Custom and Convention
‹ 7 · Outline · 9 ›
8.Ritual customs of life and death
8a.Funeral and mourning customs
See also: Life and Death 9b · Emotion 6e · Religion 5c
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 162Burial customs: pyre, barrow, pillar and oar set over the dead comrade.read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 21–22Mourning etiquette: he does not eat his fill beside a mourner nor sing after wailing.read · scan
- p. 33He refuses an outer coffin or a lavish burial for Yen Yuan as improper, though disciples proceed.read · scan
- p. 49–50Three years' silent mourning for a king was the old custom of all men.read · scan
- p. 59–60Three years' mourning is defended as the universal custom; courtesy and music would decay without it.read · scan
- p. 60Three-year mourning is the practice everywhere under heaven.read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 36–37Mourning rites for household cats and dogs, shaving of brows or body, embalming and burial in sacred places.read · scan
- p. 42Describes Egyptian mourning and burial fashions, with women beating themselves and the elaborate embalming procedure.read · scan
- p. 42Egyptian embalming grades, the storing of coffins upright, and delay in embalming women of rank.read · scan
- p. 67–68Burial in the family tomb is treated as so sacred that being denied it is a heavy penalty.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 13Ancestors' solemn observances for the dead are taken as evidence they believed in survival.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 210Rites are performed as their fathers used to pay.read · scan
- p. 210Funeral rites and burial determine whether the dead may cross to rest.read · scan
- p. 210Burial rites and tomb-raising are required to propitiate the offended ghost.read · scan
- p. 210Aeneas's piety paid the funeral rites to rest the wandering shade.read · scan
- p. 355Common funeral rites owed even to conquered foes who die in fair battle; human captives sacrificed.read · scan
- p. 355Funeral rites by ancient custom: thrice circling the pyres, offering spoils and animals, burying ashes under a mound.read · scan
Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12
- p. 183–184The ten-month mourning period follows usage fixed by the laws of Numa.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 107Germans' unadorned funerals, shifting cultivation and ignorance of usury described as ancestral customs; women mourn openly, men remember.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 154–155Funeral custom judged tearful lament unfitting for one not truly dead; psalm sung and burial prepared.read · scan
BeowulfVol. 49
- p. 88–91Funeral rites of pyre, barrow, dirge and burial of treasure with the hero.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 49The wife shears her hair, wears mourning, and builds a House of Lamentations, using mourning customs as cover.read · scan
- p. 430–431Funeral rites are performed: washing, incense, grave-clothes, the Imam's prayers, and neighbourhood women lamenting according to custom.read · scan
The Song of RolandVol. 49
- p. 168–169Roland crosses the dead man's hands on his breast as his country's law ordains.read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 337Funeral rites: pyre covered in red cloth, sword laid between them, bondservants and hawks burned with the dead.read · scan
Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First VoyageVol. 43
- p. 28Strange funeral custom of abandoning the dying in a forest hammock, and other barbarous customs, including cannibalism, astonish the European.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, That to Philosophise Is to Learne How to DieVol. 32
- p. 19Lycurgus's placing of graveyards among churches and Egyptian death-images at feasts accustom people to death.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 85Chrysostom's will demands burial in the fields; village elders object that the rites resemble pagan ceremonies.read · scan
- p. 91–92Shepherds dress in mourning skins and cypress garlands for Chrysostom's burial, showing funeral custom.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33
- p. 340Funeral rites: lamentation, preserving a chief's skull decked with feathers and gold, and drinking pounded bones of lords among the Arwacas.read · scan
- p. 374Describes native burial customs, multiple wives, women's servitude and men's idleness among the peoples of Guiana.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 182–183Lack of trophy, sword or noble rite at Polonius' burial is felt as a slight to due ceremonyread · scan
- p. 196Maimed rites, strewments and bell and burial regulated by warrant and rankread · scan
John Webster, Call for the Robin-RedbreastVol. 40
- p. 322–323Burial rites and funeral dole are invoked for the friendless dead.read · scan
Charles Lamb, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 736Burial rites and toys laid with the infant, contrasted with the trophies of nobles.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 173–174Indian burial customs: bones carried to the coast, explained by the prejudice of lying where ancestors lay.read · scan
- p. 219Burial practices, reluctance to name the dead, and superstition among Fuegians and sailors alike.read · scan
- p. 343Peculiar dress of the miners and the strange running funeral.read · scan
- p. 432Funeral rites of self-laceration and painted coffin among heathen Maori; a chief cites the English method to justify hanging his wife.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 129Californian custom treats a child's death as festive occasion, surprising the narrator.read · scan
- p. 129A child's funeral procession with playing girls in white and men firing muskets, perhaps to ward off evil spirits.read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32
- p. 140Reverence for the dead and belief that blood speaks are preserved traditions in Brittany.read · scan
Frank Aretas Haskell, The Battle of GettysburgVol. 43
- p. 408Contrasts tender burial of the Union dead with hasty trench burial of Rebel dead, while insisting hostilities should cease with death.read · scan
8b.Marriage and courtship customs
See also: Family 3e
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 87Maidenly conduct is bound by social norms: a girl consorting with men before open wedlock earns blame, so she instructs Odysseus how to enter the city.read · scan
