An article for In Repose, by Jamie Sue Austin
In the United States, like in much of the world, offerings or tributes to the dead are quite common. Wreaths and flowers laid across tombstones during Memorial Day are a form of ancestor worship we are all accustomed to. The term “ancestor worship” tends to dredge up images of primitive pagan cultures worshiping their grandfathers as God, but the practice of showing respect and honor to the dead is alive and well in the 21st century. From candlelight vigils to roadside shrines, ancestor veneration (a more apt term) is all around us, and an integral part of society and the grieving process.
The intensity of belief in the power of ancestors to affect the physical living world varies from culture to culture. Offerings vary as well depending on the region. In the US flowers, wreaths, candles, even small plush animals or toys are common forms of tribute given to the dead. In the southern United States offerings of food, jewelry, and incense can be seen. Statues and monuments to the dead are common as well. In fact, some of our most famous national monuments, such as Mt. Rushmore and the Lincoln Memorial are colossal displays of ancestor veneration. Memorial Day is a nationally recognized holiday for honoring the dead. Easter, All Soul’s Day, and Candelmas are commonly respected days for ancestor veneration in the US as well.
Outside of the US ancestor veneration is just as common. In China, long thought of as a place of strong ancestral and filial ties, tributes to the dead come in a variety of forms. Depending on the belief system, some group offer tributes as a means of caring for their elders in the after life. Paper versions of common everyday objects are often burned as offerings to ancestors who in turn are believed to act as “guardian angels” by preventing serious misfortune. The belief that those who have passed before us are somehow looking over our shoulders and protecting us from harm is common even in the United States. A common Chinese offering is Joss paper, a form of spiritual money, burned to provide wealth for those living in the afterlife. Joss paper is often red or yellow with a foil stamp in the center. Hell Notes are another form of spiritual money commonly used in China. They are bills, sometimes fashioned after western money, in excessively large denominations. Aside from paper money, other objects are often offered to the dead such as paper mâché cards, boats, houses, credit cards, and electronics. Incense, candles, and small food items often accompany these offerings. All through China and Singapore the Hungry Ghost Festival is celebrated, much in the way that Halloween is celebrated in the US, with the addition of offerings to the dead and lots of food. Vietnam has similar customs using incense, candles, and Hell Notes as offering. Often Vietnamese families will prepare large meals for family gatherings and as an offering to the dead.
Traditions of ancestor veneration are not confined to eastern societies. In Egypt the influence of ancestors is very great. Large, expensive tombs were created to protect the remains of the departed. Bodies were ritualistically purified then mummified to preserve them for use in the after life. Food, money, furniture, spices, clothing, and sometimes even pets and servants were buried with the dead to ensure their comfort on the other side. During Samhain, in Ireland, it is believed that the veil between the living and the dead is thin. Food, light, and incense are left for the dead. A place is set at the table for any relatives who have passed within the last year. Samhain is observed by neo-pagans in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia as well. Modern Halloween customs have their origins in the holiday of Samhain. Other popular holidays celebrating death include All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Day of the Dead.
In Mexico, Day of the Dead celebrations include decorating gravesites and leaving gifts. Gifts range from flowers and toys to bottles of alcohol and candy. The home is also decorated for the event and offerings of food and drink are left out. Images of skulls are popular Day of the Dead decorations, though most skeletons and skulls look less scary than whimsical. Skulls made from sugar and decorated with icing are given to both the living and the dead. Images of the Virgin Mary are also very popular. Overall the decorations and mood are much more colorful and bright during Day of the Dead than other during similar holidays.
Regardless of the tradition, almost every individual is accustomed to some form of ancestor veneration. It is hard to imagine a world in which no amount of care or concern was given to the dead. Perhaps it is an important part of the human psyche to believe that a connection with a loved one can remain after death. Or maybe, in honoring others, we ensure that ourselves will not be forgotten.
Many fine articles by Jamie Sue and others can be found at the Resource Forum on In Repose
My blogging idol is Ronni Bennett of Time Goes By.
This wise and thoughtful woman has quite a following and is an important voice for elders everywhere. Her blog is described as "what it's really like to get older." She tackles current news and ageism issues and sometimes just offers interesting peeks into her life.
One terrific thing that Ronni has created within Time Goes By is the Elder Storytelling Place
Today's featured story is "The First Time I Ever Rode a Horse". Baba is thrilled and I think is finally starting to believe me that not only are her life stories important to me, and our future ancestors, but interesting for others to read as well.
When I read all the wonderful stories Ronni has collected, I hope the writers have them safely stored, (and able to be found!) for their own family's future generations. I will add the link to this story to Baba's Page.
