Weird Funeral Facts That People Don’t Know

Published: February 20, 2023
by Connelly Funeral Home of Essex

Funerals, like anything else, can be weird. You'll notice that there are a lot of strange or interesting facts about them that people don't know. As such, keep reading our list below, and you'll see things about funerals that never would have crossed your mind. While a funeral home in White Marsh, MD won’t know all of these, they’ll be able to give you some good stories.

Animals Hold Funerals For The Dead

Strange, but true. Elephants and certain types of monkeys have been known to bury their dead and throw leaves and branches over deceased family members.

Do It Correctly

The military flag is an integral part of a traditional military funeral and therefore needs to be done right. As such, you'll see that a flag that has been appropriately folded will show four stars to showcase the military's four main branches.

Buried Alive?

People used to fear being buried alive or, in some cases coming back from the dead. Because of this, you would see that some cemeteries had little bells present at the grave. The bell was attached on a string to the person's hand. If they came back to life, the bell would ring. Imagine how terrified people must have been if the wind had been strong one day.

Because people feared being buried alive, the safety coffin was developed; it included a bell to ring that would alert the workers if someone was still alive in the casket.

Hiring People To Be Sad

This one is a little strange, but in the nineteenth century and earlier, people would hire others to come to a funeral and look sad or wail at the top of their lungs. In particular, this was done in ancient Roman times. That was because it was considered to be a sign of status. The more people that showed up and the sadder the guests were, the more critical people believed you to be. In addition, the noise from one of these funerals would be so loud that people could hear it from at least a mile away.

Cemeteries And Apartments

Due to space issues and other things, you'll find that many areas have apartment buildings right next to cemeteries or, in some cases, a small cemetery in the apartment building's parking lot.

Flowers Were Brought Because Of Smell

funeral home in White Marsh, MD

While flowers were brought to bring goodwill and love for the person that passed on, the other reason was more practical. Dead bodies smell, and they didn't have the techniques we have now, which meant they smelled terrible sooner. As such, people would bring flowers and Rosemary as they had a pleasing aroma.

Funerals Can Be Interesting

Funerals can be enjoyable when you consider the facts we've given you. It is strange to think of people having loud funerals that you hire people to come to instead of the small, personal services that we have today. In addition, it can be strange to think about a funeral where you can smell the person who passed. However, back then, that was how it had to be done. Now we have funeral homeds in White Marsh, MD that can help, and tradition has family and friends come together more often than not for something quieter and solum.

 
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