A Death Ritual is a series of social practices performed by the living to commemorate the dead.
Death rituals are cross-cultural in representation. Death, as we know, is part of life. Its ceremonial roots, presents a sense of closure. A home-going.
It is also one the leading themes through Mirrors, which is set to premiere in New York City November 10, 2021.
The playwright Azure D. Osborne-Lee discussed researching Death Rituals at the public library while they prepared to write this play. It posed a lot of questions.
Throughout the world, we hold different insights into ways to care for our dead, rather it is in our general preparation for death or in our honor of life after the deceased.
Death Rituals in Mirrors
Death Rituals in the South are explored throughout Mirrors. The focus of food, and bringing food for the bereaved can be seen in many cultures. A wake as a time to give these foods, before the funeral. The mirror of the play, this symbol embodies a connection between our world and the next.
There are many superstitions about the great after. Belle’s presence in the story is a remarkable example of our concern with a soul’s rest.
Death rituals bring to life what is missing in someone’s absence. Perhaps it only exists to fill a void, regardless, when someone says it must be done. I believe them.
The themes of this play are better actualized, than described. Get your in-person or online tickets to the premiere of Mirrors on November 10, 2021 at 6 pm ET.
Below are a few cultural examples of death rituals throughout all cultures.
Death Rituals in Different Cultures
In Japan, we learn about various types of death rituals. In The Songs of the Dead: Poetry, Drama, and Ancient Death Rituals of Japan By Toshio Akima
It researches boats as form of death ritual within Japan and it reads as follows, "This idea of contact between this world and the nether by means of a boat... is not only found in the records of the ancient period; it also remains evident in medieval Japan... under Buddhist disguise. In medieval Japan... there was a strange religious practice call the Crossing over to Fudaraku... in which some Buddhist priests locked themselves in a coffin-like boat... and sailed to the Pure land of Kannon chanting Buddhist sutras. (Masuda 1968: 198-220)" "To bury the dead, coffins are used. Relatives and mourners dance beside the coffin. Dresses of white are worn by the closest relatives of the dead. If the dead man is noble, he is placed in a funeral house built outside, and mourned for 3 years. If he is a commoner, he is buried on the right date chosen by divination. For burial the corpse is placed on a boat and sometimes rollers are used to pull it along on land. (Wada and Ishihara 1977:73)"
Brazil's practices are tied to the politics of the time... from Death Is a Festival: Funeral Rites and Rebellion.. of Nineteenth Century Brazil By Roderick J. Barman
In the ritualization of death the irmandades (the confraternities and third orders)... of Salvador played a key role, in part because specific irmandades acted as religious and social centers for different racial groups, such as that of Our Lady of the Rosary for African slaves... Members of an irmandade were assured of a funeral and interment with due ceremony and reverence... They could be, and often specifically requested to be interred in the irmandade's church... Such practice united the dead and the living, a union intensified by the celebration of Masses for the deceased's soul... Burial in church may promote unity but rotting corpses stink. The medical profession in the nineteenth century was increasingly convinced that eliminating "miasmas" (gases), including the stench of corpses, would reduce the death rate... Physicians advocated the construction of cemeteries isolated from residential areas.
Early Greece in talks about grave ritual for AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth) bodied people... in Ritual Shoes in Early Greek Female Graves By Ann M.E. Haentjens
During my research on Attic Geometric child graves, I've noticed some exceptional girls' grave...that contained at least one pair of terracotta boats... A female adolescent/adult buried in the South Cemetery of Naxos.. has also terracotta shoes amongst her grave-goods