My Funeral Triumvirate

Ok, I need to write about three different death rituals, give a summary of each and post some nice pictures about them. Lucky for me, I have three options for my remains once I die, and so, I can use this three options and write about them! What are the odds? I can give a brief insight of my death preferences AND do my assignment at the same time! Delicious!

Each option is supposed to be from a different culture, but, alas, those are not as fun. I could say that each my option comes from a different culture, but that'd be overstretching the concept. I will overstretch it. My options are: Space Burial, Mummification and one which does not exist but is portrayed in one of my favorite movies, "Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa. I'll explain each of them briefly and why I like them so much.

The first one is just what it sounds like: You get buried... in space. Yes, it is THAT great. Your remains are stored in a little capsule which is then sent to space using a rocket. There's not a lot of complexity in the burial itself, not taking into account the huge amounts of money it costs and the hassle it is to do the arrangements. Sending 1g of one's ashes to space has varying costs. If I wanted to send my remains for a round trip to the Earth's orbit, it'd be around $1,300 USD, and I say round trip because as it is in earth's orbit it shall re-enter earth after some time. If I wanted to be much cooler and send it to deep space, it'd cost about $12,500 USD, and my remains would go past Pluto and to infinity and beyond. This people can help you arrange it: Celestis

The second one is much more known, yet as unpracticed as the first. Mummification. Egyptians, and several other cultures, were known to have this fantastic burial techniques. In the case of the Egyptian, which are my favorite, this happened because they thought that the body was essential for afterlife. They buried their people with different artifacts, spells, jars with their organs known as canopic jars, etc. It was necessary for the deceased to have of of his belongings, including body and inner parts, to be able to go through the dangerous way of afterlife and into Paradise. Furthermore, Egyptians thought they'd have their heart balanced against a feather by the Gods once they died, and the feather had to be lighter, sign of a pure, clear heart, hence the fact that the only organ not placed into a canopic jar was the heart, which remained in the body. This process also included the complete dehydration of the body, which was immersed in a pile of salt for 70 days, and then carefully covered with linen bandages. I really find this method fantastic as it keeps your beautiful body "intact" for thousands of years. Mummies are one nice way of seeing the results of this method.

Finally, the last, and my favorite, death ritual is the one portrayed in the movie "Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa during the last dream "Village of the Watermills". This ritual is peculiar because even if it's a funeral, people are not mourning, they are celebrating. They celebrate the good end of a well lived life. I really love this funeral, it is full of colors, music, jumping and dancing. This is going to be a must in my funeral. Not one person is dressed in a gloomy black disgusting suit, but they are all dressed in beautiful colorful attires. I find this funeral absolutely gorgeous for that reason: it gives a whole new sense to death, it takes away the sad and horrible part  and makes it as human as it can get. Also, it does not celebrate the going of a person to another life, in which I do not believe, but it celebrates the ending of a life. What's wrong with celebrating endings? It should be a more common practice.

I really like also, about all of the three options, that none of them -have- to be celebrated as a religious ritual, not even mummification, which can be done for sole sake of it's evoking of immortality and such. They are just beautiful, interesting ways of celebrating the end of the longest thing one did: Live. They have don't necessarily have the sad duel most of the other rituals have. I really hope my family gives me one of this once I die. I'd curse them from wherever I am if they dare give me a religious celebration. Even better, I could go further myself and pre-arrange my death rituals. Yes, I shall do that; if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.