Why a funeral? The most important Orthodox traditions and rituals associated with funerals. Funeral signs and rituals
loved one
Financial resources or moral principles do not always allow outsiders to be involved in such a sensitive issue. However, even among older people, not everyone knows how to properly organize a funeral. Below we will tell you what is necessary for this and the sequence of steps.
Where to start organizing a funeral First thing to do when faced with death loved one
, this is to calm down and cope with emotional shock. Mobilize all your strength for the next three days, promising yourself to fully indulge in grief after the burial. Stock up on valerian drops and ammonia in case of fainting. Ask someone close to you to accompany you on long trips to various organizations. Firstly, now you need moral support from the outside, and secondly, mortuary and cemetery workers usually do not dare to unreasonably beg for money for various free services in the presence of a third party.
How to organize a funeral yourself: step-by-step instructions
Organizing a funeral yourself is not as difficult as it seems at first. Due to life factors, not every person is able to arrange an elite burial in a yew coffin in one of the central cemeteries of Moscow for his untimely departed relative. Therefore, most often a modest ceremony is held using budget ritual accessories. Nevertheless, even under tight financial circumstances, it is quite possible to honorably see off the deceased into another world.
Instructions for organizing and conducting a funeral yourself: The death of a loved one can happen at home or in a hospital. In the first case you should call and the police. Warn about the incident in advance, since special transport is required for transportation to the morgue. If you doubt that a death has occurred, it is better to say that the person is in a deep faint. Transportation of the deceased in Moscow is free.
A patient who dies in a hospital is usually taken for an autopsy. This is necessary to eliminate the possibility of death due to negligence or medical negligence. In some cases, when there is suspicion of a violent death, this procedure is also applied to bodies brought by medical teams.
Your next step is to determine in which thanatological department (morgue) the body of your loved one is located. Not every medical institution has a unit of this type. As a rule, one PAO or SME is attached to several hospitals or clinics.
Notify relatives and friends of the untimely deceased about his sudden death as early as possible. It is better to set the traditional date of burial - on the 3rd day after death. In the event that the date falls on one of the Great church holidays(Christmas, Easter, etc.) or a day off, it is worth moving it to the next day. The fact is that the priest may refuse to perform the funeral service for the deceased, and the morgue workers will not give you the body on the holiday. Don’t worry about the timing: in the thanatology department, the first 7 days of storage are free.
Take a doctor's death certificate. It can be obtained at the clinic where the deceased was registered, or at the morgue where the body is located. If you are going to have a Christian funeral service for the body, do not forget to take another certificate for church representatives. This ensures that the deceased did not commit suicide. To obtain both documents, you must have with you both passports (the deceased’s and your own), as well as a medical insurance policy and hospital card of the deceased.
Check the address and opening hours of the registry office to which the deceased is registered. This is where you should go to obtain your stamp death certificate. This document must not be laminated or folded. Just in case, make several copies of it.
To apply for a state funeral benefit (for preferential categories of Muscovites - from 16,701 rubles; (2018) for other categories - 5,701 rubles) with documents, contact the relevant institutions:
- for those who worked - at their place of work;
- for pensioners – to the Pension Fund (don’t forget to take the deceased’s pension certificate with you!);
- for registered unemployed – to Social Security;
- for military personnel and veterans - to the military registration and enlistment office.
You can be sent to receive a sum of money in cash from the pension fund or, after a couple of hours, they will issue an order for payment by bank transfer.
You can refuse the benefit and choose a social funeral according to a guaranteed list of services and goods for burial (free funeral). You will be provided with:
- wooden coffin covered with fabric;
- cover;
- white slippers;
- digging a grave;
- transportation of ritual supplies to the morgue indicated by you;
- one-way hearse transport to the cemetery;
- burial or cremation service.
All other funeral attributes and services - clothing, pillow, movers, place in the columbarium, wake, funeral service, etc. - will have to be paid additionally.
Now that you have a guarantee that the state will at least partially compensate your costs, you should go to the cemetery. In the case where the deceased has previously worried about the right to the plot or there is a relative grave in which the burial took place over 15 years ago, you should go to the graveyard indicated in the documents. If the place has not been determined, then it can be allocated free of charge only in open cemeteries. For Moscow it is:
- Alabushevskoye (for residents of Zelenograd);
- Perepechinskoe.
The rest are closed to general burials. You should arrive at the churchyard during business hours. For metropolitan institutions this is from 9-00 to 17-00, for those located near Moscow - from 14-00 to 16-00. It is better to arrive in advance and discuss grave digging services, loaders, and hearse transport there.
After determining the burial place, go to a funeral goods store, for example, from the website and order:
- coffin (it should be 20-30 cm long more growth deceased);
- pillow;
- cover;
- other attributes (wreaths, commemorative ribbons, cross, plaque, etc.).
You can also buy clothes for the deceased and white slippers from us.
Coordinate the holding of a religious ceremony. For budget funerals, a funeral service is usually ordered at the cemetery, followed by the presence of a church minister at the wake.
No later than 24 hours before the ceremony, things and hygiene products for the untimely departed should be brought to the morgue.
Toiletries:
- soap;
- towel;
- eau de toilette or cologne;
- comb.
For women:
- underwear;
- stockings or tights;
- long sleeve dress or formal suit;
- hair scarf;
- slippers.
For men:
- underwear;
- socks;
- suit and tie;
- slippers.
Mortuary staff provide services for washing, dressing and removing the body to the funeral room free of charge. If you need embalming or removing cosmetic defects, be sure to ask for a price list. As a rule, prices there will be 2-3 times lower than announced.
