RespectRemembering the deceased

Old cemeteryEindhoven, The Netherlands

Cemetery in Western Europe

When a man passes away, a funeral is held and the body is put to the ground. The gravestone is put on the grave not only to mark the person laying there, but also to show who the person was. Flowers are very common on every grave, but some families show their love for the deceased in more personal ways. A favourite doll, a sculpture of an angel or stones from the beach is there to express the love.

Rent period

The grave place is ususally rented for a period of time. When the time passed, the remains of a body are being exumed and cremated. Then the grave place can be re-rented to another person.In US a woman auctioned a grave place above Marilyn Monroe advertising “be face down on top of Marilyn Monroe”. Originally that was the grave of her deceased husband, who layed (face down) above the famous actress and singer. All this was in order to pay off the mortgage of her house.

Old cemeteryVilnius, Lithuania

Graves from XIX century can be found here. Some very old ones are grown into the nature now. The bodies are disolved, the names are still here. People don’t let the names disappear. If sand is over the gravestone, they clean it; and if the grave is forgoten during All Souls’ Day, a stranger will burn a candle on it.Contemporary crosses mix with the leaning and eroded ones. Pictures and names remind of the people that are long gone. Because when a person dies, for at least 50 years, noone can be buried in his/her place. The body has to disappear naturally. Very old graves, mostly cripts, can be taken appart, but only if it’s falling appart and it creates a danerous situation. So mostly nature takes everything away - first the body, then the grave.

Monkey ForestUbud, Bali, Indonesia

Funeral traditions in Bali, Indonesia

Within Hinduism, cremation is a process that is believed to set an individual’s soul free from the body and allow that soul to take part in the reincarnation process. Historically, Balinese Hindu cremation ceremonies have been conducted in such a way as to provide a deceased individual with an elaborate tribute and send off. Many Balinese families have traditionally not been able to afford to cremate the body of a deceased relative immediately after that person’s death (today, it is not uncommon for a Balinese Hindu cremation ceremony to cost a family the equivalent of a year’s income). Therefore, many Balinese families opt to bury the body of their relative (in a cemetery), work for several years in order to save up enough money for a cremation ceremony, and have the body of their relative exhumed just prior to his or her cremation.Cremation preparation has traditionally involved the washing and wrapping a body in cloth (after being buried, most bodies have decomposed to the point that only bones remain). After a body is prepared for cremation, it is brought to another location where it is placed upon a cremation pyre. On the day of the cremation ceremony, village members carry the cremation pyre (and other pyres containing belongings of the deceased person) to the cremation site. However, cremation processions do not go directly to the cremation site and the cremation pyre, as the procession moves along, is turned around in circles. This is to insure that once a soul is released from a person’s body, that soul will not be able to find its way back to the village. After a body is cremated, ashes and any remaining bones (after being washed) are placed in urns and distributed to family members. Some of the ashes and bones, as an aspect of Ancestor Worship, are placed in family temples (which are located in family compounds). Remaining ashes and bones are both caste into the sea and placed at several major Balinese Hindu temple sites.

When a Balinese pass a setra he will ask permission to pass safely from the dwelling spirits by saying “nyelang margi” means “borrow the road” or simply by honking the vehicle’s horn.

Cremation ceremonyBali, Indonesia

Ngaben (cremation ceremony)

A cremation ceremony is a festive event. This is to celebrate that a soul may now be free from the body. Everyone is dressed in traditional ceremonial clothing. The bands are playing and people are carrying ornate offerings on their heads. The cremation ceremony is meant to celebrate life, so dances, music and offerings are of a great deal. The atmosphere is festive and exciting. People are yelling and cheering and the energy is intoxicating.Wayang Kulit or puppet show is played so that the soul is adequately entertained. (The story in the puppet show is read from a traditional scripture made of delicate material like papyrus.)Every so often the men carrying the tower (with the deseased) would stop and turn in circles. This is to confuse the spirit. They don’t want it finding its way home so the long route is not for show, it is actually a part of the ceremony and their beliefs. It is to mix up the spirit, they don’t want it finding its way back to the family to haunt them. It must move on.

