Greek Orthodox Funerals – Death and Mourning
Greeks have their own beliefs and tradition that they follow when it comes to death and mourning. Their beliefs are founded in their religion, the Greek Orthodox religion. Most Greeks give so much importance in following their traditions. In fact, families and loved ones seek the advice of their local priest to ensure that they’re doing the traditions appropriately.
There are children in Australia who are Greek migrants. They learn the traditions from their early memories of funerals and memorials held in their town. Usually, they remembers the women who wail funeral dirges over the body of the dead for a whole 24 hours. Even though most Greek Australians do not follow this ritual today, there are still traditional beliefs and customs that are still very important.
Greek Orthodox funerals – Beliefs
The Greek Orthodox religion believes in eternal life. Greek Churches emphasizes the positive outcome of death which says that the dead is alive with our Creator. They believe that death is the time when the soul is separated from the body but the physical body will be reunited with the soul at the Last Judgement.
This eternal life idea of the soul and the integrity of the body holds a lot of traditions that revolves around death and mourning. Cremation is forbidden because this represents destruction of the physical body and organ donation as well. However, the Greek Church supports the use of transplants and church leaders have shown a supportibe attitude when it comes to organ donation.
It is very important to discuss with a priest first before the organ donation.
Greek Orthodox – Other beliefs
Other beliefs regarding death and afterlife date back to antiquity. Greek mythology’s Charos was known because he was the ferryman of the dead. So, if you hear Greeks saying “fight with Charos”, they are pertaining to a person who has a life-threatening illness. For the afterlife, it is known as Hades after the god of the underworld. Personal items that once belonged to the deceased are places in the coffin of the deceased. While in antiquity, the dead was provided with items for the journey to and life in the underworld.
Forthcoming death
An elderly person who is so unwell that death is approaching, the family usually call a priest to conduct Holy Communion and Last Confession. If the family is too upset, you can be the one to call the priest on their behalf. You can find Greek Orthodox Parishes in the Directory of Greek Services and this will help you find the nearest priest. The priest must respond quickly as well as conducting the sacraments.
Trisagion
Trisagion is a prayer service held by the priest just after death and while the dead is still present. The night before the funeral, this is held again at a church or in the chapel of a funeral home. This is also the best time to view the dead. Such service is repeated again in church or at the grave usually on the third day, ninth day, fortieth day, six months and a year after death.
Customs during Mourning
Forty days is the designated period of the church. Relatives and friends can visit the home of the immediate family before and after the funeral with drinks and food to share with the family members and other guests. The most common food and drinks during this period are brandy, coffee, wine and paximathia or dry biscuits that can be purchased from Greek cake shops or it can also be home-made.
Immediate family members of the dead wears black clothing for forty days following their tradition. They are prohibited to attend social occasions such as parties and other celebrations and they are also prohibited to dance or listen to music. Other individuals prefer to do this longer while widows and widowers wear black and do this for the rest of their lives.
The Greek Orthodox Funeral and Burial
In Greek Orthodox funerals,there is no required time which funeral must be held. Remember that not all Greek Australians want their funeral to be in a Greek Orthodox church so it is very important that you are attentive to the needs and requests of your clients.
Usually, Greek Australians want funeral arrangements to be arranged by Greek funeral directors and they will contact them. If a member of the family asked you to get in touch with a Greek funeral director, you can find one in the Directory of Greek services.
Funerals are held on weekdays, never on Sundays and rarely on Saturdays. You can place your funeral notices in the local Greek newspapers by family members of funeral directors.
The estimated time for Greek Orthodox funerals are usually between thrity and sixty minutes. Once the ceremony has ended, everyone is to move to the front of the church and bow in front of the open casket and kiss an icon or a cross laid on the chest of the dead. Immediate family members are situated near the casket and guests are to express their sympathies to the family.
There is a brief prayer ceremony held at the graveside. People who are present during this time may place a flower on the casket before or during the lowering of the casket into the ground.
Wake
Traditionally, family members host a wake after the funeral even though this isn’t a religious custom. This is done in their home, at the church or at a community venue. During this event, they share melas of cheese, olives, salads, spanakopita and tyropita and wine. The dishes depend according to the family’s tradition and homeland regions. The arrival of the guests calls for the offering of brandy and they are served Greek coffee and dry biscuits before or after the meal.
Memorial services of Greek Orthodox
Memorials are very important in the culture of Greek. You can see the importance just by seeing the notices of memorial services found in Greek newspapers. During this service, family members, relatives and friends offer prayer of forgiveness and mercy for the soul of the dead. At the Last Judgement, this is held at the time of Christ’s second coming, the dead’s soul is cast into a state of blessedness or damnation. These memorial services show their belief that prayers can help in granting of forgiveness which can provide rest to the soul of the departed.
Mnimosyno is the most observed memorial service and this held on the Sunday that is closets to the fortieth day after death. This is because they believe that Christ remained on earth for forty days after resurrection.
Mnimosyno is the service which the priest offer prayers of forgiveness for the dead and this is also a part of the regular Sunday church service. Friends and relatives can participate the service. The immediate family of the deceased will then provide th eguests a tray of kollyva that are decorated with a cross and the name of the deceased and placed on a table with candles at the front of the church.
Kollyva represents the dead’s soul and also symbolizes everlasting life. Once the service has ended, the kollyva are distributed to people who atteneded the memorial service and they are also invited to join the immediate family for a meal.
Dates: Memorial Service
Memorial services can also be held three months and six months after the death, on the death anniversayu, on the third death anniversay and on Saturdays that are dedicated to the souls or Psychosovata which occurs four times a year and are based on the dates of Lent and Easter.
