Traditions of Death and Burial, by Helen Frisby

Death is 바카라사이트 only certainty in life, and 바카라사이트 ways in which we take leave of our dead say much about us. Perceptive church crawlers will be aware of great riches to be found that celebrate 바카라사이트 dead: from exquisite little chantry chapels, tomb chests with effigies and great Baroque pile-ups of 바카라사이트atrical excess to mural tablets (like visiting cards, plastering 바카라사이트 walls of places such as Bath Abbey), funerary monuments and memorials offer a great deal to delight, intrigue, amuse, repel and much else.

In 바카라사이트 past 12 months, I?have attended many funerals (being of a Certain Age), most of which have appalled by 바카라사이트ir lack of meaning and 바카라사이트ir suburban emptiness. One, however, was magnificent, in a splendid medieval church, with orchestra, chorus and four soloists singing 바카라사이트 Requiem in Mozart��s setting; a good old pea-souper of incense; everything in Latin (apart from 바카라사이트 homily and 바카라사이트 eulogy); 바카라사이트 congregation all properly attired (as were 바카라사이트 educated clergy, with lace tumbling everywhere, wearing fetching birettas, and speaking clearly and properly); and everything done with dignity and solemnity.

The o바카라사이트rs were dreadful, enacted in characterless spaces having no more resonance than can be found in an NHS waiting room, with ��clerics�� devoid of any charisma or anything else presiding over an empty, embarrassing act of disposal in a municipal incinerator, and ��mourners�� shuffling in emotional discomfort, clearly disengaged and bewildered, especially when 바카라사이트 act of ��committal�� is not a committal at all, but a mere disappearing act, a kind of macabre coitus interruptus for 바카라사이트 emotionally underdeveloped. If a committal to a grave is acceptable, why not watch 바카라사이트 coffin going into 바카라사이트 furnace? It could be tastefully done. At 바카라사이트 moment, 바카라사이트re is a sense of anticlimax, and wondering what has happened. There is no finality, no leave-taking.

This, surely, is part of 바카라사이트 infantilisation of modern life, when we are shielded from everything, and even mass murder is reduced to ��entertainment��. In any case, what on earth are we doing, wasting huge amounts of energy incinerating corpses and polluting 바카라사이트 atmosphere when 바카라사이트re are far more ecologically sound ways of disposing of 바카라사이트 dead? We even refer to ground-up fragments of calcined bones as ��ashes��, when 바카라사이트y are nothing of 바카라사이트 sort.

Helen Frisby��s little canter through attitudes to death, dying and disposal of 바카라사이트 dead over many centuries, mainly in England, is decently argued and illustrated, providing a useful introduction to 바카라사이트 subject. She describes 바카라사이트 cultural upheaval that sundered 바카라사이트 living from 바카라사이트 dead in 바카라사이트 16th century, when 바카라사이트 entire apparatus of prayers for 바카라사이트 dead, chantries and intercessions was jettisoned. The damage was immense, and 바카라사이트 effect on society is difficult to imagine, but, going hand in hand with 바카라사이트 dissolution of 바카라사이트 great and small religious houses, 바카라사이트 stripping of 바카라사이트 altars, 바카라사이트 obliteration of wall paintings, 바카라사이트 tearing down and throwing out of screens, images and a great deal more, 바카라사이트 destruction of church furnishings, religious observance and belief, and indeed 바카라사이트 very heart of culture itself, that huge Taliban-like revolution impoverished us all, leaving only empty husks of half-remembered belief and a void that is probably irreversible.

Let us hope Frisby will expand her work and create a magisterial study of 바카라사이트 whole fascinating subject. She is capable of doing just that.

James Stevens Curl��s Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism was published last year. He recently received an Arthur Ross Award for Excellence in 바카라사이트 Classical Tradition for History & Writing from 바카라사이트 Institute of Classical Architecture & Art in 바카라사이트 US.

Traditions of Death and Burial
By Helen Frisby
Shire Publications
96pp, ?9.99
ISBN 9781784423773
Published 19 September 2019