The second post on death beliefs from around the world. This one will cover Shinto, Jamaica, and Aboriginal Australia, as well as the ancient mythologies of Norse, Egypt, and Greece.

Island Cultures

According to the Shinto beliefs of Japan, Izanami and her husband Izanagi were the gods of creation. However, Izanami died giving birth to the fire god Kagu Tsuchi and her spirit went down to Yomi, the land of the dead. Her husband travelled down to Yomi to bring her back, but because she had already eaten the food of the underworld she had taken the deathly form of a rotting corpse. Terrified, Izanagi fleed and rolled a heavy boulder over the entrance to the underworld so she could not follow him. The enraged Izanami claimed that if he left her she would kill 1,000 of the living every day, and so her husband returned that he would give life to 1,500 every day. Through this, Izanami became the goddess of death.

In Jamaica, a person’s death is celebrated because they are no longer suffering in this world. The celebration is known as Nine Night, because it lasts nine nights, and is accompanied by food, drink, music, and games. The final night is considered the most revered. Fond memories and stories of the deceased are shared and prayers are said. It is on this night that the person’s spirit is believed to pass through the party and say his or her goodbyes, and a tent with special food for the deceased such as fried fish, cake, bread, and rum is set up, which no one is allowed to eat from until after midnight. The deceased’s bed and mattress are turned up against the wall to encourage the person’s spirit to go to the grave. The day after the ninth night is when the church service is performed, and the deceased’s body is buried along with journey cakes. Until this point it has been preserved with weights, ice, and cotton. There is additional singing forty nights after the person’s death, as this is when their spirit is believed to stop roaming this world.

The Aboriginal people of Australia believe that a person has two type of souls associated with the two planes of existence, and that these souls take different paths after the person’s death. The person’s ego, or personality, remains behind and haunts the deceased’s body and property for a time as a malevolent ghost before dissolving away into nothingness. The person’s ancestral soul, however, returns to the Dreamtime, an eternal, nonlinear plane more real than our world in which the values, symbols, and laws of our world are established. After a person’s death, the community will waft smoke from burning leaves over the deceased’s property, perform stylized wailing, and self-inflict wounds. After the malevolent ghost of the deceased it believed to have gone, his or her property is either destroyed or abandoned, and there is a long-term ban placed on the use of their name.

Ancient Mythology

According to Norse belief, the goddess of death was Hel, the daughter of Loki. When Odin discovered Loki possessed children, he cast them into remote places. She was cast into Niflheim, the realm of cold and darkness, and became its ruler. The realm came to also be known as Hel, and the spirits of those who died of sickness or old age came to reside there. Alternatively, those who died heroically in battle went to Valhalla, the hall of slain heroes, where they fought during the day and feasted with Odin at night.

The Egyptians believed that a persons akh, or spirit, was made up of the ba, the soul, and the ka, the vitality. It is because the ka remained in the person’s body after death that the Egyptians put great importance in preserving the body. In the mummification process, all soft tissues were removed and the body had natron put in and around it. The inside and outside of the body was then coated in resin to preserve it and wrapped in linen bandages. The instestines, lungs, liver, and stomach were kept in canopic jars guarded by the four sons of Horus, while the heart remained in the body since it was considered the house of the soul and was needed in the afterlife. Animals representing the gods, such as the ibis, crocodile, cat, Nile perch, and baboon were mummified along with the deceased. The Book of the Dead was a tome of around two hundred spells which was individually customized for the deceased and buried with them to ease their passage into the underworld. Pharaohs and other nobility were usually placed in nested coffins, which were then placed in a stone sarcophagus. They also had tombs created for them, the most famous being the pyramids, which were built like mazes to deter grave robbers. Because harming a pharaoh’s body, even after death, was punishable by stoning, the person who made the incision in a pharaoh’s body during mummification was ritually chased away and had stones thrown at them. Those who were poor mummified their deceased the old-fashioned way by placing them in reed caskets and burying them in the hot sand, which dried out the person’s body and preserved them.
Once a person died, their soul went to the hall of judgement in Duat. There Anubis weighed the person’s heart against a feather representing truth and order. If their heart was free of guilt and sin, then they went to see Osiris, the god of the afterlife, in the heavenly Aaru. Otherwise, the heart would be weighed down and eaten by the demon Ammit, which was part crocodile, part lion, and part hippopotamus, and the person would have to remain in Duat forever. Sometimes people were buried with surrogate hearts to help them pass this test in the afterlife and pass into Aaru.