Last week I got an email from my friend Mike who had some sad news. Old Zach M. had passed away.
I didn't know Zach very well. He was an old cantankerous Texas Cowboy who participated in a photography shoot I organized a couple of years ago. I, in fact did not have any photographs of Zach, because the day he rode his horse and was a "model" was the day I rode my horse and was a model, too.
There were twenty professional photographers there that day recording some really terrific cowboy images. Each model was given at least one image by each photographer. I got some of the best photographs of myself and my horse ever. Rio and I ended up on two different magazine covers in two different images. I was sent, and Zach was sent, and everyone who participated was sent a large envelope of at least 20 photographs.
Where were Zach's images? Where are they now? A shoebox under a bed? Forgotten in a file somewhere?
I could not go to Zach's memorial service and I do not think he has an online memorial version, but I will ask my friend Mike about that.
MY online memorial will have images of me and my horses included because being a horsewoman is one major way I define myself, and one way I want to be remembered.
How do YOU want to be remembered?
The most elegant online memorials on the web are right here at InRepose.com.
Today we conclude with Part 2 of Baba's story, "The First Time I Ever Rode a Horse". Baba is busy adding photos, stories and documents to her page on In Repose.
The officers for whom I worked were some of the most infirm of the German Army. They had spent time on the front and been wounded or were ill, and not fit to serve as fighting soldiers. The commander of the garrison had only one eye. His name was Hartnack, he was a Colonel. The man I took dictation for was named Captain Astfalk. He had only one arm.
I spent my working days taking dictation and then typing orders for the company commanders that were full of half truths and lies about how well the Germans were resisting. Even at 17 I knew I participated in a daily farce.
Sometimes, during a break in my work I would look out the window at the long lines of parked military vehicles and wonder how many weeks it had been since any of them had seen a drop of gasoline. Here at the Feirhof we were using old parade and draft horses to pull carts of people and supplies.
I had just finished handing Captain Astfalk a stack of briefing papers when the Air Raid siren sounded. “Go go go!” yelled Captain Astfalk. About 30 people from our building poured outside and most of them ran toward the woods nearby. I came out running with my high heel shoes and saw that some people were climbing into a small horse drawn cart. By the time I reached the cart, it was already overflowing with people, most of whom were not physically able to run to the woods. A sergeant helping with the evacuation took one look at the overfilled cart and then decided to pick me up, and while he was setting me on the horse I heard the old kitchen woman yell, “Take off those shoes and RUN!” But I was already astride the horse. I remember that there was nothing for me to hold onto but a handful of his long brown mane as the horse trotted toward the woods and the other people.
That’s when I heard the machine gun fire. The horse heard it too and began to run madly out of control down the dirt road with the people in the cart screaming and holding on for dear life. I managed to stay on for only a few minutes before I finally lost my grip. I slid off and landed in a ditch. The horse kept running as I laid there terrified.
I glanced in the direction of the cart and saw the horse stumble and fall during another burst of machine gun fire. The cart turned over and the people jumped off and ran as fast as they could. Even the old kitchen woman started to run. I was one of the last ones to make it to the woods. As I reached the others I realized that I had wet myself when I was in the ditch. I hoped that no one would notice.
When the airplanes finally left we all looked at each other in silence. Then we started to walk back to the buildings. As we walked I stopped and turned and looked for the horse and saw that it was still lying on his side, its back bloody with bullet holes. The sergeant was looking at the horse too. With a sigh he told me to turn around, follow the others and not look back.
I will never forget the sound I heard next: The single shot from the sergeant’s gun.
I know how busy life is these days. It seems like the days zoom past and there is always more work to be done than there is time to do it in. Take my advice and try to record some of your family's important stories while you still can. We will share more of Baba's stories here as we prepare to upload them to her online page.
Although most memorials are created for people after they pass away, here at In Repose I am encouraging everyone to archive important family information and stories on their online page BEFORE it is too late.
Not only does the person then have a say in how they are remembered, in photos and documents and stories, they also save their family the burden of creating a memorial in what could be a terrible time of grief and stress.
I am helping my mom, known to all as Baba to upload cherished photos and important family history and stories, before they are lost forever!
We invite InRepose readers to observe this process and follow along as we begin documenting and archiving the life of this fascinating woman.
We began with one of her more harrowing accounts of life in war-torn Czechoslovakia in 1945. This story, entitled, "The First Time I Ever Rode a Horse" is my mother's story, but was told to and recorded by me.
The first time I ever rode a horse was in early April, 1945, in Budweis, Czechoslovakia. I was only 17, but employed by the German Army.
