While Irish wakes and funerals are well known for being large affairs full of emotion, reminiscing, prayer, and song, these traditions are nothing new. As far back as the 12th century, the Irish were ...

The Queen’s funeral will be incomparable in scale and grandeur as the nation gathers to say its solemn final farewell to its longest reigning monarch. Through the centuries, customs and rituals have ...

It contains the relics of deaths past — a replica of Abraham Lincoln’s casket, Civil War-era embalming tools and intricately designed mourning jewelry made from deceased loved ones’ hair. Despite the ...

In the old days, Egyptians would bury a pharaoh and throw in a slave or a wife or two to keep him company in the afterlife. Romans would carry torches in a funeral procession. Colonials would head to ...

Most of what happened around the death and subsequent funeral services for Pope Francis had a traditional ring to them. Obviously, when the pope dies in Rome, tradition has much to say about how ...