Compare and Contrast Essay on Funeral Rites of Hinduism and Christianity

Introduction

Different religions have different believes and rites that they do abide by. Christianity and Hinduism are two different religions whit a few similarities and differences in relation to funeral rites. Within this paper, we will address both religions compare and contrast their funeral rites and get to understand more about both religions (Brockington). Both religions have very different definitions of death and funeral rites. Reports from BBC indicates that Christianity is the leading religion in the world and Hinduism is the third.

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Christian view the earthly life as a temporary life which is a passage stage to eternal life which on the other hand is seen as life after death. This is a different case for Hinduism, the religion believes in reincarnation. When one dies the soul is reborn in another body back to the cycle of life. The religion believes that the physical form the body takes depended on the deeds of a person when they were alive (Mallampalli). This is the previous life of the person hence it is determinant of your next body that the soul takes. The cycle continues to a point where the soul becomes perfect.

For Christians, it is believed that after the death of a person the soul is judged by God and the next place the soul heads also depends on the deeds of a person during when they were alive. There is a similarity between the two religions at this point. For both religions, the deeds of a person are the judgment bases of both souls despite the religion they both belong. The Catholic believes in purgatory which means to purge or clean where is a temporary tempo for those soles which have committed venial sins and they had died before repenting. It is important to understand the meaning of death in both religions so as to understand the different funeral rites.

After the death of a person as per the Christian religion the body is normally embalmed. Different means are used to preserve the body after the death of a person, but this is a rite which is not practiced within the Hindu religion. It is not allowed as per the religion to have the body embalmed. Christian use arterial injections of preservatives so as to prevent the body from decaying but originally used spices to avoid the decay of the body. The preservation of the body gives the Christians time to prepare the funeral ceremony when the mass is held. On the other hand, final prayers of the beloved are held on the passing (Manian, Sabita, and Brad). Prayers are chanted in the form of mantra, and as it is being chanted, different religious rituals are conducted such as placing of ash on the dying person's forehead. There are no similar rituals in Christianity; the body is just washed and dressed well in preparation for the funeral. Hinduism also drips blessed water or milk into the person's mouth following the Hindu tradition.

Despite the existence of multiple denominations under Christianity, most of them have a similar funeral ritual; the funeral service normally starts with the minister reading a verse from the bible. The reading during the ministry describes the life of the deceased the prayers follow and a moment of silence to reflect on the life of the deceased. This is a ceremony that is not seen among the Hindu religion. There are no serious organized events planned such as the Christian religion. Christian can either bury there dead or criminate the body. But for the Hindu religion, the body can only be criminated (Leibold, Marius, and Brian). There is a small relation between the two religions on the crimination of the body although for Hinduism only male the male gender are allowed during the process unlike in Christianity where everyone willing to attend is allowed to attend the crimination. The process of cremation for Christians is less complicated where it can be carried out in the hospital, on the other hand for the Hindu religion several traditional rituals are conducted fire for the cremation is set in place then the body is carried round the fire in a counterclockwise direction.

The death preparations for the Christians take longer as compared to the Hindu religion. The body is criminated 24 hours after the death of the deceases while Christians can take a week or more carrying out the funeral preparations. During this time people can see the body of the deceased and get time to mourn the dead. Also for the Christians, the body is not kept at home and in most cases it is preserved in the morgue while for the Hindus the body is kept at home for the 24 hours before crimination. The dressing code between the two religions also differ. Christians dress up in black to show the sad mood of the funeral unlike in Hinduism, black is seen as disrespectful and white is more appropriate for the function. The dress code is a similarity between the two religions despite the fact that the definition of colors differs between the two religions. White color for Christianity represent celebrating something good, but death is normally seen as a sad moment which does not fit to be represented in black. On the other hand, Hinduism see white as a color that shows respect for the dead hence it's in accordance with the event. Funeral services are both conducted by high ranking members of the religions. For the Hindus, a high ranking priest of the religion leads the ceremony such as seen in the Christian religion where the minister of the deceased church leads the ceremony (Howarth, Glennys, and Peter C. Jupp). A slight difference comes in where in Hindus a family member also leads alongside the priest while the matters pertaining the ceremony for the Christian religion are left in the hands of the church.

The morning periods between the two religions are also the same between 10 to 30 days. In most Christian cases the mourning takes two weeks which is approximately 14 days while for the Hindu religion it extends to a month a total of 30 days. Also, all the religions have been seen to respect the deceased a lot despite the life they may have lived. This is left behind, and the funeral rites in both religions are conducted so as to give the dead a good send off. The view of death has been accepted by both religions as a normal life occurrence that opens the doorway of one's soul to a new stage in their life. There are so many different religions in the world, and all of them differ from one another, but there are a few similarities as seen between Hinduism and Christianity.

Work Cites

Brockington, John L. Hinduism and Christianity. Springer, 2016.

Howarth, Glennys, and Peter C. Jupp, eds. The changing face of death: Historical accounts of death and disposal. Springer, 2016.

Leibold, Marius, and Brian van der Westhuizen. "Religious Beliefs and Practices Affecting Marketing by Health Care Organizations in a Multicultural Community: A Preliminary Investigation." Proceedings of the 1998 Multicultural Marketing Conference. Springer, Cham, 2015.

Mallampalli, Chandra. "Dalit Christian Reservations: Colonial Moorings of a Live Debate." International Journal of Asian Christianity 1.1 (2018): 25-44.

Manian, Sabita, and Brad Bullock. "Sensing Hinduism: Lucian-Indian Funeral "Feast" as Glocalized Ritual1." Religions 7.1 (2016): 8.