In Greek mythology Hades, the god of death and money, ruled over the underworld, which was also referred to as Hades. The shades of those who died came to the bank of Acheron, the river of sorrow, where they could be ferried across by the centaur Charon for an obolus. This small coin was placed beneath the tongue of the deceased by relatives, and so those who were poor or friendless waited forever at the river’s bank. The other side of the river was guarded by the three-headed dog Cerberus, and past him was the land of the dead. The first region of Hades was Asphodel, and those there could be temporarily reawoken to the sensations of humanity only if given a libation of blood. Past Asphodel was Erebus, where a pool from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, and the pool of memory, Mnemosyne, resided. Past this was the palace of Hades and his wife, Persephone, where shades were judged by Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus. They were sent to Elysium if they were virtuous, Tartarus if they were evil, and Asphodel if they were neither virtuous nor evil. The other rivers of Hades were Cocytus, the river of lamentation, Phlegethon, the river of fire, and Styx, the river of hate, which formed the boundary between the upper and lower worlds.

References
Most of this comes from Wikipedia. I know. I am shamed. Here are the other sources.

http://library.thinkquest.org/16665/burialframe.htm – Death rituals from around the world
http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Australian-Aboriginal-Religion.html – On Aboriginal Australia

Many cultures have different beliefs about death, from how the body should be prepared to what happens to the deceased’s spirit afterwards. I really enjoy researching topics I have an interest in or want to use in my writing (usually one pertains to the other), so I thought I’d outline some of the death beliefs I’ve looked into.

Originally I was just going to focus on the fun ones… like Shinto, Jamaica, Ancient Greece, Dia de los Muertos etc. However, I really wanted to do the bit about the storks, and that sort of meant I had to go all out. This post will cover Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

People of the Book
The three religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are linked as they all worship the same one god and believe to have received divine ordinances from him. Because of this there are some similarities between their beliefs, though they differ in other ways.

Christians can either cremate their dead or bury them in caskets. During a funeral ceremony, a priest will give a sermon and lead the mourners in prayer for the departed person’s soul. If it is a burial, the priest will cast earth on the casket three times before it is buried. If it is a cremation, this will be done inside the church. Mourners will wear black and usually bring flowers or light candles. A gravestone is erected where the person is buried, or their ashes can be spread or placed in an urn.
Followers of Christianity believe in a day of judgement and that the deceased’s spirit will go to Heaven if they are good and believe in God, Purgatory if they are a virtuous non-believer or have unsettled matters from life resting on their soul, and Hell if they are sinful. These beliefs vary between different sects of Christianity.

People of the Jewish faith believe that because the body was made in God’s image it should not be changed, and are therefore against cremation, organ donation, or chemical preservation of the body. When those close to the deceased hear of his or her death, they rip their outer clothing from the neckline down to the heart. The torn clothing symbolizes mourning, that the hearts of the family are torn, and that the body is like the outer garment of the soul. The deceased’s body is ritually washed by experts and placed in a plain casket. The funeral ceremonies tend to be simple, and the funeral procession will stop ten times from the chapel to the grave for each part of the psalm that is sung. The male mourners cast three shovels of earth onto the casket before it is buried, and the mourners wash their hands when leaving the gravesite to symbolically wash away the spirits of uncleanliness associated with death. The first period of mourning is Shiva, which lasts one week. The family mourns alone for the first three days, and then for the last four days is visited by friends who bring food and give their sympathy. The next period of mourning is Sheloshim, which lasts three weeks after the ends of Shiva. During this time, the family members go about their regular business, but recite the Kaddish prayer each day and do not shave or cut their hair. For the next ten months, the Kaddish prayer is recited every Sabbath day, and then exactly one year after the person’s death, the family unveils the grave monument and places small stones on the gravestone as a sign of respect.
The ancient Hebrews believed that punishments and rewards were given out in this life, and that the afterlife was a pale shadow in comparison. Because of this, they placed more value on the present life that the one after death. Today, followers of Judaism believe in a day of judgement when people are rewarded or punished for their deeds in life. Gehenn, or She’ol, is a place of punishment and cleansing. Some believe that after the soul has been cleansed it goes on to paradise, while others believe that the souls of the good are reincarnated and allowed to live again.

Muslims are against cremation because it is believed that on the day of resurrection the souls of the good will be awakened directly from their graves to live eternal life. The deceased should be buried within twenty-four hours, and the body is washed by a person of the same sex, usually a relative. The body is laid with its arms at its sides and wrapped in white linen. A prayer is recited before the burial, and the deceased is buried lying on their right side with their face turned toward Mecca. Those who participate in the ceremony cast three handfuls of dirt on the casket before it is buried. Afterwards, the grave is usually unmarked or marked with a wreath or a bush, since the Islamic religion prefers simple, unadorned graves.
According to the Islamic religion, a person is said to have two angels at each of their shoulders which hold books and follow them through life. One records the persons good deeds, while the other records their bad. When the person dies, the two books are weighed. Depending on which book is lighter, the person will then go to Paradise or Hell. The Muslims also believe in a day of judgement, when people will cross a bridge to get to Paradise, and those who are weighed down by their sins will fall into Hell.
Muslims believe storks are the souls of those who died before they were able to pilgrimage to Mecca, and that the deceased spirit is making the pilgrimage in the form of a bird. Because of this, the Islamic people hold storks in great reverence, and in some places, like Morocco, disturbing a stork is punishable with a prison sentence of three months.

