From the Vikings and Valhalla to the Greeks and Hades, elaborate rituals, complex ceremonies and heartfelt celebrations were common features of funerals in ancient times. Death was seen as inevitable and the disposal of remains considered an important social occasion.

In contrast, modern funerals are typically sombre and often clinical affairs. The loss of a loved one is a sad event for family and friends and doubtless the ancients felt the loss just as keenly. They had the ability however, to simultaneously incorporate mourning and funerals into their social structure as an integral component. The ancients were firm and blessed in their belief that death had meaning, that funerals were a rite of passage to prepare for the afterlife. Examining past approaches to the inevitable is both interesting and illuminating. It is fascinating to see how little and in some instances how much, our attitude to and handling of death has changed over the centuries. In our materialistic world, the emphasis is on what people leave behind rather than on what they can take with them. The ancients literally did ‘take it with them’ when they died and typically buried possessions with their dead, to assist the body on its journey to the next life.

Early Christians, in the first century AD, had the Resurrection as the starting point for their funeral concepts. Initially they did not discriminate between burial methods as all bodies were part of the miraculous transformation of Resurrection. As early Christian beliefs evolved, cremation became unacceptable due to its association to paganism. Burial was the preferred method as it emulated Christ’s entombment, coffins were not necessary and the body was required to be laid out with holy water sprinkled on it, lights next to it and a cross in the hands that were laid on the breast. There were social controls on funerals in an effort to make them subdued affairs. Mourning was taboo as the dead were with Jesus making death a victory which begs the question as to why any emotion was forbidden. Surely a victory entails a celebration? In contrast, the Hebrews favoured cremation and hired mourners for their funerals.

The Greeks passed into the Underworld known as Hades, which was ruled by the god of the same name. Thanatos was actually the literal god of the dead; Hades was the ruler of the underworld. Bodies were buried with a coin on the lips or in the mouth in order to bribe the ferryman Charon to transport them across the river. If the dead had no coin they were doomed to wander the riverbank for eternity. Needing spare change when you die is a disturbing thought. In Classical Athens death was marked by a lengthy ceremony involving ritual bathing, processions and banquets. Bodies were laid out for viewing for two days dressed in an ankle length robe and crown. Burial was prohibited within the city walls, a rule that was emulated in Roman law. The Romans practised cremation and inhumation. Without a proper send off, the dead were believed to suffer the fate modern day ghosts, walking the earth and returning to haunt the living.

So important was adherence to proper burial methods that many Romans belonged to funeral societies. Regular payments to clubs were used to cover the funeral and were an economically reasonable way to guarantee an appropriate transition to the afterlife for all classes. Mourners didn’t wash, comb, change clothes or cut their nails which must have made for fragrant funerals. In Celtic history there are two kinds of funerals,cremations and burials. Funerals were events of importance with the dead burnt on a funeral pyre accompanied by their treasured possessions and at one period, their slaves and retainers. Celtic tombs of the elite by the 6th century were quite large, one example of a burial mound containing a tomb is 60 metres across. Tombs were decorated with textiles, flowers, personal items of the deceased, objects denoting the occupant’s status and utensils such as cauldrons. Most of us are familiar with the unique embalming and mummification procedures of the Ancient Egyptians.

The actual theology behind this process is less well known. The god of the dead and resurrection into eternal life was Osiris and his parallels to Jesus are uncanny. Osiris once lived upon the earth in human form, after his death he was brought back to life by his wife began a new life in a realm where he was king, protector and judge of the deceased. Osiris would admit to his realm all souls that had lived a good and correct life upon the earth and had been buried with the appropriate ceremonies. Aztec lore tells of how their god Quetzalcoatl journeyed to the underworld, Mictlan, to restore humankind to life from the bones of those who had lived in previous eras. Triumphing over the Lord of the Underworld, Quetzalcoatl carried the precious jade bones beyond the dead land. He ground the bones up in a bowl and with the other gods, sprinkled them with his own blood thus restoring them to life. This gift of life had to be repaid in blood sacrifice by the Aztecs, death was the cause of life personified by vegetation dying then re-emerging. Death and life was a cycle, birth was an emergence from the spirit world and death a return to it. Mictlan was reached by the dead only after wandering for four years beneath the earth with a ‘soul-companion’ a dog cremated with the corpse.

Bodies were buried or cremated with the remains being stored in jars. In the earliest Viking beliefs, the Valkyrie was a corpse goddess the name literally meaning ‘chooser of the slain’ in Old Norse. By the eleventh century, the Valkyries had metamorphosed into beau-tiful blue eyed, blonde haired women who wore scarlet corslets and carried shields and spears. They chose the most valiant of the slain warriors and welcomed the dead heroes into Valhalla with a horn of mead. Mortals who were not worthy enough to be admitted into Valhalla were relegated to a gloomy underground realm where a goddess coinci-dentally named ‘Hel’ welcomed them. Perhaps it is the lack of practical involvement as well as the lack of faith in modern times that is responsible for funerals being both emotionally difficult and socially taboo. In ancient times, family and friends played significant and active roles, from preparing the body to participating in the transferral and actual burial. Now, our squeamishness and busy lifestyles have relegated these once important tasks to anonymous morticians. Today’s impersonal funerals have very little scope for celebration when compared to the lavish celebrations of our ancestors.