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I was reading other posts and wondering how many odd burial rituals there are or odd headstones or things of that nature?

Funny - I saw a really weird tombstone that I am going to take a picture of and post in my portfolio. It reads "Someday my dear, you will understand."

I once saw a tombstone shaped like a bowling ball with some bowling pins next to it

I think the oddest headstone i have ever seen was in the shape of a big rig.. I also saw one in the shape of a tree stump once.. There was a cage over a grave one time and i found out that in the older days they put them there to keep the wolves and coyotes from digging up the graves.. That was pretty cool too..

many people have had Tombstones done to fit their personality...

Some people have actually had "Odd" Crypts and musoleums built....

there have even been a recent trend to have coffins done to suit the deceased's fashion flair.

Even funeral rites can be "unusual"....

such as the New Orleans funeral practice of playing Jazz music during the walk to the cemetary.

Every funeral rite comes from some belief... eventually those rites become common place, and no one remembers why they were done in the first place.

i once saw a tombstone shaped like a cench....who would want to sit on a dead guy though? kinda creepy.

maybe the bench was so his loved ones wouldn't have to sit on the cold dirty ground......

or maybe he made benches for a living....

Who knows?

Fats .. something or other a big Big man, was buried in his Caddy.. the headlines.. "Big Daddy Fats Goes Out in Caddy".

my uncle was buried with his motorcycle that he lost his life on.....I think thats odd.

mmm i saw a tomb stone that had some ones hand print once.i have also seen one that had foot prients to lol....

a distant uncle of mine has a headstone that is in the shape of huge dove. Yeah, a dove. it's pretty much a statue sort of thing. it has no inscriptions or anything, just the bird. i always thought it was kind of kooky, but then again, he was the family kook so it was anything but a surprise.

I don't know if it's odd, but, I saw headstone one time (I do have a picture of it) that had the free masons symbol on it and it also listed the two people who killed the man on the tombstone. I thought it was weird becuase I have never seen a tombstone that listed the names of the people who murdered the person.

Some knights had tombstones made of their likeness and of their dogs.

An odd burial ritual was to bury the person face down so it it woke and tried to get out of the coffin and back above ground it would keep going down, deeper into the earth.

In Japan the coffins are placed in the ground standing up to save space. Crazy isn't it?

The strangest I ever saw was off away from all the other graves and all it said was "To remain nameless RIA"

Oddly enough, the Freemasons have their own burial method, it resembles the old sumerian form of burial actually. The specifics I cannot get into, but if you wish...Do a search online for that type. As well, Freemasons always after a Masonic burial, put the Square and Compass's on the tombstone to mark the Masons passing. We call it a Lodge of Sorrow.

The strangest, and probably saddest headstone I have seen, is of an angel with its head bowed down, arms tied behind its back and eyes blind folded.

*Chuckles* What do you mean..."Back in the day?"

The monks of the Vrajju Plateau maintain a morbid but fascinating custom in regards to their dead. The bodies of Vrajjur monks are first subjected to a variety of ritual tests, such as slashing and beating of the corpse, to make sure that the person's spirit is truly departed and will not return to vengefully reanimate. Then, the monks will utilize the corpse. Many corpses have their leg or arm bones carved into flutes and their skulls made into drinking goblets. Ribcages are woven with strips of goat leather into baskets and bowls. Spines are used as braziers and to hold up awnings on the balconies of the Vrajjur monasteries.

These practices are in no way meant to disrespect the dead, though many horrified visitors have thought it so. Rather, they are meant to surround the Vrajjur monk with constant reminders of death and the fleeting, temporary nature of the state of life. These grisly tokens are meant to engender contemplation and nonattachment in the Vrajjur monk, and acceptance that he will, eventually, also die, and have his legs made into flutes and his skull into a drinking vessel and his teeth into a ritual rattle.

The bench as mentioned is usually so that the family can sit by the grave and watch over there loved one..My ex husbands family had one done for there mother to watch over her husband.. She rarely used it but it was a really nice thought. One of the wierdest things i have seen in a cemtary was one mother lost her son when he was about 17 and she had a rooking chair made and permenatly put into next to his grave so that she could be with him always.. It really is sad though cause she is there all the time.

well I know that they buried my brother with his gun and 2 bullets .... 1 for the devil and 1 for him.. one of many soldier burial rituals..

