The Snowflake Chronicles

Memorial Service

The intriguing thing about going to a Baha'i Funeral is that no two are ever the same. True they all have a few thing in common. They are closed casket funerals (at least I haven't been to one that was an open casket funeral) and the long prayer for the dead is read either at the grave site or in the memorial chapel where the funeral (memorial) takes place.

The service I went to today was for a Baha'i who was born into the Jewish faith. In the chapel there was a menorah with all its candles lit. At the grave sit dirt from the Mount of Olives was placed on her coffin, which had a star of David carved in its top, and the Kaddish was said. The Baha'i prayer for the departed was said in the funeralhome chapel.

As Baha'is we accept the validity of all religions. When a person dies the customs from the religion one was born into (if the person or the family wishes it) can be incorporated into the funeral (memorial) service. In fact the service today was orchestrated by the woman whose funeral it was. Before she died she picked out the verses from the scriptures she wanted read. Those scriptures were put in the program that everyone at the funeral went home with. Included in the program were Baha'i and Jewish sacred scriptures, part of the Long Baha'i prayer for the departed and an English translation of the Kaddish.