On the day of the funeral, the main thing is to stick to time and it is better to arrive at the morgue a little earlier. Do not delay the farewell procedure in the ceremony hall of the thanatology department. You will still have time to say goodbye to the deceased before he is lowered into the grave. It is customary to carry the coffin in your arms from the hearse transport to the burial place. The procession is formed in the following sequence:
- People follow first load-bearing photos deceased, cross and memorial plaque;
- Then wreaths with mourning inscriptions;
- Medals, orders and other regalia of the deceased (if any) are displayed on a separate pad;
- Coffin lid;
- The coffin with the body of the untimely departed;
- Relatives, friends and other accompanying persons, according to the degree of relationship and acquaintance.
A funeral service takes place near the grave and last goodbye with the deceased. The lid is clogged, and the coffin itself is lowered into the ground. Then each person participating in the ceremony throws a traditional piece of earth and wishes the deceased to rest in peace. Next, the diggers bury the grave and erect a cross or temporary monument with a plaque on it.
The ceremony ends with a memorial meal. It is better to have a funeral meal in a cafe. Relatives and friends are usually so worried about the grief that has befallen them that they may not be able to cope with such responsibilities. Only the closest and dearest people to the deceased gather for it. During a wake, it is customary to remember the deceased person.
Help in organizing a funeral – website
Below you will find signs that people who have buried a loved one need to know - when they can open a mirror after the funeral, do cleaning and repairs, and watch TV. There are many restrictions and prohibitions that were invented by our ancestors, for the most part, back in pre-Christian times.
When to open the mirror
It is a well-known fact that after a person’s death, all reflective surfaces are supposed to be covered. These are not only mirrors, but also televisions, computer monitors and other things in which you can see your reflection. This is done so that the reflection of the deceased does not remain in the house, and his ghost does not appear alive.
Signs are based on the path of the deceased. So, after three days after death, his guardian angel takes him to inspect paradise. For 9 days he will appear before the Lord and go to inspect hell. On the 40th day, the soul is given a final verdict on where it will reside. Since only the first three days after death the soul is among the living, the mirrors can be opened after it leaves it.
That is, on the fourth day. Previously, it was believed that during all 40 days the soul could visit relatives from time to time. That’s why they didn’t open the mirrors all this time.
Sometimes mirrors are not covered at all. For example, when a person died in a hospital, and his body is taken to the cemetery from the morgue, and not from home. It is not right. A person’s soul will still return home and stay near loved ones during their lifetime. Sometimes only those mirrors that are located where the deceased is located are covered. It is also incorrect, because the soul will wander through all the rooms of the house.
Some Slavic superstitions claim that whoever looks first into a mirror opened after a funeral will soon die. To prevent this, the cat is brought to the mirror first. She is not afraid of this sign.
Is it possible to watch TV
For obvious reasons, there are no old signs on this matter, but as mentioned above, televisions are supposed to be covered, just like mirrors. You can open them at the same time as the mirrors. That is, either after the funeral, or after the third, ninth or fortieth day.
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Readers of our site can receive Vanga's horoscope for free>>. Access may be closed at any time. The Church does not prohibit watching TV, but recommends abstaining from entertainment. You can watch news and educational programs, but it’s better to postpone watching movies and talk shows. You cannot turn on the TV in a house where a dead person is lying. Wait until the funeral is over. If the deceased was not close to you, the restriction does not apply to you.
These rules also apply to listening to music. The exception is church hymns. If you wish, you can listen to classical music. By the way, the funeral orchestra is a Soviet innovation. In the old days, they were accompanied by prayers and religious chants.
Should I keep photos of the dead?
The answer is yes. Photos are memories of a dear person, a memory for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. By destroying photographs of the deceased, you allow his descendants to never know about him.
But still the image of the dead man is connected with world of the dead
. Psychics can determine from a photo whether a person is alive or not. Therefore, you should not look at photographs of the deceased too often. You also can’t overdo it with their quantity on the walls, shelves and tables. Do not hang near portraits of living people; separate living and dead energies. The best place for storage - photo album.
Photographs taken during the funeral carry much more negativity. It's best not to do them. But, if there are already photos, it is better to destroy them. It doesn’t matter what is depicted there - a coffin, a cemetery, the funeral process, they are a strong source of necrotic energy.
When to clean the apartment
While the deceased is in the house, you cannot clean or take out the trash. Otherwise, another person in this house may die. According to legend, the person who cleans will sweep or wash it out of the home.
You need to clean it up immediately after removing the coffin. The deceased is swept and the floors are washed while the mourners are in last way have already left for the cemetery. They do this to immediately sweep death, illness, and grief out of the house.
Moreover, such light cleaning cannot be done by the blood relatives of the deceased. It is better for them to have less contact with the emanations of death, so that the deceased does not take his loved ones with him. Even pregnant women do not clean up after the deceased. Usually one of the family friends is asked to sweep and mop the floor. Only he must remain in the apartment after the coffin is removed. After this, the person joins the mourners at the wake, but is not present at the cemetery.
Some things are especially strongly imbued with the energy of death. So, the stools or table on which the coffin stood are taken outside for several days and left there with their legs up. This is done in order to get rid of this energy. The apartment has a balcony.
Be sure to take away from the house everything connected with the mournful ceremony. These are the remains of fabric for upholstering the coffin, wood chips from it, as well as other ritual paraphernalia, except for a portrait with a black ribbon, a glass of water and a piece of bread. All flowers brought by mourners are supposed to be left at the grave - they are intended for the deceased.