They also put coins on the eyes of the dead .. to pay the toll to cross over...

many many different kinds of rituals and I love the New Orleans Jazz Cemetery Walk it is always so enlightening to me....

i saw a tombstone that said rest in DEATH)).. that was a bit odd..

Earth Laid upon a Corpse

Old Scottish superstition described by eighteenth-century writer Thomas Pennant. It was the custom in the Highlands to lay on the breast of the deceased a wooden platter containing a little earth and a little salt—the former to symbolize the corruptibility of the body, the latter the incorruptibility of the soul.

there are also medieval rights pertaining to humans being embalmed so they cant be ressirected..

i don't personally believe in burial... i feel it is disrespectful, no need to explain further


would it count if i talked about cremations?

a friend of mine asked for his headstone to be placed upside down and let it read " i beeat you into the ground and may be six feet under yet your still on yor back for me." the pun being its upside down. took me a while to get it bu his dumbass did it.

So many cultural lines here. Many cultures bury the lost ones. Many don't for instance, Native Americans and the pier fire ritual. I would prefer that method to being embalmed and stuck in a box underground. Wasn't Cleopatra sent down the nile on a burning barge? I like this ritual. Cremation in whichever form!

I don't have a picture but I once saw a tombstone that had the likness of the mans wife as the tombstone, it was very beautiful.

yes cremation is something to discuss also.. There are rituals with that also..

http://www.alchemieshoppe.com/funerals.html


thats a link to a place that offers different forms of funerals with the different descriptions of them.

There are anyway a person can think they want to be tributed to after they leave this life. Any way a person would want their soul and spiritual body to be looked upon after life, there is a funerary passing for it.

I want my remains to be cremated too...I guess I'd be asking for a lot if my ashes could be dumped in the Pacific or the Grand Canyon, since the sands near the Egyptian pyramids are out of the question...

well there is one of a tribe in africa he honor their dead by eating them so that their soul can live on with the tribe

Did you know...


...when a viking died, he was buried w/ all of his armour and his horse just in case he met with battle on the other side?



...the traditional Irish wakes were always played with loud music to keep evil spirits from possessing the newly deceased?


...sometimes the Japanese would kill the wives and animals for the newly deceased? It was so the dead wouldn't be lonely.


...ancient Chinese used to tear up pieces of paper with hopes of confusing the evil spirits from following them to cemetery and knowing the location of the dead?





...that there was a ritual in which an appointed man would eat the sins of the dead? He would sprinkle the body with salt and bread on the body and then eat it? Needless to say, the man was paid very well for doing so.


...the English would kill a person and bury them in a newly appointed graveyard to watch over it?


...in some countries, if a child died, a dog would be buried with it? Reason: a dog can always find its way home.




...Japanese would throw lavish parties for their dead? They would invite a medium to talk to them and the lavish parties was satisfy the ghosts of the relatives so they would not come back to haunt the living.



...the Celtic men would sleep on their deceased graves and if they made contact, the bodies of these men would jump and make them crazy?


...pirates would kill a member of their clan and bury them with their treasure so others pirates and sailors wouldn't beable to get to it? The ghost was supposed to ward off the living.




...in some cases, a ghost came forth to seek justice for murder and the judge found the evidence to be truthful and correct?


...ancient Egyptians would turn their dead in circles to confuse them so they would not return to the living?

Source - http://www.essortment.com/all/burialrituals_rtrr.htm

Then there's Canibal tribes, like the South American one called the Tree-people depicted in the the rather gory & controversial film Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Who instead of burying their dead, they eat them believing it was a way of forming some deeper, profound spiritual bond with them that would continue beyond the grave (he person then continues to live on inside them).


