All funerals have one things in common - disposition of the corpse to a place where it will not be offensive to the living. Examples of disposal of the corpse may be by burial, burning, sealing in an enclosed space, sinking or floating in water, feeding to the birds or eating. Burial has been favoured throughout the Christian world where resurrection of the body was the belief. People were - and often still are - laid to rest facing the dawn, so that they would be among the first to rise on the day of awakening. The priest or vicar is still, in many churchyards and cemeteries, buried facing the other way, towards his/her congregation. Burning on funeral pyres still takes place in Eastern countries, while in the West cremation by mechanical means is becoming increasingly the norm. Among Protestant countries Britain leads the trend with 72 per cent cremation. Catholic France is taking to cremation at two per cent a year, with about 12 per cent already in favour - and in Spain and Italy cremation is being rapidly developed and encouraged as a pragmatic solution to urbanisation in the major cities. In Latin countries corpses are sealed in coffin-sized cavities (loculi) laid side-by-side and stacked on top of each other to the height of a two-storey house. Underground family vaults and above ground mausoleums are also to be found. Sinking bodies is sometimes the only practical solution to a death at sea. Casting them off in a burning boat is a famous Viking ceremony - while bodies are still floated away on holy rivers in India. Also in India and Tibet, some religions expose dead bodies on towers or cliff tops to be consumed by carrion birds. Coffins from Ghana, carved in the shape of a cow, hen, fish or Mercedes car are a fairly new tradition that has evolved from the festivities surrounding the death of chief. He is buried in a coffin made to resemble a tower shaped throne that symbolises power and also reflects the dead person's soul. Now not only chiefs, but also anyone with plenty of money, can have an elaborate coffin and a funeral feast that can last for weeks. These coffins have been featured in the western media and inspired manufacturers in UK to offer similar choices. They are also exported to Spain and California - and a cocoa bean, red pepper and a chicken coffin have been made for an exhibition in the Netherlands. Ceremony and ritual has evolved to protect the living from their fear of the dead. Even if ostensibly to see the departed safely off on their journey, there is the parallel desire to encourage them to go - and not linger to cause mischief among those left behind.
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