What Is A 'Funeral'?

A funeral basically is a ceremony which is held to mark an individual's death. Funeral traditions usually include the multifarious of values and practices used by a society to remember the dead.

The customs differ largely from culture to culture, and amid religious affiliations inside cultures. In some cultures the dead are highly thought of, this is usually known as ancestor worship. The term funeral was derived from the Latin term funus, which had a number of meanings, counting the dead body and the funeral rites themselves.

Funeral rites are as ancient as the human race itself. In the Shanidar cave, which is based in Iraq, Neanderthal skeletons have been found with a typical layer of pollen, which gives the idea that Neanderthals buried the dead people with gifts of flowers.