The instrument used to take measurements for the coffin is also not left in the house; it brings death to another resident within a year. Nothing is taken from the coffin. The ropes that tied the hands of the deceased, the pennies that lay in front of the eyes - all this should remain in the coffin. The candles are taken to the cemetery, as is the grain in which they stood. It is also impossible to keep an icon that stood in front of the coffin. They float it down the river or take it to church.
When can you clean up after a funeral, if the question is general cleaning or putting the deceased’s room in order? At any time, but after the funeral or removal of the coffin. If you open mirrors at the same time, they should also be washed. If you decide to keep them closed for 3, 9 or 40 days, save that for later.
Is it possible to make repairs
Repairs can be done after a funeral, but only once it goes away 40 days after death. The soul of the deceased visits from time to time to see how loved ones live. She would like to see a familiar environment; changes can anger the spirit.
After 40 days, at a minimum, you will have to replace the bed on which the deceased slept, as well as the bed (sofa, floor or staircase covering, chair, etc.) that became the deathbed. The bed of a dead person cannot be used by his bloodline. It can be given away or sold. There is no need to install a new bed; use the freed up space as you see fit.
The place of death will continue to exude necrotic energy for several years. Therefore, it is necessary to replace everything that came into contact with the dying person, be it the floor covering where he fell, or furniture and bedding. As a rule, such things are thrown away or burned. In the villages they do things a little differently - they take them to the chicken coop for three so that the rooster “sinks away all the negativity.”
Personal belongings of the deceased, as a rule, are distributed to the poor or sold. This doesn't just apply to clothes. Your favorite cup or plate, ashtray, anti-stress toy - you shouldn’t keep it all. Although many leave it in memory of the deceased.
What else should you not do after the funeral?
You cannot do laundry in a house where a person has died. This ban applies as long as there is a coffin in the house. That is, after the funeral you can start putting your clothes in order.
Is it possible to swim after a funeral? Superstitions recommend doing this at the same time you decide to remove the fabric from reflective surfaces. That is, immediately after the funeral, three, nine or forty days. In the old days, people washed only on the 41st day after death.
Among the things you should not do after a funeral are noisy holidays. It is not advisable to hold celebrations within 40 days. Birthday celebration It’s better to reschedule or cancel altogether. But you can celebrate it modestly, with your family, without loud music or noise.
The nine-day, or better yet forty-day ban also applies to weddings, but it all depends on emotional state relatives of the deceased. In addition, a wedding is a pre-arranged event associated with at great expense. If you are having a wedding before forty days have passed since the death of a relative, during the celebration you need to mention this and pay tribute to the memory of the deceased. Weddings are allowed at any time.
Many people believe that travel and traveling are among the things that should not be done after the funeral of a loved one. This is not true. They will help to distract you, but while traveling you should avoid various entertainment activities. Don't forget to remember the deceased and pray for his soul during the holidays.
In addition, the relatives of the deceased are not allowed to sew or cut their hair for forty days. If there is a need to repair clothes, you will have to do it. But tailoring which is not urgent should be postponed. The same goes for haircuts. Do bangs interfere with your daily activities? Get rid of it. But if it’s about changing your image, do it after forty days.
The same amount of time for the family of the deceased you can't drink alcohol. Perhaps the ban is due to the fact that grief is an accomplice of alcoholism. But funeral signs also prohibit drinking at funerals. The reason is that alcoholism is a sin. Relatives can pray for a sinful person for forty days. If they sin during this time, it will only complicate his afterlife.
After the funeral they go only to the wake, and from there they go home. You can’t go to visit, otherwise death will come to that house. You can go on a visit or on business only the day after the funeral and wake. Funerals are also the ninth and fortieth day, and after them this prohibition also applies. You also cannot go to celebrations that take place in in public places- birthdays, weddings.
They don’t go from wake to wake. If two deceased people are commemorated on the same day, choose the one who is closer to you. But you can say goodbye to several dead people, support relatives, and express grief. During funerals, they do not visit the graves of relatives and friends. This time you came to only one deceased person, and visiting others will be considered disrespectful.
Church opinion
There are many beliefs that are supposed to be observed after a funeral. This will help protect against necrotic energy, diseases and other troubles. In addition, some signs are aimed at improving afterlife the deceased and his cleansing from sins.
The death of a loved one always takes you by surprise, even if he had been ill for a long time, and it was clear where things were going. People plunging headlong into great sorrow, as a rule, are lost and do not know where to start organizing a funeral. At such moments, you need to try to muster all your will and restrain your emotions.
Where to start organizing a funeral: the first thing after discovering the death of a person is to call the police on “02” and the ambulance on “03” and report what happened. Further actions depend on where and for what reason the death occurred.
If a loved one suffered from a serious, incurable illness, regardless of whether he was observed in a hospital or not, you should contact your local physician at your clinic during his lifetime and report the diagnosis. The patient's medical record must contain appropriate entries.
If such a patient died at home, and there are records of illness in his card, then, in addition to calling an ambulance, it is worth calling the local doctor at the clinic. As a rule, in such cases, local doctors give their personal phone and ask to call back and report immediately if the patient dies. In this case, the ambulance doctor and local police officer will come and draw up their documents.
The emergency doctor will give the first advice, such as:
- close the mirrors;
- If necessary, close the windows tightly.
