Why do people bury the dead facing a certain way?

Question

I was at a funeral and the funeral director said that they bury everyone facing East. Why?

Answer 1

the east represents new life,( the rising sun).

Answer 2

Yes, everyone is buried facing the East, because Religious Beliefs . The hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; They that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28). For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible , and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15: 52-53).
At His appointed time all people living shall see Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He shall been seen in the East.

Answer 3

We face away from the darkness (west is where the sun sets) - towards the light (it rises in the east)

Thus when we bury our dead facing the East it is so that they face the light and the expectation of the Coming of the Lord, Who will come again from on high in the East.

Answer 4

In Celtic Mythology the East the RIsing Sun The Giver of Life.

In Christianity, Jerusalem, The same Basic thing.

In Islam Mecca in Saudi Arabia which is East,or West or South wherever Mecca is in your part of the World.

Answer 5

It is said that when Jesus returns at the end of time that he will come from the east so they bury people towards the east. I've only heard some people say that at funerals.

Answer 6

I've never heard that one before.....and it would be hard to go and research without digging some people up...hm. I think perhaps it is a christian thing, cause I found this:

http://atangledweb.typepad.com/weblog/2006/09/dying_to_face_t.html

"On the other hand, the medieval liturgists apparently know no exception to their rule that both before the altar and in the grave the feet of all Christians should be pointed to the East. This custom we find alluded to by Bishop Hildebert at the beginning of the twelfth century (P.L., CLXXI, 896), and its symbolism is discussed by Durandus. "A man ought so to be buried", he says, "that while his head lies to the West his feet are turned to the East, for thus he prays as it were by his very position and suggests that he is ready to hasten from the West to the East"
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03071a.htm

so I suppose it all depends on the cemetery you are buried in, and what religion you are.

Answer 7

It has not something to do with understand or disrespect. that's finished extra alongside the lines of the indisputable fact that we are of airborne dirt and mud and to airborne dirt and mud we return. In Christianity, the two is accepted through language "Ashes to Ashes airborne dirt and mud to airborne dirt and mud." Muslims bury their ineffective and as quickly as suited. Exceptions are made for burial at sea, if land isn't available.

Answer 8

For the same way that Abrahamic traditions altars face east - it is paying homage to the Holy Land.

That's for us in the west.

Answer 9

because people back then belived the sun would rise in the moring and day at night so the bodies are faced to the sunset

Answer 10

So if they rise out of their graves at sunrise, then the sun will blind them long enough for you to hack off their head.


Because people put flowers on the graves and it allows them to receive the morning sun.