Most cultures have many different beliefs about death and spirits. Some people like to celebrate the ceremony of their loved one’s death, while some people do not want to be in contact with anything that is related to the dead person. For instance, in Navajo’s cultural, people are not allowed to be in contact with anything that is related to the dead, however, in my Muslim’s cultural, people think it is good to be connected with the dead’s belongings and remember them in every moment of our lives. The Navajo view on death is very different than Muslims view of death.
“A Navajo believes that he can end his own life by wishing that he may die.” Members of a Navajo family can realize that their grandparents was going to die in a short period…show more content… They believed in a spirit called a Chindi, a ghost that is left behind after a person dies. They believe that contact with chindi can cause illness (ghost sickness) and even death. As an instance of this belief, there was a women related to a Navajo family and her daughter got ill with measles which turned into pneumonia and caused her death. Her mother was inconsolable and for two days refused to let her husband take the dead child out of her arms. They buried the child on third day, and from that time her mother was never well, and finally died. Their family thought that she died because of holding the dead body and Chindi haunted her. For fear of the chindi, traditional Navajo will move out of a dwelling place where a person has died and will burn that building down for the fear that it is haunted by a Chindi. Traditional Navajo practice is to allow death to occur outdoors, and to allow chindi to disperse. However, in Muslim’s cultural, we do not believe that any evil spirit of our loved ones can come back to haunt us. Instead, Muslim people tend to go to the dead’s house and spend time with their belongings to make their memories last forever. We also tend to go to dead’s grave every weekend and held gatherings to send them prayers. Muslims believes that our love one can not haunt us after death; in fact, if the person who have been close to you all life long, why would they want to kill us after their death. Muslim…show more content… “When a body is dressed and wrapped for burial, two of the nearest male relatives carry it to a high place and bury it among the rocks.” Also, if the corpse has been transported on a horse, the horse needs to be killed near the grave while wearing its bridle and saddle. Those people who participate in any preparation of the body or in the burial rites, must undergo a purification ceremony before returning to family place of residence. No one in Navajo’s family allowed to go near the grave once they leave the cemetery, they try to forget about the dead person as much as possible. Meanwhile, if a death occurs in a Muslim family, any four male in the family carries the dead body on their shoulders, all the way to cemetery. We believe to bury the body in soft sand and mud, so the body can feel comfortable even after death. We tend not to have any solid rocks on top of the grave for couple of days and make the grave visible so people can make Dua’s (prayers) after bury our loved one and gift them flowers on top of their grave. Only male in Muslim family are allowed to go in the cemetery and they all make a visit to dead’s grave at least once a week to pray for