Death and remembrance: practices that mark them
Guiding, honouring and warding the dead, and the rites of mourning.
Death and remembrance bring some of the most elaborate rites in the world, aimed at guiding the dead, protecting the living and keeping the bond between them. They include the Hindu cremation and Pitru Paksha offerings, the Tibetan Buddhist bardo teachings, the Jewish shiva, Islamic burial customs, the Irish wake, Chinese ancestor offerings, the Mexican Day of the Dead, the Ghanaian fantasy coffin and Aboriginal mourning rules. This page describes them as customs.
Guiding the dead
Many traditions see death as a journey that needs help. Hindu rites are said to carry the soul onward, Tibetan Buddhist texts guide the dead through an intermediate state, and ancient Egyptian rites prepared the dead for judgement. In many Chinese and Southeast Asian families, paper money, houses and goods are burned so the dead are provided for. Many such customs came from a time when disease and decay posed real danger, and the rules about touching and washing the body reflect that.
Protecting the living
The dead can be feared as well as loved. Customs aim to keep them from returning wrongly: covering mirrors in Jewish and some European homes, leaving by a different door, throwing salt, and cleansing after a funeral. Some Aboriginal communities do not speak a dead person's name for a time. Mourners often observe set periods and then rejoin ordinary life. In Judaism and Islam, burial is quick and simple, and mourners follow a defined period of grief that gradually returns them to normal life.
Remembrance and ancestors
In Mexico, families set out an ofrenda with photographs, marigolds and the favourite foods of the dead. In China, the Qingming festival sees graves swept. In West Africa, the dead are honoured as ancestors and consulted. In Madagascar, the famadihana turns the bones of ancestors in fresh cloth. Such rites are an active relationship. Rites for the dead continue after burial: remembrance days, annual visits to graves and prayers that mark anniversaries keep the memory of each person present.
Law, cost and exploitation
Funeral cost can be heavy and open to exploitation, and fraudulent mediums prey on the grieving. States regulate disposal of bodies, and some traditions, such as sky burial in Tibet and Hindu open-air cremation, have been restricted at times. Grief support from friends and professionals matters beside any rite. Grief takes many forms, and a rite does not replace mourning, though many mourners find that a shared ritual gives the first days a shape and gives friends and relatives something to do.
Death and remembrance on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇸🇳 Senegal and 5 moreAncestor veneration
Rituals of respect and offerings for the dead across many culturesTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreAncient Egyptian religion
Polytheistic worship, divine kingship, and funerary rites along the NileTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreJoss paper金紙
Paper burned as money and goods for ancestors, gods and the deadCharm · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Luck and prosperity Living
🇲🇽 MexicoCalavera
A sugar or clay skull used in Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations.Charm · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Luck and prosperity Living
🇮🇪 Ireland and 5 moreCairn
A human-made stack of stones used as a marker, memorial, or religious symbol across many cultures.Tradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 2 moreLibation
The ritual pouring of liquid as an offering to spirits or the deadRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Protection Living
🇸🇩 Sudan and 5 moreIncense
Aromatic plant materials burned to release fragrant smoke for ritual, scent, or timekeeping.Substance · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇮🇪 Ireland and 5 moreHalloween
A Christian vigil on 31 October for the dead, now marked by costumes and carved vegetablesRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Protection Living
🇬🇧 United KingdomCŵn Annwn
Spectral hounds of the Welsh otherworld that hunt souls and signal deathBeing · Cursing and harm · Speaking with spirits and the dead Legendary
🇯🇵 Japan and 3 moreObonお盆
A Japanese Buddhist festival honoring the spirits of ancestors through dance and offeringsTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Luck and prosperity Living
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreAstragalomancy
Divination by casting marked bones, carved rods, or numbered diceOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇷🇴 Romania and 1 moreFolklore of RomaniaFolclorul românesc
The traditional stories, music and customs of the Romanian peopleTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Wonder and entertainment Living
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 1 moreUkrainian folklore
The folk traditions of Ukraine and its ethnic communitiesTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Luck and prosperity Living
🇰🇷 South KoreaJesa제사
A Korean ancestral memorial rite involving food offerings and ritual bowsRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreAncestor veneration in China中國傳統宗法性宗教
Rites for dead kin who are thought to watch over the familyTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇲🇽 MexicoOfrenda
A Mexican home altar built to welcome the souls of the dead during Día de los MuertosTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 moreTelling the bees
A Western European custom of informing bees about major household eventsRite · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇯🇵 JapanYutaユタ
Okinawan folk shamans who guide families through spirits and fortune-tellingTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreDongyue Dadi東嶽大帝
The Chinese mountain god of Mount Tai who rules lifespans and underworld recordsBeing · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇯🇵 Japan and 1 moreGood Luck Flag寄せ書き日の丸 (yosegaki hinomaru)
A Japanese national flag signed by loved ones to wish a soldier safety and victory.Charm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 5 moreBullroarer
A wooden slat on a string that produces a roaring sound for ritual and communication.Tradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreLock of hair
A piece of human hair kept for symbolic, sentimental, or superstitious reasons.Substance · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇳 ChinaSuperstition in China
A broad category for folk beliefs and rituals dismissed as backward by modern Chinese authoritiesBelief · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇯🇲 Jamaica and 1 moreNine-Night
A nine-day Caribbean wake rooted in Akan tradition to celebrate the deceased and guide their spirit home.Rite · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Good Luck Flag: takato marui, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Libation: Arkady Zarubin ( Аркадий Зарубин ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Incense: nakimusi, CC BY 2.0, source
- Halloween: Toby Ord, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Obon: Batholith, Public domain, source
- Astragalomancy: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Folklore of Romania: TwoWings, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ukrainian folklore: U.S. Army Europe Images, CC BY 2.0, source
- Jesa: by Joseph Steinberg (Baltimoron in Korea) at Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Ancestor veneration in China: Three huntings, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ofrenda: Eneas de Troya, CC BY 2.0, source
- Lock of hair: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Dongyue Dadi: H2v5o68z, CC0, source
- Ancestor veneration: Thang Nguyen, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Ancient Egyptian religion: Moh hakem, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Joss paper: Vmenkov, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Calavera: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Cairn: Andrew Bossi, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Superstition in China: Gary Todd, CC0, source