Funeral Event and the Rituals - Literature review Example

The custom is to bury the dead quickly, possibly within the day of death. According to the author, “the washing of the body is performed in strict accordance with the ceremony prescribed in the Book of the Dead” (Benjamin: Death and Burial par. 6). A funeral procession composed only of men accompanies the dead to the burial ground where special hymns are sung along the way. Interment prescribes “the coffin is placed by the side of the excavation, which has been dug east-west so the dead will face east” (Benjamin par. 10). Incenses, prayers, and hymns are offered during the ritual.

In another article entitled “Video of bin Laden's sea burial to be released?” written by Brinley Bruton of NBC News and MSN on May 2, 2011, the sea burial was described as consistent with the procedures for Islamic burial, to wit: “(1) the deceased's body was washed and then placed in a white sheet; (2) the body was placed in a weighted bag; (3) a military officer read prepared religious remarks that were translated into Arabic by a native speaker; (4) after the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body eased into the sea from the USS Carl Vinson” (Burton par. 7). As indicated, “according to Islamic teachings, the highest honor to be bestowed on the dead is giving the deceased a swift burial, preferably before sunset” (Burton par. 21). If dead bodies were buried in a grave, the head should be reportedly pointed towards the holy city of Mecca.

The similarities could be deduced in terms of the following prescribed procedures according to what the respective cultural orientations define, including facing strategic locations. There are similarities also with the swiftness of which the deceased is interred into the grave (or sea).  The differences are in the amount of time for preparing the body, with the Assyrian burial allotting more intricacies in ritual than practiced in bin Laden’s sea burial.