Funerals
Created | Updated Mar 30, 2002
A funeral is a ceremony where a dead body is buried (or not buried). There's this very odd habit of putting the corpse up for viewing, called an "open-casket". People go up, bow their heads and "pray" for the dead human's soul. Lots of noise may occur, including some sort of "catholic" ritual called "rosary", which involves the mumbling of the same phrases hundreds of times. There is an assumption of guilt, much talk about being forgiven for sins. Then the body is brought to a church, where it is further prepared by more prayer, incense and water. The body is brought to a "cemetary" where it might be buried underground so it can rot, or it might be put in a marble box to rot above ground. Few American humans are cremated, a much more ecologically satisfying disposition of a worn-out body. Burn me and throw a party, but don't make people go through that mumbo-jumbo on my part!