Memorials services are not to be held during: Christmas Day, The Feast of the Parish Church, From the Saturday of Lazarus until the Sunday of St. Thomas, August 15, January 1, January 6, March 25, the Ascension, Pentecost and the Transfiguration.
Not Greek? You can still express your sympathies!
Here are some Greek phrases that can help you express your sympathies to the Greek family:
ñ Zoi se sas – May life be granted to you
ñ O Theos na ton/tin synghoresi – May God forgive him/her
ñ O Theos na ton/tin anapafsi – May God rest his/her soul
ñ Syllypitiria – My condolences
ñ Zoi se mas – May life be granted to us
The Funeral Service
In Greek funerals they have a different funeral service, the same with different religions. In Greek Orthodox, their funeral is considered as a special liturgical rite. The Greek orthodox Church has special prayers for the dead or they those who have “fallen asleep in the Lord”. When a person succumbs to death, the Church serves a special watch over the deceased which is called the Parastasis or Panikhida that means vigil or an “all-night vigil”.
The funeral watch comes in the basic form of Matins. Normal Trisagion Prayes are said to begin the service and the chanting of Psalm 91 follows then the special Great Litany for the dead. God is the Lord is replaced by Alleluia as in Great Lent and this leads to the singing of Troparion. The troparion and the kontakion of the deceased, as all hymns and funeral watch, contemplate on the tragedy of death and God’s mercy, and eternal life petition for the person who has succumbed to death.
Troparion
Our only Creator Who with wisdom profound mercifully orders all things, and gives all that which is useful, give rest, O Lord, to the soul of Your servant who has fallen asleep, for he has placed his trust in Thee, our Maker and Fashioner and our God.
Kontakion
With the saints give rest, O Christ, to the soul of Your servant where sickness and sorrow are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting
The Psalm 119, the verbal icon of the righteous man who has total trust in God and total devotion and love for his Divine Law, the verbal icon of Jesus Christ – this is chanted over the dead woth praises and supplications for life in God. This is the same psalm that is chanted pver the tomb of Christ on Great Friday.
The psalm is the one that sings the victory of righteousness and life over wickedness and death
“My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word” (Ps 119:25).
“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way” (Ps 119:37).
“Behold, I long for Your precepts; in revive me in Your righteousness” (Ps 119:40).
“The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting; give me understanding, and I shall live” (Ps 119:144).
“Plead my cause, and redeem me; give me life according to Thy promise” (Ps 119:154).
Together with the verses. The psalm and prayers go with it. Also the canon hymns of the service and the special funeral songs of St. John of Damascus that contemplates on life and death.
Sometimes men discriminates the funeral watch for its conjenctured pensiveness and gloom; these men say that these should be more words of resurrection and life. Yet the watch itself is not the final word of the Church about death. It is a solemn meditation upon the characted of the tragedy of death, its terrible reality and the power as that of sin and alienation from God. Realization of these facts is absent in our daus today and it is the absolute condition for the full appreciation and celebration of the victorious resurrection of Christ and His gift of eternal life to mankind. Withiut this contemplation on death, it may be doubtful for men to understand the Gospel of Life.
Hence, it is not at all ironic that the same St. John of Damascus is also the author of the Church’s songs of death.
What earthly sweetness remains unmixed with grief? What glory stands immutable on the earth? All things are but feeble shadows, all things are most deluding dreams, yet one moment only, and death shall supplant them all. But in the light of Your countenance, O Christ, and in the sweetness of Your beauty, give rest to him whom You have chosen, for as much as You love mankind.
I weep and lament when I think upon death, and behold our beauty created in the likeness of God lying in the tomb disfigured, bereft of glory and form. O the marvel of it! What is this mystery concerning us? Why have we been delivered to corruption? Why have we been wedded unto death? Truly, as it is written, by the command of God Who gives the departed rest (Funeral Hymns)
The beatitudes are chanted after the canon and St. John’s hymns with prayer verses included in between them on behalf of the deceased. The first Epistle reading is from First Thessalonians (4:13-17). The gospel reading is from St. John (5:24-30). Then followed by the sermon and the people are free to go after the give their “final kiss” with the singing of the final funeral song, Eternal Memory.
It is said that it has to be noted that Eternal Memory is the petition of that God remembers the dead. In the Bible, it is God’s eternal memory that keeps man alive. While Abaddon is the condition of being renounced and forgotten by God. A non-life situation wherein no one can praise the Lord; and the praise of the Lord if the only content and purpose of man’s life which is the main reason for the existence of men. Hence, this most popular and final Orthodox funeral hymns is the prayer that the deceased be eternally alive in the eternal rest of the eternal memory of God. All these has become possible and actual because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ which destructs the Pit of Death by the elegance of Divine Righteousness and Life.
The watch of the dead should be fulfilled in the Eucharistic Liturgy in which the faithful meet the Risen Lord and all those who are alive in him, in the glory of his Kingdom of Life. It is a known fact in Greek funerals that the funeral watch has lost its preparatory characted and has been transformed into the funeral service itself which separates it from the Eucharistic Liturgy. This is such a sorrwoful fact that allows neither for the right appreciation of the watch itself nor for the complte Christian vision of the meaning of life, death and resurrection in Christ, the Church and the Kingdom of God.
The divine liturgy when preserved with the funeral watch is served before it is made into something sorrowful, adapted into a “requiem mass” offered “on behalf of the dead”, is an innovation of recent centuries under Old Roman Catholic influence and this further distorts the understanding of Christian regarding the experience of death in Christ.
