Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. [1] The Commendation of the Dying is practiced in liturgical Christian denominations, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church. [2]
Other early Christians likely followed the national customs of the people among whom they lived, as long as they were not directly idolatrous. St. Jerome, in his account of the death of St. Paul the Hermit, speaks of the singing of hymns and psalms while the body is carried to the grave as an observance belonging to ancient Christian tradition. [3]
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, 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 honour.
Catholic funeral service at St Mary Immaculate Church, Charing Cross. A Catholic funeral is carried out in accordance with the prescribed rites of the Catholic Church.Such funerals are referred to in Catholic canon law as "ecclesiastical funerals" and are dealt with in canons 1176–1185 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, [1] and in canons 874–879 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. [2]
Christians also used burial as a mark of difference from the Iron Age European pre-Christian Pagan religions, which usually cremated their dead. Cremation was even outlawed and punishable with death by Charlemagne in AD 789 for this reason. [1] Beginning in the Middle Ages, rationalists and classicists began to advocate for cremation.
Many cultures have rites associated with death and mourning, such as the last rites and wake in Christianity, shemira in Judaism, the antyesti in Hinduism, and the antam sanskar in Sikhism. These rituals often reflect deep spiritual beliefs and provide a structured way for communities to grieve and honor the deceased.
Some traditions are still culturally important to Cherokee communities, but are limited by laws of the settler state; for example, in many U.S. states it is not legal for spiritual advisors to remain with the body from death until burial. [2] A large percentage of Cherokee individuals today are Christians and engage in Christian funeral practices.
In mainland China and Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, the number 4 is often associated with death because the sound of the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean words for four and death are similar (for example, the sound sì in Chinese is the Sino-Korean number 4 (四), whereas sǐ is the word for death (死), and in Japanese "shi" is the number 4, whereas ...