The below: definition is from this source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism

Endocannibalism (eating humans from the same community)

I don't believe there are any 'odd burial rituals'. Every culture has their own way of dealing with the dead -- therefore none can truly be considered odd.

the burning of ones body releases the soul, that is why i believe in cremataion

not i have a traditional bury everything with the person that they felt was sacred, texts of the outside world that the gifts received etc.... BOS is included...

journals and such should not be left around for others to see....my ritual of cremation

some old relgions used to burn the bodies...as a purification act

i know of a man that was burried in his car

tomb stones are usually fit to the persons personalitlity and what they did in their past before they past on,
in burial rituals they are just shaped to what they did and or what their lifes were,
hard to explain,
some tomb stones or burial stones have quaters on them or stones on top of the headstone and do not understand that my self,

if tombstones match personality.... and i was buried (which would be against my wishes so i hope that doesn't happen) my tombstone better be a demon or i will haunt my family

My uncle was really big into hunting and when he passed My grandparents had a huge concrete deer placed by his grave.

The man who designed the Pringles potato chip packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that a portion of his ashes has been buried in one of the iconic cans.

Baur's children said they honored his request to bury him in one of the cans by placing part of his cremated remains in a Pringles container in his grave in suburban Springfield Township.

The rest of his remains were placed in an urn buried along with the can, with some placed in another urn and given to a grandson.

Baur requested the burial arrangement because he was proud of his design of the Pringles container.

------------------------

Also, here's a page I found with some....interesting gravestones.

Strange Gravestones

odd things huh see thru caskets are far more strange than anything why.

across the street from where i used to live,there was a cemetary.all the graves were well kept up by the groundskeeper,and always water was put on the grass so it didn't die.and one day,i was walking and noticed a burial taking place for a man,i think,S. A. M.that's all that was on the grave,no dates,no name.just initials.and then,the next day,grass was dying where he had been burried.soon,all the grass in the surrounding area had died.i spoke with the groundskeeper,and he said that the man burried there had killed his own children,one by one,all 6 of them,mutilated the corpses,and waited for his wife to return.then,he mutilated her body,cut her up while she was still alive,and left her body,delimbed,to bleed to death.then he hung himself from a balcony on the second story.


it was wierd,because grass refused to grow on that one spot..

I agree with Distortion, I don't really think they can be considered odd because like he said every culture has their own way when it comes to dealing with the dead, we only see it as odd because it's different from how we handle things.

the only thing that comes of people being buried is other people get to steal anything inside the casket

thats wierd even tho i havent come across odd buriel stones i will look this weekend tho i go every weekend to the graveyard with my friends is like a tradtional playground for us

Taken from here.


''...when a viking died, he was buried w/ all of his armour and his horse just in case he met with battle on the other side?



...the traditional Irish wakes were always played with loud music to keep evil spirits from possessing the newly deceased?


...sometimes the Japanese would kill the wives and animals for the newly deceased? It was so the dead wouldn't be lonely.


...ancient Chinese used to tear up pieces of paper with hopes of confusing the evil spirits from following them to cemetery and knowing the location of the dead?


...that there are more male ghosts than female? **according to author William Montell**


...that there was a ritual in which an appointed man would eat the sins of the dead? He would sprinkle the body with salt and bread on the body and then eat it? Needless to say, the man was paid very well for doing so.


...the English would kill a person and bury them in a newly appointed graveyard to watch over it?


...in some countries, if a child died, a dog would be buried with it? Reason: a dog can always find its way home.


...a sage was used in telling young women who their future husbands were?


...there is a way to catch a ghost? Place an empty bottle in the corner of the room--high near the ceiling. When the bottle jolts around, you have caught your ghost. This practice was also used to catch "witch spirits". It was called the Witch Bottle.


...Virginia is said to be the most haunted state in the Americas?


...Japanese would throw lavish parties for their dead? They would invite a medium to talk to them and the lavish parties was satisfy the ghosts of the relatives so they would not come back to haunt the living.


...a baka is a flesh eating creature who in their living life was part of a secret cult--according to Haitian legend?


..the cat is the mostly seen animal for ghosts?


...in Europe, on Christmas day, the ghosts are banned from visiting the living?


...when a rooster crows in the morning, it is a signal for all ghosts to return to their respectful places?


...the Celtic men would sleep on their deceased graves and if they made contact, the bodies of these men would jump and make them crazy?


