editing

No matter what culture or religion you believe in, death is inevitable reality of life that nobody can escape. Depending on your culture death rituals can vary depending on your customs, country of region and which era you live. Many cultures have strict customs and others celebrate the death as they were still alive. Islam is the largest religion in Turkey, traditional Islam is a way of life which an individual devotes himself entirely to God’s basic rules in every part of life from business matters to personal matter such as relationships, dress code, hygiene and death. Therefore, great amount of death rituals in Turkey held by according to Islam in terms of focusing the body after death, the funeral ceremony and mourning practices.

First of all; neighbors who hear the death have come together in the house of death try to share grief of relatives of the deceased, to console them and to help initial preparations. In villages or in small cities, the most suitable way to announce death is ask hodja to call people for a funeral service for deceased. In big cities, people usually announce the death through newspapers so everyone can see. Nowadays, since internet play magnificent role in people’s life, they use Facebook to announce the death and funeral ceremony. People believe that , to gather more people for funeral shows their responsibility and grace for the person who is death.

People believe that the more people they join the funeral the more they can support the deceased’s family and they can tell their last words to death body. In Turkish culture there is no such thing that Hodja can come home to hear the person’s last words. Last words only for people who is still alive. However instead of Hodja, if the person is too old or bedridden, most of the time person’s family read Quran during the day to make the sick person much more comfortable. From my personal experience, when my great grandmother was bedridden, my grandmother was reading Quran for her during the day and they were praying together. Even though people cannot know when they will die, people who is old and bedridden, it is obvious that time is coming.

In Turkish Culture, dead people are buried as soon as possible. However the time can vary depends on deceased’s family members arrival for the funeral. If the family members live in abroad, they wait them to come to funeral. The waiting time, especially for hot season cannot be at home, because of hygiene problems, instead of keep the death body at home, they usually keep the body at morgue. One of the reason for burying the body as soon as possible not only about hygiene it is also belief that “if the burial is delayed, the deceased may be delay for giving accounts of their deeds in the Hereafter” is common. Meaning that “ if the dead buried right after, they can answer the questions in grave rightly.” Muslims are believe that there is going to be questioning for the deceased to decide to make them go to heaven or hell. According to Neurological Study reported that around half of patients showed physical movements after brain dead. On the other hand, muslims believe that during the questioning, they will take the Quran. If they use their right hands means that they will go to heaven, if they use their left hand they will go to hell. Therefore if they see the deceased’s hands are moving, they can understand whether they being accepted to heaven or not.

Before burying the person, people should give bath to dead body. The right side of the body should point to Qibla, the direction of Kaaba, which is located in Mecca, birthplace of prophet Muhammed, and the direction of Muslims face while they are praying. The body is bathed in a room or in the garden. They clean body to smell good before deceased see the angels. After bathing the body people should prepare the body for burial. As tradition they have to shroud the body. White is the color of shroud. After they shrouded the body they put in to coffin. If the dead person is soldier, they covered the coffin with the Turkish flag. If the person is female and just got married they cover the coffin with bridal. Otherwise coffin should cover with green curtain. When the time comes for burying the person, females usually stay at home and only males go to bury the person. When they reach to cemetery, they pray with Hodja facing the Mecca, then they open the coffin and take out the dead body. People who take out the body from coffin should be first degree relatives, otherwise the other relatives cannot touch the dead body. Especially if the dead body is female, they act really carefully to try not to show the body with shroud. Usually dead person is buried in grave without coffin. After burying the body, one person stays by the gravestone and pray.

In the meantime, while females are staying at home, they continue to pray. They do not cook at deceased’s home for the first week. Other relatives and neighbors bring great amount of food and beverages. People should make Helva for the memory of deceased. Certain practices such as keeping the lights is a belief that “ the dead shall see the house lighted” or cooking Helva “the dead shall like the smell” these practices are done to prevent the evil part of deceased entering the house. In addition to that, for mourning period relatives of the deceased do not have haircut or shaving for 40 days. In 40 days, it cannot be any celebration such as engagement, wedding. Even if the date for the wedding is announced before the funeral, they should postpone the wedding. They do not watch TV, they do not talk loud. They only talk about positive characteristics of the dead person and they continue to pray.

As a conclusion, death is inevitable. No matter what your religion or culture is, the death rituals aim are the same such as expressing sadness, supporting relatives. It does not matter how you lived this life, how wealthy you were, everyone will die one day and every culture will do the same ceremony for the dead body.