Since when death occurs due to certain diagnoses, for example, cancer, the deceased are instantly covered with black spots. To prevent this from happening, you should block the access to fresh air.
The doctor and the policeman can give ready plan, how to organize the funeral of a loved one with the necessary telephone numbers. Then the local therapist will invite you to come and pick up the death certificate. Everything will take several hours. In this case, a pathological examination is not carried out.
Contacting an ambulance and the police will greatly facilitate the funeral.
Carrying out the necessary rituals
If the family does not deny the presence of God and wants to carry out the required religious rites during the funeral, if there is an incurable disease that could soon lead to death, it is better to contact the temple in advance and inform the clergy about this in order to avoid possible unpleasant surprises during the funeral .
As a rule, in this case, a priest is assigned to the patient, who goes to the patient’s home for free and conducts all the rituals and sacraments that such patients need.
The responsibilities of a priest may include:
- Confession of the patient.
- If necessary, baptism of the dying.
- Funeral service.
The church minister carries out these actions at the request of the relatives of the deceased.
If you do not notify the temple in advance about the diagnosis of an incurable disease, they may then refuse to perform religious funeral rites. After calling the ambulance and the police, you need to report the incident to the priest. He will introduce his plan further actions. Arranging a funeral in a cemetery may fall entirely or partially on his shoulders.
What to do if the doctor did not know about the disease
If a person was sick with a serious incurable disease and died at home, but during his lifetime the local doctor at the clinic was not informed about this, the corresponding entries were not made in the card, even if there are all the conclusions about the course of the disease from the hospital, the police will open a case regarding the death of the deceased.
A pathological examination of the causes of death will be mandatory. In this case, the emergency doctor, who will officially record the death, will call a car and, after the police have cleared the scene of death, will send the body for examination.
In the event of death in the hospital, an examination will also be carried out. If the death is criminal in nature, the following actions will be taken:
- a task force will go to the place where the deceased was found;
- a criminal case will be opened into the death;
- An examination will be carried out to determine its causes.
These actions are necessary to quickly find the culprit in the event of a violent death.
Already at this stage it is worth considering in which cemetery the burial will take place and how exactly. So far, two options have become widespread in the country:
- cremation;
- burial in a coffin in the ground.
In this case, you should listen to the request of the deceased.
If the deceased and his relatives live in rural areas and the question of where to bury does not arise, since there is only one cemetery, there will be no problems. If the family lives in big city, the issue may be very difficult to resolve.
If a relative was terminally ill, it is better to prepare in advance for the question of where and how to bury. Call several cemeteries and find out the cost of cremation and burial without cremation. Find documents for the burial of your relatives who died a long time ago and where you will bury the deceased.
The family has every right to refuse assistance officials, who will offer you to use ready-made telephone numbers of companies involved in preparing the deceased for funerals.
If relatives decide to do everything on their own, then after the police and doctors leave, you can turn off the phone for a couple of hours so as not to injure you from intrusive funeral service agents.
The delivery of the body of the deceased for an autopsy will be organized by the police and ambulance; the relatives do not have to pay for this. If an examination is not necessary, the body does not need to be taken to the morgue.
How to organize a funeral and where to start filling out the documents is difficult to figure out right away. A document about the cause of death is obtained at the clinic from the local physician in the case when a person died at home from a serious illness and there is a record of this in his medical card.
To receive it you need to take with you:
- Passport of the deceased.
- Medical card.
- Health insurance policy.
- Passport of the relative who came to obtain the certificate.
For all other causes of death, the body of the deceased is sent for examination to the morgue, where they issue a conclusion on the cause of death.
To obtain a certificate at a hospital morgue, you will need the same set of documents as for a clinic.
If the cause of death was criminal in nature and the examination was carried out in a judicial morgue, it is enough to have the deceased’s passport with you; if it cannot be found, an extract from the house register is needed. As well as the passport of the person who came to issue a medical certificate about the causes of death.
The received certificate must be carefully read. It should not contain corrections or abbreviations.
Having in hand medical report about the cause of death, you must go and draw up a stamped death certificate, which is issued by the registry office. You can contact the registry office at the place of death, registration of residence, location of the morgue that issued a conclusion on the causes of death, as well as the central registry office in a big city.
To obtain a stamp certificate, on the basis of which you can then conduct a funeral, formalize an inheritance, receive financial assistance, special leave from work to participate in the ceremony, you must have with you:
- the deceased’s passport; in its absence, an extract from the house register is submitted to the address of the deceased’s last residence,
- death certificate issued by doctors with a conclusion on the causes of death,
- passport of the person who arrived to receive the stamp death certificate.
In addition to the stamp certificate, funeral service employees are required to issue a certificate for registration financial assistance for burial form No. 33.
Before leaving, you need to find out the operating hours of the registry office and the time that will have to be spent getting to the morgue to get a document about the cause of death, and from there getting to the registry office.
It is worth starting these trips as early as possible. It will take you almost the whole day to register and queue at the registry office. You might just want to plan a trip to the registry office for the next day. If desired, the funeral agency can take over the preparation of certificates.
If the family intends to sanitize the corpse, dress it themselves or invite neighbors to help, it must be remembered that cadaveric ossification occurs a few hours after the person has died. After its onset, it will be extremely difficult to dress the deceased and give him the necessary position in the coffin, almost impossible.
The corresponding office can offer sanitation, embalming, dressing, and facial make-up (touch-up) as part of its range of services. Please note that clothing for preparing the deceased must be donated at least 1 day before the day of burial.
