Funeral Customs

Animal Funerals, from Dorothy the Chimp to Yellow-billed Magpies

Dorothy’s mother was killed by hunters. They then sold her to an amusement park in Cameroon where she was chained…

13 years ago

Remembering Dr. Kevorkian’s suicide machines and other deliverance contraptions

We all know Jack Kevorkian was a doctor, but few know he was also a painter and a jazz composer;…

13 years ago

Revenge killings, from Pakistan to Palestine to Papua New Guinea

He killed nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11 2001, earlier this month we killed him, ten days after that his…

13 years ago

The history of manhunts, from Sabbah the Assassin to Yahya the Engineer

Killing Osama bin Laden involved an especially massive manhunt but it’s not the first time such effort has been put…

13 years ago

Will Osama bin Laden get 72 Virgins? A talk with an Islam death expert

Osama bin Laden’s body was placed on a flat board and slid into the sea, was that the proper thing…

13 years ago

China vs Egypt for “World’s Most Beautiful Mummy” distinction

Xiaohe is a beauty; she has long eyelashes, a button nose, auburn hair that falls across her shoulders, and has…

13 years ago

A flash flood reveals the secret world of Amish funerals

The Amish keep their death rituals private, but last month reporters were able to peek into this world after a…

13 years ago

New green burial method mimics recipe of infamous British “Acid Bath Murderer”

Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak has developed a new way to bury human bodies. First, freeze them with liquid nitrogen, then, use mechanical…

13 years ago

Burning bodies outside becomes popular in Colorado, has roots in Bali

Belinda Ellis got her wish, upon death her body was covered in red cloth and laid atop a rectangular steel…

13 years ago

If you control the funeral you control the revolution

As the Middle East erupts in protest, funerals have served as the flashpoint. On Tuesday in Bahrain 10,000 mourners gathered…

13 years ago