Cemetery

• Sending human remains to the Moon on the first commercial lunar lander, Peregrine 1, on Jan. 8, 2024, along with scientific instruments, caused a controversy.
• The inside of the lander was to be a kind of “space burial” for remains of some 70 people.
• Each of the families had paid over US$12,000 for a permanent memorial on the Moon.

Jewish death rituals and purification

• There were many ways in which one could become ritually unclean, and each level of pollution was cleansed by an appropriate purification rite.
• After the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E., Jewish religious practice changed dramatically, including rules about purification.
• These days, after a burial or visit to a cemetery, many Jewish people wash their hands to wash away negative spirits or energy.

Christian death rituals over the centuries

• Corpses or cremated remains were interred in burial places outside cities and town – in the necropolis, literally a city of the dead.
• As monotheists, Christians rejected belief in the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, including the Moon goddess called Selene or Luna.
• They also refused to participate in Roman state religious rituals or activities based on pagan polytheism.

• Unlike some other religions, neither Judaism nor Christianity considers the Moon divine or sacred.
• In both Jewish and Christian spiritual writing, the Moon is used as a spiritual analogy: in Judaism, of the majesty of God, and in Christianity, of Christ and the church.

Islamic beliefs on burial

• After death, the deceased is ritually washed, wrapped in shrouds and brought for burial in a cemetery as soon as possible.
• The soul of the deceased is said to visit their loved ones on the seventh and 40th days after death.
• In September 2007, when the first Muslim astronaut from Malaysia got ready to go into space, the Malaysian National Space Agency published religious directives on burial rituals for Muslims in space.

Hindu and Buddhist funerary practices

• Hinduism is a diverse religion, and so funeral practices often vary according to culture and context.
• Most commonly, death and the period following a person’s death are associated with ritual pollution.
• In the many forms of Buddhism, death provides an opportunity for mourners to reflect on the impermanence of all things.

In older forms of Buddhism in Nepal and Tibet, the Moon was understood to be identified with the god Chandra, who rides on a chariot. The Moon is also one of the nine astrological deities whose movement provides insight for reckoning individual and collective futures.

Difficult questions

• Peregrine 1 never made its soft landing on the Moon because of an engine malfunction, and its payload was destroyed after entering the atmosphere.
• As more people decide to send their ashes into space, however, religious conflicts are bound to arise.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• HOUSTON, Jan. 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE: CSV) today announced that its Board of Directors on January 18, 2024 declared a quarterly dividend of 11.25¢ per share payable on March 1, 2024 to common share record holders as of February 5, 2024.
• Carriage Services is a leading provider of funeral and cemetery services and merchandise in the United States.
• Carriage operates 171 funeral homes in 26 states and 32 cemeteries in 11 states.

• CHICAGO, Jan. 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Associa Chicagoland , a leading provider of high-quality community management services throughout the Chicagoland and NW Indiana areas, is pleased to congratulate its community partner, the Courts of Northbrook Townhome Association, for receiving the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association (ILCA) 2023 Excellence in Landscape Merit Award in the category of Commercial Landscape Construction.
• The project began with the removal of overgrown bushes originally planted by the community’s developer.
• The purpose of the ILCA awards program is to recognize and promote the skills and expertise of member landscape professionals.
• Landscape contractors, architects and designers, independent grounds management firms, municipalities, golf courses, hospitals, or cemeteries using the installation or maintenance services of a member landscape contractor are eligible to enter.

• The ceremony included the placement of seven ceremonial wreaths at the memorial by Perdue drivers, who are veterans themselves, and who will help deliver thousands of wreaths to veterans’ cemeteries on the East Coast.
• “Wreaths Across America asks us, in the midst of all the holiday activities, to remember our fallen military, including those from our community who are memorialized at the Wicomico Veterans War Memorial,” said Jim Perdue, chairman of Perdue Farms.
• Since 2007, Perdue drivers have delivered more than 350,000 wreaths for Wreaths Across America™.
• “Perdue Farms and Perdue Transportation drivers, many of whom are veterans themselves, have been supporting the Wreaths Across America mission for more than a decade.