- p. 251–252Penelope contrasts proper wooing customs, bringing own oxen and gifts, with the wooers devouring another's livelihood.read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 23Duke Chao's marriage to one of his own surname breaks Chinese custom, yet Confucius says he knew courtesy.read · scan
- p. 24The judge criticizes the prince's same-surname marriage as a breach of courtesy; Confucius accepts blame rather than criticize his prince.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 139–140Wedding customs: contract before the Kadi, feasting, singing-girls, display of the bride, and a fastidious rule about washing hands.read · scan
- p. 396Ceremonial bath, procession, tapers and displaying of the bride illustrate wedding customs.read · scan
- p. 414She invents a supposed country custom of drinking from the beloved's cup to trick him.read · scan
Traditional BalladsVol. 40
- p. 86–87The couple's pact that the first to speak must bar the door shows stubborn domestic bargaining.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 207–208Utopian custom of viewing prospective spouses naked seems foolish to Europeans, who are careless in choosing wives compared with buying a colt.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 318–319He notes the French custom of one godfather and two godmothers at baptism.read · scan
Nicholas Breton, Phillida and CoridonVol. 40
- p. 196Maids must not kiss men until pledged; shepherds swear pretty oaths of faith and troth.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33
- p. 327Describes the Amazon women's yearly mating festival, feasting, and lot-casting for partners, and their exchange customs.read · scan
Edmund Spenser, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 236–237Wedding customs of music, dancing, timbrels and shouts of Hymen with public applause.read · scan
Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old DebtsVol. 47
- p. 925Margaret wants marriage with ceremony and invited friends; the lord promises court pomp, 'the fashion'.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 418–419Men making advances to women is an obligation of nature, not custom.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 143Moravian communal living, separate congregations and arranged matches differ from common practice.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 192Laws of continence and honour increase dissoluteness rather than restraining it.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 124–127Margaret says her land knows no such usage of taking a gallant.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 384Old custom of a family friend acting as go-between in choosing a bride is contrasted with modern fashion of wooing for oneself.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 346–347Valentine and Halloween divinations are used to learn her future husband.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 36–37Milanese peasant bridal costume, silver hairpins like a halo, and a bride's conventional modesty.read · scan
- p. 90–91Priests avoid forced co-operation in such marriages, resisting like Proteus.read · scan
- p. 166Universal custom gives parents the selection; conversazioni and social attentions shape the choice.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 264–265Exchanging boots is called more genteel than exchanging rings, a comic marriage custom.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1310–1311The betrothal feast with dancing and songs; hospitality and community of goods among people living like brothers.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 235Wedding customs: the bride goes to confession in black, then emerges in white to the church bells.read · scan
- p. 237–238Hat-placing on a girl's head is a courtship convention offering to be her gallant; refusal by throwing it off.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 152Society's marriage-making system is a plague of cowardice and imposture, forcing girls to live as neighbors choose.read · scan
8c.Festivals, holiday and folk observances
See also: Prophecy 6d
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 33Carians in Egypt distinguish themselves by cutting their foreheads; festivals kept across the land.read · scan
- p. 33–35The mock battle commemorates Ares' visit to his mother; Egyptians and Greeks differ from other peoples in temple purity.read · scan
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 757–758The annual Public Day festival, when secluded ladies go out and rich men's sons garland pretty girls.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 131–137The Trojans keep their country's customs, holding games and wrestling on the Actian shore.read · scan
- p. 137Veiling the head at sacrifice is commended as a rite to pass on to the pious race.read · scan
- p. 178The Troy game is handed down from Alba to Rome as an inherited tradition.read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 356–357Neighbors expect naming after a kinsman and circumcision on the eighth day.read · scan
Plutarch, PericlesVol. 12
- p. 62–63Origin of the phrase 'white day' from the lot of the white bean.read · scan
Plutarch, AristidesVol. 12
- p. 95Whipping of boys at the altar and the Lydian procession in Sparta commemorate the attack.read · scan
- p. 98–99Detailed annual procession, dress and observances of the magistrate are kept up to this day.read · scan
Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12
- p. 148Roman custom of oaken crowns and reasons offered for it; holiday for the Twin Brothers.read · scan
- p. 169–170Roman ritual customs, such as restarting a sacrifice over a faltering horse, illustrate ceremonial scrupulousness.read · scan
Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12
- p. 270Rome's custom that every male, even consul or praetor, leaves the house during the women's rites.read · scan
- p. 313Lupercalia rites: running with thongs, women offering hands to the lash for fertility.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 330Lupercalia rite of young nobles running with hide straps described as ancient custom.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 106Their sole public diversion is the sword dance by naked young men.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 995–996Purification rules by ritual washing and sand.read · scan
The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49
- p. 216–217Origins of cairns, warning-beacons and samain fires are traced to marauding customs.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 333–335The King entertains her kin honourably and lets them name the child; the sea-people's rite of carrying the newborn is practiced.read · scan