...pirates would kill a member of their clan and bury them with their treasure so others pirates and sailors wouldn't beable to get to it? The ghost was supposed to ward off the living.


...horses, dogs, and cats can detect if a ghost is near?


...in some cases, a ghost came forth to seek justice for murder and the judge found the evidence to be truthful and correct?


...the old superstition of the witching hour (midnight) is still widely believed today?


...ghosts cannot cross running water?


...George Washington saw a ghost that foretold what America would be like if he did not bring peace the people?


...ancient Egyptians would turn their dead in circles to confuse them so they would not return to the living? ''

Also .. ya'll might find this interesting.

i saw one in shape of 2 hearts

I have a question about the viking "fact". I happen to study history and that seems to go against what their faith said. They knew there would be fighting on the other side. In fact that was the whole point of the afterlife for a Norseman. Was to be in Valhala and fight all day and drink away the night. To me what you said is more of a mongol tradition.


The ritual that I known for the Norse is to burn the body coving the eyes with cold coins so that they can pay the tender to be taken to Valhala.

Soulshroude I saw that burial with my grandfather and was the best thing I have experienced in a funeral of Freemasons.

The oddest I have ever seen was where a family buried their German Shepard...in the sidewalk and had the outline of the dog etched within the walk. It held a gem in the eye of the etching.

there are many different "odd" burials around the world... I mean alot depends on how or what you believe in, I know many do the coins on the eyes.... for toll to the other side. When a soldier is buried many of them are buried with 2 bullets one for the Devil and one for them. I mena the list goes on and on.

some would still burn their dead if allowed in the civilized areas also LOL I mean many cultures still do, yet they are mostly tribes and different cultures from the civilized cultures. just an opinion is all.

I know that how you are buried normally depends on what you believe but I have told my family that I want to be buried the day I die. I don't want to be em bombed. I believe that we come from the earth and should return to it in the end. I don't think we need to protect this shell once we have left it.

I want to fade to nothing as soon as possible. I don't think we should dwell on the dead I don't think they would want us too.

I agree with that Sweet... I also would like to go as quick as I came and become one with the earth again. I do not think we should do anything except respect the dead and wrap them in clean linen and place them in the ground.. just me I guess.

haha, thing is im probably one of those people that would have something out of the ordinary or wierd like that, even just to piss people off ^_^
from beyond the grave, lol!

either that or i would create something to be used as my tombstone during my life, so that i know my memory would be preserved through my life and art.

i dont think i would have a mausoleum built, just a simple statue or something to comemorate me

something beautiful ;-;

well it all depends on your culture and beliefs are as to how they are buried or what kind of rituals that they do.

for the most part.. I have always not wanted to be buried but just put out in the woods somewhere and be left for the animals.. Wierd i know but i feel like that is what it should be..Dead things help nurish other creatures. I'm pretty sure that could NEVER happen but hey everyone can want something odd in life..

my uncle was younger than me and died in a car accident along with his girlfriend. the viewing was held inside the auditorium that they were still attending and that I graduated from. The reasoning behind this was to accomodate a large crowd of people, but still rather awkard. Many of those I talked to who were in the same grade level as them told me that they found it hard to be inside the auditorium ever again as an effect from it.

I once saw a musoleum with a glass doee that enclosed all ancient egyptian motif. Statues of Horus,Isis and a few other egyptian dieties.

i think it's funny that there are so many "weird" burial sites but they're not actually weird at all, they make perfect sense when you take into account the person buried there. there's a reason for everything.

LONA -


How does the person who's burried account for the burial making sense?

A strange ritual in our parts is to give a hen and clothes over the grave to someone.This way the things will serve to the dead person on the other world.

Lol, That would be funny, I can't imagine people floating out in space. I have seen it done on Sci-Fi shows like star trek, but never thought it would actually be done. My best friend is a nurse and cleans bodies for burial as a second job. Now they have this new thing, that uses Lye. It turns the body into a gelatin and puts you in this canaster thats only as big as a coffee can. She said it looks like a can of lard after it is done.

The one I like the most said " I told you I was sick!!"

well, just take a look at the previous responses. some person's uncle (sry, don't remember names) was very into hunting so his family put a cement deer by his grave. the grave always has something to do with the person, whether it was their wish or their family trying to do something that relates to them and would have pleased them.

