Roman Death and Burial

for us, the roman graves that survived time are that of the rich, because they were rlly big and fancy. most ppl in rome weren't rich and so didn't have Anti-Time graves.

middle-class type ppl who couldn't afford a huge grave would join a 'funeral club' depending on their guild. if ur a baker, u join the baker's funeral club. to be in 1 of these clubs, u would pay money every month and would have meals and gather and become friends. also if u died they would pay for ur funeral. sometimes there were club tombs or burial grounds. so u could be buried with ur kind-of-friends FOREVER

so, if u were dying, a relative was supposed to catch ur last breath with a kiss. i wouldn't want that. why, in my last moments, would i want a familial smooch? no thanks, not with the relatives.

so now that the person is dead, the dead person's name is called out. then the body is washed, perfumed and put in some rlly nice clothes and a coin to pay for charon's styx crossing (yep, the names are the same)

if the person was rich, the body would be placed in the atrium (like the sitting room) for 8 days (bit long but yk) for ppl to pay their respects. the women were supposed to lament during this time

so, 8 days after death, there's a procession to the grave and it's bigger than that of the greeks. there would have been the family, the slaves and freedmen and flute + horn players. 

the family would have worn funerary masks representing other dead ancestors. if the person was rich, there would have been hired mourners. and actors, to pretend to be like the way the dead person was irl.

u could either be cremated or buried

if cremation: funeral pyre, deceased on top. then lit. the ashes would be put in a pot and given to the family to put in a shrine or grave.

if buried: buried

if u were rich u'd get a tomb. or a MONUMENT! the romans built their tombs on the roads that went into the town, so that even in death they'd get noticed. it also meant that everyone wanted to be different. sometimes, the really rich rich would get sarcofogi, like in egypt, but rlly elaborately carved.

as for the family, they would have a marble bust carved and put in the house. these busts were manes, or spirits. and the family left sacrifices for the manes in the dead's tomb/sacrhophagus/grave/burial mound etc etc etc

this lasted 9 days, between the 13-21st feb. at this time nobody could get married, temples were closed and business couldn't happen. there was 1 sacrifice by a vestal virgin on the 1st day

it was not an extravagant festival. ppl left garlands and food for the dead on the 1st 8 days of the festival.

on the 9th day, the family would share a meal in their house.

this festival happened on the 9th and the 11th and the 13th of may. i think i have an exam on one of those days ⊙﹏⊙∥

the point of this festival was to ward off bad spirits. to do so... beans.

so: some kind of person makes an Anti-Bad-Luck sign with his hands, cleans said hands in water, gets beans, throws them without loocking and says "with these beans i throw i redeem myself and my family" and they say this 9 times. NINE-

then they touch water and sounds 'bronze symbols' and asks the spirit to leave the house. then they shout "ancestral spirit, depart", another 9 TIMES, NINE! and that's it

(it's all a bit sus if u ask me, but u didn't ask me)