Funerals throughout the world are governed by various traditions, rites and rituals. Funeral is a service where friends and family pray for the deceased and settle with the fate of the loss of their beloved.
Christian funerals adhere to the rules of the Church. However, there are more than 200 different factions of Christianity that have their own different practices and customs relating to the funeral ceremony.
An important ceremony of a Christian funeral, called wake, is the very first custom that is performed before the actual funeral and involves watching over the deceased and recital of Biblical psalms for the peace of his soul. According to present day practices, this is the stage where friends and family see the dead person for the last time and pay their heartfelt respects. The body is preserved and housed either in a Church or at the residence, and the time is specified. In old times, the wake was succeeded by the ritual of absolution, which involved absolving the person of all his or her sins in the present life, and laying a cross on the chest and performing offertory where people put gifts in the casket.
Next comes the main ceremony, which starts with the transportation of the deceased's body to the Church in a coach and is succeeded by recitation of hymns and prayers from the Bible. After this, the priest asks a family member or a friend to offer a eulogy before the burial. Some communities have tolling of the bells as an integral part of the proceedings that signifies the end of ceremony. Once the funeral proceedings are over, the casket with the deceased is transported to the burial site and burial service is held before the final burial.
Finally, the funeral's end is marked by a lunch organised for the family and those present at the funeral service. The primary purpose of such rituals is to give support to the grieving family and assist them to overcome their grief and accept the fate.
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