One heard of was putting a wife in plastic alive
And doing this chanting and such around her as she slowly suffacts

And haveing the new wife set the plastic on fire

dude, that's seriously messed up, i think. was the person sick or something and was it voluntary?

I know of one my family along time back would eat the eyes the heart the brain of there dead....it creepy

One of the most interesting burial grounds is The gay Cemetary from Sapanta, Maramures (the northern region of Transilvania).
There the crosses wear depiction of the dead persons and short little satirical or hilarious epitaphs.This is a UNESCO protected site because it is unique in all Europe.

This folkloric creation is based at an ancient tradition.
2000 years ago, our ancestors, the Dacians used to give a big party, where everybody laughed and enjoyed because they believed that the dead escaped from a world full of pain and will go to a better one, because the soul is immortal.By contrast, everytime a child was born they use to mourn and be very sad.

Some of this believes survived until today in all regions of Romania.

i saw one headstone that was a naked woman and it said "here she lies, with him between her thighs, may she rest, with that f***ing pest"

How many? I'll say 22. Did I win?

VelvetPassion -



Where did you hear about that ritual? The wife in the plastic one?

I saw a show on the discovery channel where the eldest member of the deceased family member would place coins on there eyes before they were set on fire. I am not sure what the purpose was I had to leave so I did not get to see the whole program.

Those gravestones are gorgeous!!
I think that it's something that marks the fact that the deceased was an individual in life, and so it should be noted in death.

i have seen many of odd tombstones but for the ritual part i will give you something to wrap your head around ..... a close biker friend of mine was loved by many a very young gentelman took his bike out and got hit by a semi truck... everyone knew this boy never wanted to part from his bike so he was burried with his bike his tombstone also was a life size replica of him on his bike and a walk way was built around in the shape of a heart and benches put near by for the mourners to sit and be with him

i think the vikings,tibetans and native american burriel rituals are a bit odd especialy with how things are done nowadays but think burrial rituals in the past were more meaningful and more sacred.

I like looking at different tombstones came across one on our property must have been there since early 1800s it was shaped like a wagon and said you died in it we buried you in it

i am a firm believer in cremation ..... why store the bodies of those who don't need it....

i can't recall this society that does this but a while back i watched a documentary on the discovery channel and when someone died they burn their remains and crushed their bones and made it into a super where the whole tribe would drink it,they literally drank the bone dust mixed with some type of drink.

Don't you think our burrial rituals would be odd to those of other cultures? Or to people from the past?

yes i guess odd wasn't the best way to put it. I guess i kinda ment not like the usual simple funeral.. Each culture has there own unique way of taking care of there passed loved one..

Wow there are alot of different burial rituals .. I know that when a soldier dies he is buried with 2 bullets. one for the devil and one for himself.

I would like to be buried...but not in a box or bag. Just put into the earth. And I dont want any chemicals to be put into my body to slow the decaying process, even for a funeral. The earth gives freely and often without harm, so why shouldnt I give to the earth freely and with out harm?

the chinese had hanging burial where they would hang the coffins on a cliff side

http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/55407.htm

here is a website you can find more about it or if you google it there is a ton more website about it. this burial ritual amazes me the most just because it seems so... well odd

I suppose what you meant was different burial rituals? Ones different from the tombstone thing.

i know some cultures like say i believe indonesia keep there dead in their house even though they have passed,though they are mummified in a way,which is different but still...very interesting.

I once saw a head stone in a Elvis pose saying he lays Elvis"s number 1 fan

many are burried with their animals.
But the one that shok me the most was about 20 years ago in an old american cemetary I could not even enter ( somehow I felt sick by the place) but I could see distinctivly a baby shap tomb stone....it was sick more then odd.

But I am not here to juge who knows what was writen on the plate just below it.

Even babies die too, VampireYui.

I read ages ago that in some cultures ( multiple ) that if the husband dies or anything that his wife has to die as well. Creepy if you ask me.. It is because they made a bond and one cant live with out the other.. Talk about wishing your partner is never ill with a bad disease..

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