This page groups rituals by the event or setting they trace their origin to. Wikipedia gives the American Thanksgiving dinner as an example, noting it "may not be formal, yet is ostensibly based on an event from the early Puritan settlement of America." Browsing this way lets a visitor see the historical occasion a ritual claims to commemorate.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingRites performed at and after a death - preparation of the body, disposal by burial or cremation, and the observances kept for a fixed period afterwards. Nearly every tradition marks death by rite, but the rites answer different problems: the fate of the dead, the pollution of the living, the obligations of descendants, and the ordering of grief. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryA standard analytic category in the study of religion 2 Learn More
The funerary rituals
This group gathers funerary rituals, the rites surrounding death, the care of the body, and the passage of the dead: burial and cremation, mourning, and the ceremonies that ease or guide the deceased into the afterlife. A tradition's treatment of death reveals much of its view of the soul and the world beyond.
The browser will find funerary rituals from across the traditions. The entries describe each rite's form and meaning, noting the beliefs about death and the afterlife that shape it.
Originated In
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Funeral RitesView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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