Earlier that year, the government had closed all of the high schools to support the war effort. All of the teachers were pressed into military service. All of the other girls my age were made to work for the German Army or “Arbeitsdienst” to help run the farms or the hospitals which had lost workers to the war as well.
The boys my age were all drafted too. They received three months of marching training, and then were showed how to hold a gun. Then they were sent to the Russian front.
Our former Headquarters had been bombed the week before. Of course it was not allowed to listen to the BBC, but we knew that the war had nearly been lost. The Russian air raids happened almost every day. But increasingly the pilots used machine guns rather than bombs. That meant the day of occupation was coming soon. They wanted the soldiers dead and the buildings standing for future use.
For many weeks we had prayed for the Americans to come and to take the place of the Russians whom we were so fearful of, but our prayers had not been answered....
To read how the story ends, tune in tomorrow for part 2, or click over to Baba's page and click on the document link near the bottom of the page.
It's all about the storytelling, I tell you. What is? EVERYTHING IS. Its the very meaning of life. Pick a subject, any subject, pick a passion any passion, there are either great stories about it or it is about telling stories in and of itself. Work, religion, archeology, movies, sports or philosophy, everything under the sun. Its all about the stories.
From Wikipedia, a definition of Storytelling:
The earliest forms of storytelling are thought to have been primarily oral combined with gestures and expressions. Rudimentary drawings such as can be seen in the artwork scratched onto the walls of caves may also have been early forms of storytelling. Ephemeral media such as sand, leaves, and the carved trunks of living trees have also been used to record stories in pictures or with writing. With the invention of writing and the use of stable, portable media stories were recorded, transcribed and shared over wide regions of the world. Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed, or inked onto wood or bamboo, ivory and other bones, pottery, clay tablets, stone, palm-leaf books, skins (parchment), bark cloth, paper, silk, canvas and other textiles, recorded on film and stored electronically in digital form. Complex forms of tattooing may also represent stories, with information about genealogy, affiliation and social status.
Traditionally, oral stories were passed from generation to generation, and survived solely by memory. With written media, this has become less important. Conversely, in modern times, storytelling is built upon a foundation of sophisticated types of multimedia.
So what are YOU doing to record YOUR story? Your family's stories? Your first born child's first day in kindergarten? The day you and your dog got lost in the rain? How about Grandma's best war time story? Grandpa's outrageous deep sea fishing story? How about how Uncle Mike made you laugh so hard at church you got into trouble?
InRepose has some ideas how to document, archive and safeguard these precious memories and other important items such as historical documents. Our Online Memorials have a lot more to offer than you might expect. Stay tuned!
There was a competition held to design a memorial to the heroic passengers of Fight 93 who perished on September 11, 2001 in a field in Western Pennsylvania. A design was chosen in 2005.
On behalf of the memorial design team, I wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Partners for creating an open, democratic design selection process. In particular, I would like to express deep gratitude to the families of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 for entrusting us with the solemn but inspiring responsibility of publicly remembering their loved ones through our memorial design.
--Paul Murdoch
President, Paul Murdoch Architects
It appears the process was indeed very open. Anyone could have submitted a design. And it apparently, anyone did. Author Alec Rawls started investigating the crescent site-plans after the winning design was unveiled in September 2005, and spent much of 2006 trying to get the Memorial Project to come to grip with his findings.
Forthcoming in August 2007, a new book from World Ahead Publishing, Crescent of Betrayal, describes the many Islamic and terrorist memorializing elements in the winning Crescent of Embrace design for the Flight 93 Memorial. Most importantly, a person facing directly into the half mile wide central crescent (still present in the superficially altered Bowl of Embrace redesign) is facing almost exactly at Mecca. A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a mihrab and is the central feature around which every mosque is built.
Rawls suggests that every element of the entire crescent design turns out to be a typical mosque feature, realized on the same epic scale as the half-mile wide central crescent. The minaret-like Tower of Voices part of the memorial turns out to be a gigantic Islamic prayer-time sundial. There are 44 memorial glass blocks emplaced along the flight path, exceeding the number of our murdered heroes by the number of their murderers. And on it goes, for over a hundred pages of Mr. Rawls’ 300 page exposé.
The visual evidence is hard to ignore. Take a look at the drawings of the memorial overlaid with Islamic symbolism HERE
Architect Paul Murdoch’s crescent design is only the beginning of the crescent of betrayal. Murdoch’s emergence is actually the easy part of the story to understand. We hosted an open design competition in time of war. Of course the enemy would enter, and try to win a memorial to their heroes instead of ours. What is harder to explain is the year and a half now that the Memorial Project has spent avoiding and then covering up Murdoch’s plot. Those charged with memorializing “the flight that fought back” have struggled mightily to defend and protect their hijacker.
