funeral rite

plural funeral rites

1. A custom or ceremony pertaining to the recently dead, such as a funeral, public burial, or the Greek custom of breaking clayen vessels on the grave or in front of the deceased's house.

   During their funeral rite they perform a special dance (called wundr) which is said to stop lions from attacking the herds.

   2015, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Daryll Forde, African Systems of Kinship and Marriage, →ISBN

   4 more examples

   Although a secular funeral rite has been performed for public figures from the time of the Revolution, efforts to establish it for ordinary Soviet citizens have begun relatively late, that is from the middle sixties to the early seventies onwards. Up to then ritual specialists had shied away from its institution because they realized the great philosophical and organizational problems involved in creating and conducting a secular funeral rite.

   1981, Christel Lane, The Rites of Rulers: Ritual in Industrial Society - the Soviet Case, →ISBN

   Members of the family and friends completed the funeral rite by walking past the grave and, as they made the sign of the cross, sprinkling a handful of dirt on top of the coffin.

   1990, Norma Williams, The Mexican American Family: Tradition and Change, →ISBN, page 37

   Kallirhoe's spectacular testimonial from within the burial chamber gives a unique perspective of the "deceased" woman experiencing her own funeral rites.

   2007, Joan Breton Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, →ISBN, page 223

   In April 2024, the late Pope Francis approved an updated edition of the liturgical book for papal funeral rites, which will guide the funeral Mass which has yet to be announced.

   2025 April 21, Devin Watkins, “Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday aged 88”, in Vatican News

   Synonyms: obsequy