The Most Mysterious and Strange Burial Traditions You Can Witness Today

There are special funeral rituals in every culture, and they are created for one single purpose – preparation for the funeral allows relatives to be distracted and cope easier with the loss of their loved one. But in some cultures, the burial rituals look rather strange and sometimes mysterious.

The History of Cremation

Cremation as a type of burial was used since prehistoric times. It dates at least 17000 years ago.  Ancient people perceived fire as a deity and believed that burning the body would provide protection in the afterlife.

On the European continent, cremation was first widely used in ancient Greece. The Greeks believed that the burning of the deceased one cleanses his soul and frees it from the earthly body. Then, along with many customs and rituals adopted by the Romans from Ancient Hellas, cremation as a type of burial became widespread in Ancient Rome. It was during the time of Ancient Rome that the custom appeared to store cremated remains in decorated urns in special places – columbariums. By 400 AD with the adoption of Christianity by most European nations, cremation was everywhere replaced by burial in the ground.

In Europe, a movement to reintroduce cremation began in the 1870s, which became possible with the invention of new furnace technology.

Today cremation becoming more and more popular and many people even state this desired method of burial in their will. The tradition itself didn’t change much from the ancient times: the ashes are collected in special urns and then placed at home or in special columbariums or mausoleums.

When it comes to cremation urns, many people would look to have something unique and beautiful, that would cherish the memories for their loved ones. For example, SIMCS Handicrafts produce one-of-a-kind decorative urns that could be made from different materials – metal, glass, stone, wood, resin, ceramic and more.

Along with cremation urns for human ashes, people often purchase special urns for their cherished pets that passed away. This could seem like a new tradition, but actually, it also dates back thousands of years. For example, it existed in ancient Egypt, and many human tombs also contained the remains of their home animals.

India

One of the most famous and mysterious burial traditions you can witness today is in India. Burning on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi on the ghats is especially popular. Ghat is a stone step structure, which serves for the washing ritual and/or as a place of cremation. Ghats were gradually built and rebuilt over several thousand years.

Such burning is not cremation in the full modern sense of the term, since such open burning on a wood fire ends at the stage of carbonization of muscle tissue, after which unburned remains are dumped into the Ganges river.

Another interesting and scary tradition that existed before in India (luckily it is prohibited by law nowadays) is called Sati. Sati is a funeral ritual in Hinduism, according to which a widow is to be burned together with her deceased spouse on a specially constructed funeral pyre. Today this phenomenon is rare and forbidden.

Korea

At the end of the XX century, the population of South Korea began to increase rapidly, but the territory of the country, of course, remained the same – very small. The authorities, who tried to convince the Koreans not to bury their relatives, but to cremate, failed. Koreans believe that the body of the deceased must certainly be buried. Then the authorities found a compromise: since 2000 in South Korea it is allowed to bury people only for a period of not more than 60 years. After this time, the grave is dug up to bury someone else. As a result, today only 30% of the dead are buried in the earth. The rest are cremated, and after the ashes are exposed to high temperatures, they are crystallized and turn into beads. They are then painted in different colors and stored in beautiful bottles.

Japan

Almost all Japanese, 99.8%, choose a cremation ceremony for their loved ones. Oddities in the ceremony begin at the time of the burial of the ashes. The average Japanese devote most of his life to his work. In this country, it is not a custom to leave work on time or take a day off if you are healthy. Therefore, a situation in which the ashes of the deceased are divided by a family and former employees is considered a completely normal phenomenon. Then one urn with ashes is buried in the family grave, and another in the corporate cemetery. Interestingly, the shape of tombstones in corporate cemeteries often reflects the company’s business or logo.