- p. 335–336Sea-people anoint a newborn's eyes with collyrium and the seal's names so he can go into the sea unharmed.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 229–232Monthly and yearly feasts follow the moon and sun; churches are made dim on priests' counsel.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 163The Pope insists on the custom of pardon at Our Lady's feast, and Cellini walks in procession.read · scan
Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse PlacesVol. 38
- p. 13–14Local pastimes: Breton songs, dances and wrestling prizes, with frequent injuries.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 266Superfluous festivals, wakes and ales are diminished, reforming inherited popular usage.read · scan
- p. 331Brawn as an English dish and Christmas custom; strangers' ignorance of it and religious food prohibitions of Catholics and Jews.read · scan
Captain Walter Bigges, Drake's Great ArmadaVol. 33
- p. 234–235Ordnance fired in honour of the Queen's coronation day after the yearly custom of England.read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3
- p. 162–163The feast is described as a pious, reverend custom of Bensalem showing the nation's goodness; obedience to the order of nature.read · scan
- p. 164Elaborate ritual details of the feast, its canopy of ivy, herald and symbols, are prescribed by tradition.read · scan
Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's HolidayVol. 47
- p. 527–528The founding of Saint Hugh's Holiday and the pancake bell as a lasting custom, to continue for ever.read · scan
Richard Corbet, Farewell, Rewards and FairiesVol. 40
- p. 315–316Lament for lost old customs, fairy rewards and merry rites, replaced by new ways.read · scan
Robert Herrick, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 338–339May Day observances: boughs on doors, youth gathering hawthorn.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 30Village festivals, folk tales of fairies and goblins, dancing, and courtly tournaments and masques.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509The alehouse's furnishings and rustic pastimes recalled as lost village manners.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 43–45Wagner scorns the vulgar throng's dancing and song, while peasants keep their festive dance.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 253–254The marksmen's contest, king-for-a-year custom and Netherlander laws and customs the Spaniard has not yet meddled with.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 109–110Notes explain the manners and traditions of Scottish country folk on Halloween.read · scan
- p. 110–112Depicts Scottish country Halloween customs: burning nuts, pulling kail stocks, and frolic among lads and lasses.read · scan
- p. 112–114Rural Halloween rites and spells with notes on their observance.read · scan
- p. 114–115Halloween charms passed down as tradition, with detailed directions for performing them.read · scan
- p. 115–116Rural superstition and ritual spells on Halloween, with directions.read · scan
- p. 116–117Halloween ritual charms performed alone and unperceived.read · scan
- p. 118–120Halloween supper of butter'd sowens, songs and jokes concludes the merry night.read · scan
- p. 141–143Folk superstitions about witchcraft, water-kelpies and misleading lights that lure travellers.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 717–719Sacristan's dawn knell of forty-five beads is said to have begun as custom and law.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 161–162Chocolate ceremony is likened to the Roman presentation of the toga virilis, ritualizing her passage.read · scan
- p. 346Holiday dress, pealing bells and people walking together show communal festive custom.read · scan
- p. 406–407Festive village customs of welcoming a bishop, with makeshift decorations and disorderly crowd.read · scan
John Keats, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 884–885The St. Agnes' Eve ritual: virgins must go supperless to bed and not look behind to receive visions.read · scan
Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39
- p. 347–348Popular traditions and local legends of dragons and monsters carry the medieval grotesque.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 354The last pipe request is honored by tradition.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 284–286Sabbath rest is a beneficial custom needing general consent, and a substitute holiday could serve those who must work.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1305–1306Old Norman carols and songs are handed down from fathers; hospitality and pipe by the fireside.read · scan
- p. 1306–1307Village folklore of the werewolf, goblins, ghosts and charms is told to children.read · scan
- p. 1326Folk remedy of a spider in a nutshell against fever; a common country binds exiles as friends.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 13–14Describes a feast-day, the girls' dress and their wild song and clapping.read · scan
- p. 454Describes the natives' corrobery dance, painting and festival as the customs of the 'lowest barbarians', though Darwin sees no meaning in it.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 117Indians keep Sunday as holiday with a ball game; California riders keep horses at top speed.read · scan
- p. 126Catholic vessels' customary observance of Lent and Good Friday.read · scan
- p. 128Easter holiday customs ashore: festive dress, music, fandangos and bull-baiting in the Californian town.read · scan
- p. 131Townspeople gather for cock-fighting and horse racing with betting as holiday amusements.read · scan
- p. 132Music and dancing at the pulperia at sundown, sailors cheered by onlookers.read · scan
- p. 225–226Christmas holiday with plum duff; Russians keep Old Style Christmas and celebrate with gin and tallow.read · scan
- p. 236Fandango customs: uninvited townspeople all attend, women dance grave and motionless, men with spirit.read · scan
- p. 237Carnival amusement of breaking cologne eggs on heads, and gallantry obliging return of the compliment.read · scan
- p. 239Three-day fandangos and Spanish dancing contrasted with clumsy Yankee imitation.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 160The custom of strewing flowers before the happy is reinterpreted: a good woman's path blooms behind her.read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32
- p. 153–154Popular beliefs and superstitions in the provinces are of Celtic origin.read · scan
‹ 7 · Outline · 9 ›