to prolong this passage from one form to the other, and their customs recommend a speedy burial with the recitation of a special prayer known as the Kaddish at the site of the grave, which is identfied by a gravestone installed a year later. A wake or a watch (vigil) held beside the body of someone who has died often precedes a Christian burial to be followed by a party, perhaps as a celebration of the deliverance of the deceased from worldly woes. It is also followed by others (for example, Hindus) who arrange a feast some days after the cremation though more as a sign of respect towards the departed one.The Muslims not only pray facing towards Makkah, but also bury their dead lying on the right side and facing that direction.
Caves, Coffins and Tombs
European caves of the Paleolithic period offer the first evidence of burials with deliberate intent. There are excavations showing prehistoric individual or communal burials, the latter giving indications that the pits or ossuaries were subsequently opened to put the bodies of slain servants or family members to provide company to the deceased. Urns containing human remains have been excavated in archaeological sites in south India. Such practices had been followed by various people even during relatively modern times. Apparently, the Egyptians were the first to use a coffin to keep the body from touching the ground, a custom the Greeks and the Romans picked up when they started burying their dead. Another funerary practice similar to burial is interment / inhumation , in which the body is placed in a trench in the ground, covered with loose soil and then protected with a large stone to prevent removal or tampering. Sea burials are another form of interment,
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