Many companies have a service in which the company provides clothing to prepare the deceased for the farewell ceremony; the kit may include:
- only underwear;
- all necessary clothes.
This is new, inexpensive, decent clothing, tailored specifically for burial. Shoes should preferably be a little too big.
How to bury a person - knowledge that you wish you had never had. The further procedure includes choosing a cemetery and determining the day of the funeral. Ordering them, choosing the method of burial. In order to make a burial without cremation, you must first go to the cemetery; cremation can be ordered by phone, and then paid for immediately before or after the ceremony.
Pick a day
When choosing a funeral day, you must consider that:
- It will take 1 day to process death certificates.
- Mortuaries on weekends and holidays do not work, but the corpse storage facilities work constantly.
- If you have to personally go to the cemetery to negotiate the provision of a place and burial, this may take another whole day.
For this reason, it is better not to organize the farewell process alone. This should be done by several more relatives or friends, or you need to turn to the services of professionals.
If you contact the funeral service bureau located at the cemetery where you plan to bury the deceased, they can provide full complex services, ranging from preparing the deceased to conducting a funeral ceremony in compliance with all Russian traditions.
Funeral companies can tell you what you need for a funeral. A coffin, wreaths, and shroud can be purchased at a funeral or online store. All these purchases can be made by the company that will prepare the farewell ceremony, if you decide on the pricing policy for these purchases.
The coffin must be selected based on the addition of 20 or 25 cm to the height. Depending on the fullness, special models are available. The bedspread is selected according to the religion and traditions of the family of the deceased.
If a family buys a coffin or wreaths on their own, you need to think about delivery to the location of the deceased. You can use your own transport. You can pay extra and the store will deliver it itself. Using personal transport, you need to clarify where you will have to pick them up from, it may be an address on the other side of the city.
It is worth finding out in advance when the coffin will be accepted by the morgue. Different institutions have different rules. In some places they accept it in advance, and in others shortly before delivery. All these conditions must be agreed upon and a consistent action plan must be built.
It is necessary to decide whether it is planned to transport the coffin to last place residence or from the morgue directly to the cemetery. IN Lately They almost never take them to the house. You need to call relatives, friends, acquaintances who will be present at the farewell ceremony.
If the coffin will not be brought to the house, then you need to ask those who came to gather immediately at the cemetery. In this case, you do not have to pay for transport for transporting those saying goodbye. Pay only for transport for transporting the coffin with the deceased.
It is also necessary to order people who will dig a hole and move the coffin wherever it needs to be moved. The workers who dug it must bury the grave.
The procedure ends with the organization of a wake. A funeral lunch can be prepared at home, or ordered in a ritual or regular cafe.
Ritual cafe the more convenient it is, What:
- the room will have appropriate decoration;
- there they will offer a list of dishes that are prepared specially for the funeral;
- the fast will be taken into account if the commemoration coincides with it;
- Their prices are on average affordable.
Considering these advantages, it is still worth choosing a ritual cafe.
Very often, a lack of understanding of the meaning of Orthodox rituals and traditions leads to the fact that people, instead of helping the soul of a deceased loved one, begin to believe in all sorts of superstitions and observe customs that have nothing to do with Christianity. In this article we will tell you how to bury a person in accordance with Orthodox traditions.
PREPARATION FOR A FUNERAL
If the body of the deceased will be at home before the funeral
- The body is washed warm water, while reading the “Trisagion” * or “Lord, have mercy.”
- After washing, the Christian’s body is dressed in clean and, if possible, new clothes.
- Then the body of the deceased is placed on the table and covered with a white blanket - a shroud.
- Before placing the deceased in the coffin, the body and coffin (outside and inside) are sprinkled with holy water.
- The deceased is placed face up in the coffin, with a pillow stuffed with straw or sawdust placed under the head.
- The eyes of the deceased should be closed, lips closed, hands folded crosswise, right hand on top of the left. The hands and feet of the deceased are tied (untied just before the body is brought into the temple).
- Must be worn by the deceased pectoral cross ik.
- Then the deceased is covered with a special consecrated veil (funeral veil) with an image of a cross, images of saints and prayer inscriptions (sold in a church shop).
- When the body of the deceased is washed and dressed, they immediately begin to read the canon called “The Sequence of the Exodus of the Soul from the Body”**. If it is not possible to invite a priest to the house, then the Sedition can be read by close relatives and acquaintances.***
- When the body is washed and dressed, a lamp or candle is also lit, which should burn as long as the deceased is in the house.
- A funeral cross is placed in the hands of the deceased, a holy icon is placed on the chest: for men - the image of the Savior, for women - the image Mother of God(it’s better to buy in a church store, where everything is already consecrated).
- A crown is placed on the forehead of the deceased, which is a symbol of the deceased Christian’s observance of faith and his accomplishment of a Christian feat in life. The chaplet is laid in the hope that the one who has died in faith will receive a heavenly reward and an incorruptible crown from God upon resurrection.
- The coffin is usually placed in the middle of the room in front of household icons, with its head towards the images.
- It is advisable immediately after the death of a person to order a commemoration at the Sorokoust **** church or monastery during the Divine Liturgy within 40 days. (In churches where divine services are not performed daily, the deceased is remembered during 40 Divine Liturgies (see link 5). If desired and possible, you can submit notes with the name of the deceased in several churches. It is advisable to do this before the funeral service and burial.