African ceremonial costumesVarious countries, Africa

Masquerade

Masking is one ofthe most complex and secretive, yet very inportant, phenomena in Africa. The masks themselves has often been seen as embodied spirits and ancestral beings who return to the world of the living at specific occations.Masking, or masquerade, entals the donning of the physical mask/costume by (mostly) men, which equally implies the ritual transformation of carrier and mask into ancestral or metaphysical being. When fully activated masks ‘become’ “spirits made tangible”.

DreamingAustralia

Tjukurrpa

The Dreaming for Australian Indigenous people (sometimes referred to as the Dreamtime or Dreamtimes) is when the Ancestral Beings moved across the land and created life and significant geographic features.The Dreaming, or ‘Tjukurrpa’, also means to ‘see and understand the law’. Dreaming stories pass on important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems to later generations. Through song, dance, painting and storytelling which express the dreaming stories.In most stories of the Dreaming, the Ancestor Spirits came to the earth in human form and as they moved through the land, they created the animals, plants, rocks and other forms of the land that we know today. They also created the relationships between groups and individuals to the land, the animals and other people.Once the ancestor spirits had created the world, they changed into trees, the stars, rocks, watering holes or other objects. These are the sacred places of Aboriginal culture and have special properties. Because the ancestors did not disappear at the end of the Dreaming, but remained in these sacred sites, the Dreaming is never-ending, linking the past and the present, the people and the land.

“Every soul exists in the Dreaming. It comes to life through a birth from a mother, and comes back to Dreaming after death.”

“Every event leaves a mark in the land.”

Orthodox monasteryVilnius, Lithuania

Pominki

Orthodox (Provoslav) believe that a soul is always cold and hungry.A candle is lit not only to remeber or honor, but also to warm the spirit up. And food is left to feed it.Families come to the grave every year on the anniversary of the death and make dinners in the cemetery, leaving dishes on the gravestone, so that the spirit can have a bite too. It is said that the food, that spirit ‘ate’ looses its taste, meaning the soul ate the ‘spirit of the food’ (taste).

Saints

Saints are very important to Orthodox. They are usually mummified and part of their bodies (sometimes whole bodies) are put in churches or monasteries. Those mummies are treaded with a lot of respect. They are under the glass and covered with luxurious clothes. Sometimes a ceparate chapel is made to hold the bodies.A praying person leans towards the relict or even kisses the glass to show respect and belief. And only during the most important holidays the glass is removed and a praying man can touch saint’s feet (meaning “I humble myself before you”).

ColumbariumVilnius, Lithuania

Political prisoners

During the Soviet occupation lots of men and women were imprisoned for political reasons, such as being a priest (SSSR was an atheist country), or a teacher; army general (wrong army - a threat to the new government) or simply someone who wants to be in an independent country.Most of those people were deported to Siberia, some faced death penalty. 726 people were shot and buried in the secret botherly graves.Only 50 years later those graves were found and archeologists identified the victims. Still, only 55 names are known. The other bodies stay nameless.

A columbarium was created in the place of the graves and all the bodies were treated with a respect. All the information from the bones was colected about the person and facial reconstructions were made in order to recognise the deceased later on (families send photos and DNAs if they think their family member could be one of the victims).Now a numbered casket hold the bones of the person, but no name

Ex- KGB prisonVilnius, Lithuania

Political prisoners of the SSSR were held in this prison. Now the building is on the main street of the city, housing a court of law.In order to remember all the people that were held, tortured and centenced to death, their names are carved in stone on the outside walls.Only documents can tell the destiny of a person. Most bodies were never found, but some names match the bones buried in the Columbarium. And so only names names are left, but they are always remebered as people pass by.

Design Concept

As a show of respect to the deseased, in most cultures it is cremated or buried. In western world a grave is rentable for a period of time. So the lack of money that a family can spend on the funeral ceremony and grave may result in exuming the body a few years later in order cremate it. With the act of exumation, respect shown during the funeral loses its meaning, as digging the body out is usually seen as an offence (if exumed for a reason other than short-in-rent for the grave, the person might be sentenced).

Why can’t the family cremate the body immediately, without burying it first? Show respect during cremation ceremony and let the spirit go?

Because the family needs a place to go. A grave is a place where the body lies, and so it is a place where the family members feels like talking to and remembering the deseased. So if there would be a place or an item that helps to remember the loved one, there would be no need of the grave; and so, no need of the unrespectful and painful (for the family) exumation some years later.

Design Academy Eindhoven 2011