Traditions in Mourning

In the face of death, it is celebrated and mourned differently across all cultures and religions.

Ozwan Ali, a sophomore at Northwest High School, said, “[In Islamic tradition] first they would clean the body, then pray over it, go to the graveyard site and there would only be men there. They wouldn’t put [the body] in a coffin or anything, they would just wrap it up with special cloth and then put it in the ground.”

Ali, along with the majority of other Muslims, prioritizes honor and exclusivity in times of death. To pay respects, the Islamic religion values a more intimate scenery, to pay respects to the dead and the Islamic god, Allah. 

Ms. Whitney Gronvold, a Recent U.S. History teacher, expressed, “If the guests are not gossiping over my dead body I. Don’t. Want. It. There should be tears. Drama [and] scandal! The event of the century! A couple of nice speeches could be cute, but they should be laced with at least 3 to 5 backhanded insults or snubs. The event should close with a bang. Leave the guests amazed and slightly traumatized. A shocking reveal. A jump scare [or] something!”

A sensitive subject ultimately is not all that brutal; in the event of the inevitable, some find it something to confront head-on rather than something to ignore. 

Incorporating traditions in the mourning period enhances the passing of life. Whether prayer, memorial service, a spiritual offering, dancing, or feasting is held, they all serve love and respect to one another even through death. 

A sophomore at NWHS, Kaiser Pradhan, wrote, “Death is inexplicably something we don’t collectively understand. People take different interpretations of what is to come, but it’s all opinion-based.”

To tell the tale of death is to live through it, in that case, it is unknown. According to Kaiser, without raw knowledge there is fear. It is an individual’s choice whether to put their own belief behind it or not. 

Junior at NWHS, Talmage Bodine, said, “It’s just a passing of life, just the next stage of life, or next stage in eternal view of life.”

Contradictory, Bodine accepts his fate with the Latter-Day Saints’ belief in life after death. In this concept and similar versions, death is only the passing of the body. 

Medha Mandumula, a senior at NWHS said, “The Shraddha ceremony is just paying homage to the person’s ancestors. It kind of varies between different cultures in Hinduism. Still, the one that we follow is around 10 to 13 days. 13 days after the death we do a special ceremony, that’s basically when we believe the person has achieved Moksha. Moksha is leaving the cycle of death and rebirth because reincarnation would be reborn. Moksha is like you’ve achieved what you need to achieve in life so you are leaving the cycle and attain peace.” 

In Hinduism, honoring those who have passed often involves embodying their decay at the perceived spiritual rest rather than the physical. Although, when there is spiritual death, there is also spiritual rebirth, also known as reincarnation. Depending on the individual, the consistent existence of life can take form in a human, animal, in some cases vegetable. It is the totality of one’s personal good and bad deeds combined that determine their continuation of life, also known as karma. 

Universal traditions and customs essentially come together to give death meaning and even more of a purpose.