If a person died not at home, and his body is not in the house
- After all the formalities have been completed and the body has been taken to the morgue, you must begin to read the canon in the red corner in front of the icons, called “The Sequence of the Exodus of the Soul from the Body”**, and then read the Psalter for the deceased. If it is not possible to invite a priest to the house, then the Sedition can be read by close relatives and acquaintances.***
- The next day you need to take clean and, if possible, new clothes and other necessary things to the morgue (you can read more here “What to do when a person dies”), as well as a pectoral cross (if the deceased was not wearing one), a funeral cross in the hands and an icon: for men - the image of the Savior, for women - the image of the Mother of God (it is better to buy in a church shop where everything has already been consecrated).
- It is necessary to ask the morgue workers to prepare the body for the funeral, taking into account Orthodox traditions (usually morgue workers know them very well).
- On the very first day after death, it is imperative to take care of the church commemoration of the deceased. It is advisable to immediately order at the Sorokoust temple or monastery **** If desired and possible, you can submit notes with the name of the deceased in several churches. It is advisable to do this before the funeral service and burial. But you should not forget to order Sorokoust**** even after 40 days.
FUNERAL
- If the funeral starts from home , then an hour and a half before the coffin is taken out of the house, “Sequence on the Exodus of the Soul”*** is read again over the body of the deceased. If the ritual starts from the morgue , then you can read “Sequence on the Exodus of the Soul”*** before the start of the ritual in any place (in the temple, at the morgue).
- The coffin is carried out, turning the face of the deceased towards the exit, i.e. feet forward. The mourners sing the Trisagion*.
- By church rules, contrary to existing superstition, the coffin with the body should be carried, if possible, by close relatives and friends. An exception exists only for priests, who should not carry the coffin of a layman, no matter who he is. If a priest is present at the funeral, he walks in front of the coffin as a spiritual shepherd.
- The deceased is placed in the grave with his face facing east. As the coffin is lowered, the Trisagion* is sung again. All mourners throw a handful of earth into the grave. If possible, cremation should be avoided (Read more about this in the article “On the attitude of Orthodoxy to cremation and the possibility of the resurrection of bodies”).
- The gravestone cross is placed at the feet of the deceased, facing west so that the face of the deceased is directed towards the holy cross.
- Not allowed for funerals Orthodox Christian invite an orchestra.
- The burial should not take place on the day of Holy Easter and on the day of the Nativity of Christ.
FUNERAL SERVICE
- On the third day after death (in practice, due to various circumstances, it can be any other day), the deceased Orthodox Christian is awarded a church funeral service and burial. This rite is not performed only on the day of Holy Easter and on the day of the Nativity of Christ.
- The funeral service is performed for the deceased only once, unlike funeral services (see link 6) and lithium (see link 7), which can be done multiple times.
- The funeral service is not performed at the burial of the unbaptized (i.e., those who do not belong to the Church), heterodox (people of non-Orthodox faith).
- The Church also does not perform funeral services for those who are baptized but have renounced the faith. In this case, relatives and friends themselves should pray for them in home prayers, give alms for them, (More about this in the article “How to make a “bank transfer” to the next world to help the soul of a loved one”) repent in confession that they did not contribute to their conversion to faith.
- The Church does not perform funeral services for suicides, except in special cases (for example, when the person who committed suicide is insane), but even then only with the blessing of the ruling bishop (see link 8).
- For the funeral service, the coffin with the body of the deceased is brought into the temple feet first and placed facing the altar, i.e. feet to the east, head to the west.
- When performing the funeral service, relatives and friends should stand at the coffin with lighted candles and pray intensely with the priest for the soul of the deceased.
- After the proclamation of “Eternal Memory,” the priest reads a prayer of permission over the deceased. This prayer forgives the deceased’s oaths and sins, which he repented of in confession (or forgot to repent due to forgetfulness or ignorance). But those sins for which he did not intentionally repent (or did not repent at all in confession) are not forgiven by the prayer of permission. The text of the prayer of permission is placed by the priest in the hands of the deceased.
- After this, the mourners, having extinguished the candles, walk around the coffin with the body, ask the deceased for forgiveness, kiss the aureole on the forehead and the icon on the chest. The body is completely covered with a veil, the priest sprinkles it with earth in a cross shape. After this, the coffin is covered with a lid and cannot be opened again.
- With the singing of the Trisagion* the coffin is carried out of the temple facing the exit (feet first).
- If it is not possible to bring the body of the deceased to the church, and it is also not possible to invite a priest to the house, then an absentee funeral service can be held in the church. After it, the relatives are given earth (sand) from the funeral table. This earth is sprinkled crosswise over the body of the deceased. If by this time the deceased has already been buried, then earth from the funeral table is sprinkled crosswise over his grave. (If the urn is buried in a columbarium, then in this case the consecrated earth is poured onto any grave of an Orthodox Christian, but it is not placed (scattered) in a cell of the columbarium).
WAKE
- After the funeral service in the church and the burial of the body in the cemetery, the relatives of the deceased arrange a memorial meal - this is a kind of Christian alms for those gathered.
- Such a meal can be held on the third day after death (the day of the funeral), the ninth, fortieth days, six months and a year after death, on the birthday and day of the angel of the deceased (name day, name day).
- There should absolutely be no alcohol at the funeral table. Drinking alcohol at funerals harms the souls of deceased people. This is an echo of pagan funeral feasts.
- If the funeral takes place on fast days (see link 9), then the food should be lean.
- On weekdays during Lent, funeral services are not held, but are postponed to the next (forward) Saturday and Sunday. This is done because only on Saturday and Sunday are the Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great performed, and during the proskomedia, particles are taken out for the deceased, and memorial services are also performed.
