafe or mortcage was a construction designed to protect graves from disturbance, used in the United Kingdom. Resurrectionists had supplied schools of anatomy since the early 18th century. This was due to the necessity for medical students to learn anatomy by attending dissections of human subjects, which was frustrated by the very limited allowance of dead bodies – like the corpses of executed criminals, other deceased prisoners and suicide victims – granted by the government, which controlled the supply.

upright=1.4|thumb|Stone seats in the putridarium in a Poor Clares convent cemetery, [[Castello Aragonese, Ischia]] 280px|thumb|Purgatorio ad Arco, Naples

coffin type

ceremony in Northern India

religious cake to commemorate the dead

thumb|Isaac Herzog at the funeral ceremony of Aura Herzog, January 2022 thumb|A vending machine that sells basic T-shirts. These are intended for visitors who need a garment to perform the ritual of upon witnessing the site. ' (; often translated as rending of garments') is ritual tearing of one’s clothes as a sign of mourning or grief. This practice originated in the ancient Near East. and continues in various cultures to the present day. The act of is mentioned numerous times in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), typically performed as an expression of grief upon the death of a close relative, but a

cloth which covers a casket or coffin during the funeral, often of rich materials

Funeral in Christian traditions

thumb|150px|Terra cotta figure from [[Shaanxi, Western Han Period (206 BC – 9 AD)]] Mingqi (Chinese:  or , p míngqì), sometimes referred to as "spirit objects" or "vessels for ghosts", are Chinese burial goods. They included daily utensils, musical instruments, weapons, armor, and intimate objects such as the deceased's cap, can and bamboo mat. Mingqi also could include figurines, spiritual representations rather than real people, of soldiers, servants, musicians, polo riders, houses, unicorns and horses. Extensive use of mingqi during certain periods may either have been an attempt