This week: Funeral and Burial Rituals Edited by: ~Minja~  
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| When you say a word 'funeral', within a second you have an image in your head of how funeral looks like because you've probably participated in a few at some point. And although each funeral has one thing in common—it is a structured ceremony with the beginning, middle, and the end—funerals around the world engage participants of the same in so many different ways. This newsletter is a short insight into funeral rits around the world. |
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uneral rituals are as old as human culture itself. Common secular motivations for funerals include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life, and offering support and sympathy to the bereaved; additionally, funerals may have religious aspects that are intended to help the soul of the deceased reach the afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation.
Here is a short list of most creative, unusual, and inspiring funeral and burial rituals from around the world. Since many of those rituals sound beautiful, I'm going to twist the story a little bit and give you a horror/scary writing prompt for each  .
 Bureal Beads, South Korea
People in South Korea, due to limited space, have to be creative with the dead ones. They cremate the body and press it into colorful jewelry-like beads that are usually kept in an urn.
Prompt: Write about a person who received a necklace with the dead's ashes inside and is being haunted by it.
Hanging Coffins, China, The Philippines
The people of Sagada in the Philippines keep the coffins hidden along the mountainside. They are placed high on the places that are difficult to reach and they believe the higher the coffin is the closer the deceased is to heaven.
Prompt: Your main character is a traveler and is being fascinated by this particular graveyard in Sagada, Philippines. After he gets stuck on the mountain due to a bad weather, he runs into an ancient tribe who is in charge of preparing bodies for these coffins and somehow becomes the part of the ritual before they bury him as well.
Mummification, Ancient Egypt
The Egyptians are the best known for this practice. It takes about 70 days to complete the mummification of a dead body and, in Egypt, there were no restrictions on who could be mummified as long as they could afford it. Egyptians believed in life after death, and that death was just a transition from one life to another. They believed that they had to preserve their bodies so they could lead a new life. In mummification, all organs are being removed except the heart. The hole is then filled with linen and spices and the body is left under salt to become dry. Later, after 40 days the body is wrapped in linen bandages. Priests surround the body while it is being prepared and perform rituals. After the mummifying process is complete, a mask is placed over the head so it could be known in the afterlife.
Prompt: Write about the mummy's experience in the afterlife, wearing the mask with no eyes.
Ship Burial, Scandinavia
You've seen those in 'Vikings' probably. A body, along with jewelry, swords, armor, is put in a boat specifically made for this occasion. Then, the boat is sent to sea and set on fire. Although fire is not always involved, sometimes the others are sacrificed to act as servants to a deceased in the afterlife.
Prompt: Write about a Viking warrior who died of dishonorable death and is now being sent to Helheim (opposite of Valhalla where fallen heroes are sent).
Funerrary Cannibalism, Africa
In this practice, the dead are eaten by mourners as an act of compassion or to absorb the life-force of the deceased. Rejecting the practice would be offensive to the direct family members.
Prompt: Write about a person rejecting the practice at one of the funerals and how it ends up for him/her.
Charon's Obol, Ancient Greece
Charon's obol is an allusive term for the coin placed in or on the mouth of a dead person before burial. Greek and Latin literary sources explain it as a payment or bribe for Charon, the ferryman of Hades who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead.
Prompt: Write about a dead person not having the coin placed in/on the mouth and what Charon does in such case.
Fantasy Coffins, Ghana
Fantasy coffins in Ghana are not your ordinary coffins, they are a real work of art. They come in different shapes and design such as cars, fish, airplane, sword, etc. People in Ghana believe that death is not the end and that life continues in the next world in the same way it did on earth. For this reason, coffins always represent a dead person's profession.
Prompt: Write about a person who was an ax killer in this life. Make sure to mention his coffin looks like the ax and he's taking his profession to the next world. Will he be able to be a killer in the next world as well?
Strangulation Funeral, Fiji
Close family members, especially widows, were murdered by strangulation because people believed that God Ruvuyalo would destroy the spirit of a man who didn't enter the afterlife with his wife. They also believed that the deceased should not be left alone in the next life and should take a loved one with them to make the process less painful.
Prompt: Write about a woman who's been strangled. Twist plot, her husband was abusive in this life. How she handles him in the afterlife?
Memento Mori, Victorian England
Fascination by death and mourning in Victorian England were always the weirdest thing ever to me. Long exposures on the photographs meant that the dead were often seen more sharply than the slightly-blurred living because of their lack of movement. On some occasions, eyes would be painted after the photograph was developed which was meant to make the deceased more lifelike and other times the eyes were kept closed and death was more obvious.
Prompt: Go to Google and type Memento Mori Victorian England. Then choose whatever image you find to be the most horrifying and write a story about it.
Famadihana, Madagascar
People in Madagascar dig up the dead people every 5-7 years to refresh them. They wrap them in fresh cloths, perfume them, they dance holding the corpse above their heads before they return it to the family tomb. The ceremony is known as 'Turning of the Bones'.
Prompt: Name your story "Turning of the Bones" and write about a person whose beloved one is being dug out after 5 years and now it's time for her/him to refresh the dead body before it's returned back to the tomb.
Until next time, I hope you'll consider using some of the creative rituals in your stories
~Minja~
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Excerpt: We buried my mom today.
She didn’t die in a car, or a plane; she killed herself while taking a bath. Dad wouldn’t give us all the details, but I’ve seen enough creepy movies in my lifetime to imagine what happened.
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Excerpt: Being in the funeral business can be a good thing, after all. Surprising what information is committed to memory without effort over years of background shoptalk. For example, that there’s a release latch inside coffins, placed there to provide reassurance that one would not be buried alive. In case they were just comatose, when they came to, they could get out, or, in case someone trying out a coffin, yes, some do, and happen to get locked in, they could flip a little clasp to get the lid open from the inside. A simple snip with the bolt cutter to remove the clasp – no fiend will rise from this coffin.
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| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#2195265 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Reaching his hand out a little farther, he felt wood. Duckboards! This whole time he had been headed in the wrong direction. He knew what was going to happen. He was going to die. Alone. Suffocation, thirst, starvation or just giving up. He had seen it in other trenches. Bodies, mouths filled with dirt as they tried to breathe.
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Excerpt: "There's no him or her. There is nothing. This is the Umbral. It starts in the terrestrial crust or the outside of our planet Earth. It's an inferior and dense zone... place in between hell and heaven but this is not the so called Purgatory. There, it's better than here, you know. This is like being stuck in a dirty swamp... where you aren't suck in but... where you never get out... and worse... no one ever helps you out from here. This place is worse than anything. It's for the worst cases. Me. You. Men and women. Everyone here. We are on a long trial. We were judged and sent here. We are the worst of people, the forgotten souls. Enemies of the world, the real bad guys - waiting to be pardoned, maybe never or here... forever. Suffering. Knowing. Feeling. Remembering. Maybe... learning. I have been here for so long that I forgot. It's endless. I don't know how it starts and I don't know when or how it'll end."
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Excerpt: They burn through the masks I lurk beneath,
peeling my layers until, at last, my mirror
reflects my own true madness,
and I grow to love being observed
by the sunken, watchful eyes of the dead.
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| | | Cursed (ASR)
What happens when you open the tomb of an ancient one
#2096110 by ~Minja~ |
Excerpt: Hidden treasure you lust for
becomes the curse before the dawn,
you scream, you beg as you die
wrapped in darkness of cursed tomb.
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Horror/Scary: September 25, 2019 Issue [#9770]
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