- Memorial days falling on Bright Week (see link 10) and on Monday of the second Easter week they are transferred to Radonitsa. (see link 11)
- It is important on the days of remembrance of the dead and for 40 days to intensively distribute alms to the poor and needy in the name of the soul of the deceased. It is also good to distribute the deceased's belongings to those in need. But even after 40 days have passed, you should not stop this godly work, which greatly helps the soul of the deceased.
You can read more about the meaning and meaning of funerals in interview"Merry wake or How we harm the souls of the dead."
1. Full text this prayer: Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
2. “Following the departure of the soul from the body”. A special prayer, which is usually read immediately after death, is intended for such an exceptional case. The service has an exceptional structure, different from a memorial service.
If death occurred within eight days from Easter to Tuesday of St. Thomas Week (Radonitsa), then in addition to “Following the Exodus of the Soul,” the Easter Canon is read. In the Orthodox Church there is a pious custom of continuous reading of the Psalter for the deceased until his burial. The Psalter is read in the future on days of remembrance, and especially intensively in the first 40 days after death. During Easter week(eight days from Easter to Radonitsa) reading in Church Psalms replaced by reading Easter Canon. At home over the deceased, the reading of the Psalter can also be replaced by the Easter Canon. But if this is not possible, then you can read the Psalter.
3. Following the departure of the soul from the body Not only priests, but also laity can read. It exists for reading by the laity.
4. Sorokoust- daily prayerful commemoration during the Divine Liturgy for 40 days. In churches where divine services are not held daily, the deceased is remembered during 40 Divine Liturgies.
5. Liturgy(Greek λειτουργία, “service”, “common cause”)- the most important Christian service among Orthodox, Catholics and some other churches, in which the sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated. Liturgy is a prototype of the Last Supper.
It is performed in large churches every day, in most others - every Sunday. The Liturgy usually begins at 7-10 am; in churches where there is more than one altar, an early liturgy can also be celebrated.
6. Memorial service- a funeral service established by the Church, which consists of prayers in which those praying trust in God’s mercy, asking for forgiveness of the sins of the deceased and the granting of a blessed one to him eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. During the service of memorial services, the gathered relatives and acquaintances of the deceased stand with lit candles as a sign that they also believe in light. future life; at the end of the requiem service (during the reading of the Lord’s Prayer), these candles are extinguished as a sign that earthly life ours, burning like a candle, must go out, most often before it burns out to the end we envision. It is customary to perform memorial services both before the burial of the deceased and after - on the 3rd, 9th, 40th day after death, on his birthday, namesake (name day), on the anniversary of death. But it is very good to pray at a memorial service, and also to submit notes for remembrance on other days. This greatly helps the souls of the departed and comforts those praying. In churches, memorial services are usually served on Saturday after the Liturgy.
7. Lithium(from the Greek “zealous prayer”) - in Orthodox worship part of the all-night vigil. Nowadays, the lithium, in addition to the pre-holiday all-night vigils, is celebrated in cases of public disasters or when remembering them, usually outside the church, combined with a prayer service, and sometimes with a procession of the cross.
A special kind of litiya is established for prayer for the deceased, performed when he is taken out of the house, and also, at the request of his relatives, during church commemoration of him at any other time in another place. Litiya can be read not only by priests, but also by laity. (). It is very good to read the lithium and pray when visiting a cemetery.
8. Funeral service for suicides is carried out only with the blessing (permission) of the ruling bishop (bishop). In order to receive this blessing, after suicide it is necessary to urgently contact the diocesan administration (in regional center) with a request to allow the funeral service (and church commemoration). To do this, you must submit to the diocesan administration Required documents(certificates from a psychoneurological dispensary, drug dispensary, hospital, clinic, etc.) and evidence (from a psychologist, psychiatrist, neighbors, teachers, etc.) that could explain the suicide by insanity, mental illness suicides, affect during suicide, and other mitigating factors. You should also contact the bishop if there are doubts that the deceased committed suicide himself (for example, it could have been an accident, death due to negligence, etc. But relatives know that if the suicide committed suicide in the absence of factors that the Church recognizes as mitigating, then You shouldn’t try to get the bishop’s blessing through deception and manipulation. After all, even if the bishop, misled, gives permission, then God cannot be deceived. He knows exactly what was in the heart of the suicide and those people who misled the hierarchy. In this case, do not deceive, but pray intensely, perform acts of mercy for the suicide, give alms for him, fast, and also do everything that can bring comfort to his soul.
9. Fast days are the days of fasting, as well as Wednesdays and Fridays. Fasting is the abstinence of the body from food of animal origin, as well as from oversaturation and indulgence in lean food (it must be borne in mind that fasting days vary in the severity of fasting. Information about the severity of fasting can be obtained from Church calendar. Fasting is a time for the soul to abstain from evil thoughts, deeds and words; a time of deep repentance and sobriety. Fasting is a means of combating passions and acquiring virtues.
10. Bright Week The 7 days of celebration of Holy Easter are called - from Easter proper to St. Thomas Week. During Bright Week, fasting on Wednesday and Friday, as well as prostrations to the ground, are canceled. Morning and evening prayers are replaced by the singing of the Easter Hours.
11. Radonitsa- a day specially established by the Church to commemorate the dead, which takes place on the 9th day after Easter, on Tuesday of St. Thomas Week, which follows Bright Week. The day was established so that believers could share the joy of Easter with the souls of relatives and friends who died in the hope of the Resurrection and Eternal Life. On Radonitsa, in contrast to the days of Bright Week, it is customary to visit cemeteries where loved ones are buried, clean the graves (but do not have a meal in the cemetery) and pray.