Buddhism and Hinduism
Both Buddhism and Hinduism believe the soul is reincarnated based upon its deeds in life, and that only once a person achieves complete understanding will they be able to break this cycle and not be reborn again.

In Buddhism, a dying person is encouraged to focus on the Buddhist scriptures in the hope that this will help them attain a higher level of existence in the next life. Once the person has passed on, the relatives perform a bathing ceremony in which they pour water over one of the deceased’s hands. The body is placed in a coffin and surrounded with wreaths, food, and incense, as well as a picture of the deceased. Monks come to the house to chant while holding a broad ribbon attached to the coffin and are offered food to give merit to the deceased. The cremation is usually held within three days. It is believed the coffin should not leave the home by the usual route, and because of this some families remove the coffin through a hole in the wall or floor, while others simply cover the ground with banana leaves. The funeral procession is led by a man holding a white banner on a long pole, who is then followed by elderly men holding flowers in silver bowls, and then the monks which precede the coffin. The coffin is carried or driven by the relatives of the deceased to the cemetary, where it is placed on a pyre of bricks and lighted candles, incense, and fragrant wood are put under the coffin to set it ablaze. Afterwards the ashes may be placed in an urn. There is feasting every night up to the cremation, with the largest occuring the night after. At this event, the relatives and neighbors attempt to banish sorrow, lonliness, and the fear of spirits through merry-making.
Buddhists believe that directly after death the person’s soul, which is not immortal and always changing, goes into a four day trance in which they do not realize they are dead. Near the end of this period they are believed to see a clear light, and if they able to embrace it they will not be reborn. If they flee from it, however, it will fade and the person will realize they are dead. This period is known as the First Bardo. In the Second Bardo, the person sees the life they just lived pass before them and, realizing they no longer have a body, desire to possess one again. During the Third Bardo the person then choses new parents based on the thoughts and actions of their past life so that they may be reborn. The chanting of the monks between the person’s death and cremation are meant to help the deceased’s spirit during these phases so that they can take a higher plane of existence for their next life.

In the Hindu religion, a dying person will be placed on the floor with their head pointing north, and relatives will place a basil leaf dipped in either milk or water from the Ganges river on their lips while singing holy songs or reciting from holy texts. It is believed ideal for a person to enter death with all of their senses alive, and for this reason the dying person will not take pain killers or other medication. After death, the deceased’s body it ritually washed by their family members, wrapped in a white cloth, and laid on the ground with their face uncovered. Dieing on the ground shows respect for the earth from which everyone has come and helps the person’s spirit free itself from his or her body. Later the person is washed again and dressed in white clothes before being laid in the coffin and covered with flowers. They are then driven to the crematorium. Three bowls of barely are prepared, with the first being placed on the deceased’s head before they are carried into the crematorium, the second on their chest during the procession, and the third on their stomach after arriving. Once inside the crematorium, the main mourner, the eldest son, carries a small lit candle or oil lamp in his hand and a container of water on his should and circles the deceased’s body three times, making a hole in the water container each time. The deceased is then carried into the cremation room, and the main mourner lights a candle on top of the coffin. Afterwards, the deceased’s ashes are sent to be spread in the Ganges river.
The death ritual lasts for twelve days, and during it the family members of the deceased are considered ritually unclean. The do not go to the temple, cover all religious pictures and figures, sleep on the floor, and keep a vegitarian diet. Every morning for eleven of these days, the eldest son receives tutoring in the ways of the ritual from a priest, and on the twelfth day his possessions are given away to charity. Each month for the first year after the person’s death, a rice ball and bowl of water are offered in memory of the deceased, and widows will erase their marriage mark and wear white for the first year after their husband’s death. Sons hold memorial services every year on the day of their father’s death for as long as they are alive.
The Hindu people believe, like Buddhists, that the soul is reincarnated depending on the actions, karma, of its past life. The goal is to break away from this cycle of rebirth and attain respite, or moksha. Bathing in the Ganges rives is said to wash away sin and help the soul get closer to moksha.

References
Here are some of the references that were more interesting or helpful.

http://library.thinkquest.org/16665/burialframe.htm – Death rituals and beliefs from around the world
http://www.harpweb.org.uk/content.php?section=children⊂ – Death beliefs and rituals from cultures present in Norway
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/judaism06.html – On Judaism
http://storks.poland.pl/interesting_facts/article,Stork_in_beliefs_culture_and_history,id,88382.htm – Article on Islam and storks
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/57749944/ – Where I first heard about the stork belief
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Rituals_in_Buddhism/id/50771 – On Buddhism