Funeral and Religious Practices Around the World and in the United States

We will review more funeral customs from around the world, past and present.  This YouTube video looks at several, which helps illustrate how very different such practices can be.

Viking Ship Burning Funeral 

               Tibetan sky burial 
 
        (Images found on the Internet)

In America, different religions have specific customs and practices regarding funerals and disposition of the dead through burials, cremations, etc. This article from a Wichita, Kansas newspaper compares and contrasts the most widely practiced U.S. religions.

Pictured: Jewish Star of David, Christian Cross, and Islamic Star and Crescent

First, Finest and Oldest- More Charleston Historic Nuggets

The unabashed purveyor of "All Things Charleston" was back Monday in my "Beyond the Grave" classroom and I was amazed to learn so many new things in this, her fourth talk to my class.

Ruth Miller has authored several books about Charleston graveyards

Longtime Charleston historian, author and tour guide Ruth Miller seems a fount of unlimited "Holy City" knowledge.

For decades she has studied Charleston's past and has given tours in the downtown Historic District. She says her interest in the many old church graveyards came after giving a tour to a visiting group of morticians who asked to spend time looking around some of old downtown graveyards, pointing things out to Miller that she did not know.