The following publications were used in the preparation of this material:
- “On the path of all the earth. Funeral service, burial and commemoration of the dead”, publication of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow.
- “The last journey of the whole earth. Questions and answers about the burial rite”, publication of the Danilov Monastery in Moscow.
- “Orthodox Commemoration of the Dead” edited by Melnikov V.G.
- “How can we help the dead? The doctrine of posthumous fate. Orthodox rite burials. Prayers for repose”, society publication
span style=”text-decoration: underline;”You can read more about the meaning and meaning of the wake in
After the death of a person, people close to him have reasonable questions: “On what day is the deceased buried? When will the funeral be held?
According to Orthodox traditions, burial should be done on the 3rd day after death. In this case, they count from the day the person died - even if it happened late in the evening, until 24.00 hours. People often make the mistake of starting the funeral day report with next day after death.
Incorrect calculation: for example, July 5 is the day of death, according to calculations it turns out July 8 is the day of burial (5+3) - this is incorrect.
Number three is special for Christians
To the question of why people are buried 3 days after death, there are several answers to this question:
- According to church canons, the soul of a person continues to remain next to the body of the deceased for 3 days after death. During this period, the first stage of separation of the soul from the body is completed. The body will be directed downward, and the soul will be directed upward, accompanied by a guardian angel, to the Kingdom of Heaven. On the 3rd day, all the threads supporting the body and soul break.
- Associated with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. After his crucifixion, the rebirth occurred precisely on the 3rd day.
- Number 3 is special. Associated with the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Christ), Holy Spirit.
The Church commemorates the deceased on the 3rd day after his death in honor of the image of the Holy Trinity.
Tretina is the third day after death
In the Orthodox religion, the 3rd day after death is called “Tretina”.
3rd day after death in the Orthodox religion
On Tretina, farewells are held for the deceased. On this day, anyone who was dear to the deceased or simply knew him comes to see him off on his last journey.
On Tretina, the largest number of visits to the house where the body of the deceased is located takes place.
Farewell takes place before the coffin is lowered into the ground. After the burial, a memorial dinner is organized on the same day.
Let's try to highlight a number of issues that arise when organizing a funeral, combined general question- on what day should the deceased be buried?
As was said above, the connection between body and soul is broken only on the 3rd day. If a person is buried on the 2nd day, then the connection between soul and body will be forcibly severed and it will have nowhere to go.
A funeral on the 2nd day is still possible.
But this is due to natural phenomena. Particularly in very hot areas of the Earth, where the body will simply begin to decompose.
It is possible to hold a funeral on the 4th day. There may be features in a person’s death: an accident, in a hospital.
It is possible to hold a funeral even after the 4th day, taking into account the characteristics of the person’s death.
You can bury on your birthday
There are not many such cases, but they still occur. When asked whether it is possible to bury a deceased person on his birthday, the church does not prohibit holding a funeral on the birthday of the deceased.
For the first three years after death, close people of the deceased must come to the grave on the day of birth and death to remember him.
There are days when Orthodox Christians are not buried
IN Orthodox faith There are prohibitions when funeral services and burials are not held according to church canons. Here is a list of days on which they do not bury:
Feast of the Week
in Christianity, the period including Easter Sunday and the six following days
- Easter,
- Nativity,
- Feast of the Week.
You can bury on Sunday
Many people have faced this dilemma: if the 3rd day after a person’s death falls on a Sunday, can they be buried on Sunday?
There is an opinion of the so-called “ knowledgeable people"that you cannot bury a person on Sunday. Explaining this by saying that it is “Christ’s day off.”
To this question, why people are not buried on Sunday, the answer is this: the official Church has never prohibited holding funerals on Sunday.
Orthodox funerals
Let's try to answer the question “why people are buried” not from the point of view of physiology, but from the point of view of religion.
Commitment to the earth is a special, and, unfortunately, necessary rite in Orthodoxy.
According to the Orthodox Church, life on earth is a preparation for eternal life.
Deceased people are called “deceased,” that is, asleep. Decent attention to the body of the deceased corresponds to one of the rules of the Christian faith - “The Dogma of the General Resurrection of People and the Future Life.”
Orthodoxy teaches that after a person dies, he does not go “nowhere.” The body falls asleep, and the soul goes to the Almighty, to His high court.
Only close relatives can bring red roses to funerals. Numerous rites of preparation for burial and the burial itself largely overlap with the rite of “baptism.” This suggests that “baptism” is a rebirth from earthly sins to repentance and acceptance of God within oneself.
Death is the leaving of earthly life, sinful life, to eternal life, life with God.
The ritual of preparing the body of the deceased for burial has developed since ancient times and includes:
- washing the body;
- dressing the body in clothes;
- position in the coffin.
Preparation for burial
Orthodox funerals begin with washing the body of the deceased. The ablution procedure can be carried out either by close relatives of the deceased or by hired specialists.
Having completed the ablution, the body of the deceased is dressed in clean clothes in light colors.
The deceased's clothing has important. According to legend, light clothing is a symbol of purity, transformation, readiness to appear before God.
This is where the tradition of dressing the dead in costumes came from.
The meaning of preparation for burial is the cleansing of the deceased so that he is ready for a new eternal life in heaven.
Burial
Having completed all ritual procedures, the coffin with the deceased is lowered into the grave.