On July 28, 2007, the Memorial Project will announce whether it will proceed to build the Crescent/Bowl of Embrace design (now called simply The Flight 93 Memorial). This book is not slated to arrive in bookstores until the end of August 2007. Given the urgency of the public's need to know the truth, permission is hereby granted to freely transmit the five downloadable PDFs that make up the draft manuscript, without alteration, until September 1, 2007. --Alec Rawls. Download PDF files HERE.
Why haven't we heard anything about this in the news? Any guesses out there?
Readers of In Repose Blog might remember my post of May 23, 2007, Tomatoes to Die For where I talked about yet another way cremation remains might be used in a memorial. Recently, In Repose spoke with Bob Jenkins of Floramorial
Hi Bob, can you describe how Floramorial came to be and how long you have been in business?
Floramorial came to be by a request of a dying wife. Marge Strand was dying of cancer and requested upon her death to be cremated and turned into a rose bush. Her husband of fifty years, Frank Strand, made it a mission to find a way to fulfill his wife’s wishes. After several years of research, today her cremated remains, along with her mother’s cremated remains are living as a tree and a rose bush on the church grounds where they worshipped. Frank spent several years researching cremated remains, developing plants and sitting in on focus groups. We brought our product to market in fall of 2006.
Can you briefly describe the science behind Floramorial?
Cremated remains are primarily calcium phosphate, an inert, insoluble stone much like a fossil. Floramorial is created by a chemical conversion using a catalyst to separate the calcium and phosphate, allowing the phosphate to be bonded with the root system of living flora.
What type of plants can be fed with Floramorial?
Any type of flora can be nourished by Floramorial. The boundaries are the limits of the mind.Are edible plants really a good idea?
That is real personal question. The edible plants would certainly be nourished by Floramorial, but as far as someone creating an edible memorial would be a personal decision.
How much product is actually returned to use in the soil?
That is the choice of the family. We can convert the entire amount of cremated remains, which on average is five to six pounds of cremated remains or a small portion, allowing the family to keep some ash for a keepsake, place in a mausoleum niche or bury. If a family chooses to scatter, Floramorial is the perfect solution.
Can I save some or all of the product to use in the future?
You can save portions of the cremated remains for use later but the soil is an organic soil and we recommend use within one year. There is no age limit on cremated remains, so ashes can be of any age and converted into Floramorial soil.
Can it be used with an indoor potted plant?
Floramorial can be used with indoors plants, outdoor plants, existing landscape, new plants – any type of flora that exists. If placed with existing indoor plants, the phosphate will be dispersed in the current soil and become part of the flora of that plant.
Can I touch the medium with my hands?
Floramorial soil is safe to touch. It is an organic soil and cremated remains are safe to touch, even though they are not visible in the soil. The breakdown of the calcium does not take place until water comes into contact with the soil and even then, it is still safe.
I don't have a green thumb, what if my plant dies?
The plant can be replaced at anytime. Once the phosphate is released into the soil, it will remain there for many years. If the original plant dies, a new plant can be placed in the soil and it will be nourished by the phosphate in the Floramorial soil.
How do you feel Floramorial fits into current "green" thinking?
There are many ideas of “green memorials” but Floramorial truly contributes to the environment in a safe and positive way. It is a real recycling process, allowing a loved one to go back to the earth and provide nutrients in a positive manner for plant growth, while enhancing the environment.
What is the most common misconception about your product?
Some people mistakenly conclude that cremated remains are nutrient to support plant life. Chemically, cremated remains are inert, non-biodegradable. It is rock phosphate which must be converted to orthophosphate plant food.Can I have my funeral home take care of the ordering process for me?
We recommend you go through a local funeral home or cremation society. If they are not aware of us, the funeral establishment or the family can contact us and we will work with the funeral professional of their choice.
This photo is of the container the family receives when they order Floramorial. It contains one cubic foot of soil, which is approximately 22 pounds of soil. Included with the container is a Certificate of Authenticity that is notarized and proclaims the soil contains the ashes of said person, planting tips and suggestions, a garden trowel and two pairs on plastic, non-latex gloves. The gloves are included because some people may be uncomfortable putting their hands in the soil knowing their loved one’s ashes are mixed in. The soil is completely safe to touch.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
--John McRae (1872-1918)
Inspired by that poem, a woman called Moina Michael replied with her own, written in 1915:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
From these literary works and the wearing of a single flower by Moina, the symbol of the poppy as fallen solider was born. Taking the idea even farther, Moina began to sell poppies to raise money for needy veterans, widows and orphans.
Read about more Memorial Day traditions and history on the Resource Forum at In Repose HERE.
Recent Comments