The Coronavirus-19 pandemic has changed every aspect of American life, even the ways that we mourn and express our grief. These include having online funeral services to allow friends and family to attend these celebrations of life while observing the medical guidelines. Yet, virtual hugs and air kisses can only go so far in providing much-needed affection when the circle of life has been broken, and we are confronted with the aching pain of death. Perhaps past African American funeral and mourning customs can offer some guidance and relief during these uncertain times.
African American funeral rituals are among the oldest traditions in African American culture, since enslaved people were typically able to mourn as they chose, unlike most other areas of their life. Funerals were usually not performed or controlled by the landowners, but by their family and peers. This provided them with the rare opportunity to establish their own rituals, making funerals part of the bedrock of African American culture. Today, many Black funerals are celebrated as a final liberation and as a time for the community to come together.
Whether at a small church, or one that seats thousands, Black funerals - or homegoing celebrations - are expressions of mourning that honor Black life, love, and community. Although Black folks in the United States are diverse in their religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, geographic regions, and family traditions, when it comes to a homegoing service, many traditions remain consistent.
African America Funeral Customs and Traditions History Project
Homegoing: A Celebration of Return
A homegoing is a type of Christian funeral that is traditional in the Black community in America, celebrating a person’s return to their heavenly home. As the name implies, a homegoing is the symbolic return of the human spirit back to its heavenly home. Homegoings share elements of other Christian services, with some unique elements-like the procession from the family home to the church, and the inclusion of joy as well as sorrow at the funeral service.
Another key element of homegoings is the emphasis on community, with distant relatives and acquaintances traveling for the event in order to help the bereaved family heal. Full attendance is strongly encouraged, and family, friends, and even distant acquaintances travel from near and far to participate in the celebration.
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Homegoing are deliberately and meticulously elaborate celebrations of the deceased’s life, including music, dancing, flashy hats, and ornate decorations. These traditions are rooted in the African belief that death is a continuum of existence, rather than an end.
These rituals begin by preparing the homestead of the bereaved family, including turning all pictures of their loved one to face the wall and smearing ashes on the windows to prevent the deceased from viewing themselves as their body is cleansed and prepared for burial. This is followed by body-removing rituals, so as to confuse the dead, who may want to find their way back to their body. These rituals include taking the body through a hole in the wall, removing the body feet-first, and taking a zig-zag path to the burial site.
Beliefs Many Black people consider death as a release from a life of suffering and an opportunity for the soul to return to eternal glory with God or in heaven. As such, while the loss of a loved one is painful, their passing is often seen as a joyful occasion. This is marked by an exuberant celebration of life and God’s glory.
Another key element of homegoings is the importance of family and community coming together for support, which is seen as important in the bereaved’s healing process.
Traditionally speaking, Black folks have an open-casket Homegoing and when they don’t, the whispering may very well start as to why not. The open-casket viewing is a time for the decedent to shine and look their very best-”casket sharp.”
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Casket sharp is a term commonly used in the Black community to describe not just that someone is wearing formal wear, but that the person is stylish and very well-dressed in a manner that is fit for the most formal of formal occasions - the Homegoing. “Casket sharp” was curiously derived from the Homegoing being one of the only public appearances where Black folks were allowed to present themselves not as someone’s slave, servant or Jim Crow minstrel.
At my maternal grandmother’s Homegoing, we made sure that her oldest child, my Auntie Jamie, sang “When You Hear of My Homegoing,” one of grandmama’s favorite spirituals and one she had long requested to be sung when her time came. Mourners clapped in unison, shouted, and cried.
The Homegoing is the ceremonial send-off of the deceased to heaven. What’s important to remember is that it is a celebration of the decedent’s life.
Historically, the African American funeral drew not only on traditions that date back to Egypt and West Africa but also on the rituals formed during and immediately following the years of enslavement in the United States.
In the early days of slavery, African Americans were not allowed to collectively to mourn their dead; however, over time, rebellions eventually led to a relaxation of this restriction and provided an opportunity for gathering.
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During the Civil War, African American soldiers frequently served as medical assistants. They learned the art of embalming, perfecting their craft.
Traditions and Customs
Homegoings share a lot in common with other Christian services and funerals, but they have various unique elements. Then a funeral procession usually takes place from the family home to the church. Family members commonly arrive at the funeral in limousines or upscale vehicles, adding a sense of dignity and pride to the occasion.
The funeral, usually set in a church, is an elaborate service, with music playing a significant role. Guests join in with gospel songs and hymns, singing, clapping, and raising their hands in worship. An open casket is common, showcasing the deceased in fine attire and decorated with flower arrangements and luxurious fabrics. Some Black funerals may follow a dress code, where the family requests guests to wear a specific color that is also reflected in the decor.
The funeral service is led by a pastor and includes eulogies from family, friends, acquaintances, and the pastor honoring the deceased and the life they led. The service is charged with a wide range of emotions, from sorrow and joy, with crying and dancing. The uninhibited expression of emotions is viewed as a healing and liberating experience. At the end of the funeral and after a viewing, the casket is ceremoniously closed.
Following the funeral comes another joyous procession from the church to the cemetery, where family and friends lead their loved one to their final resting place with music and celebration. The burial, in contrast, is a more somber event, featuring additional eulogies and songs. Although cremation is becoming more popular nowadays, the significance of burial in African American culture has prevented its widespread adoption.
Upon arrival, homegoing guests are met by the church choir as they sing hymns about God, hope, and the healing strength of the Lord. The hymns and gospels, accompanied by the organ and a cadence of drums, echo through church halls, filling the guests with spirit and moving them through song. Music plays an integral part in setting the tone for a homegoing and provides those in attendance the space to freely express their emotions.
In African countries, this song and dance is prominent at burial ceremonies in the form of the ring shout - a conjure-rooted practice characterized by dancing in a circle, chorus singing, hand clapping, and percussion. Used by many enslaved communities in the antebellum south, the ring shout was considered a sacred dance and song, often in the form of a call-and-response that allowed Black folks to express themselves in safety and brought joy in the face of grief to those who participated. The ring shout is believed to allow folks to embody intimacy with their ancestors.
African American Ring Shout at McIntosh County, Georgia
During a ceremony where time is suspended, and just about every mourner wants to stand and a give a special tribute about the deceased or sing a solo, it is important to have a structured agenda of scheduled activities. This is one of the main functions of the funeral program. The Homegoing is a celebration of life and the funeral program shouts this.
Funeral programs serve as biographies-a way to connect the future with the past-another one of its functions.
The Repast: A Feast of Fellowship
After the burial, family and friends often reconvene at their loved one’s home or the funeral home for a joyful repast. Following the homegoing service and burial of a loved one, family and friends gather once again to find joy in the act of breaking bread and celebrating Black life at the repast - an occasion that focuses on food and fellowship and signifies the intimately intersected feelings of melancholy and life anew without the physical presence of their loved one.
Traditionally, the food is prepared by the home church as a gift to the bereaved. The repast, a feast shared between the bereaved, is a way to get back to eating, a way back to normalcy. It is a time of nourishment and fellowship-repairing your body with sustenance surrounding by family and friends.
This festive meal, the last event in a chain of remembrance ceremonies, symbolizes a return to normal life, celebrated collectively by all those who shared a love for the deceased. The repast offers a mourning community nourishment and space to repair the mind, body, and soul while immersed in an atmosphere of love and support.
A typical repast setting
A post-funeral meal is also customary in African funeral traditions. A cleansing ritual is typically practiced before entering the home for the feast. Some traditions include cutting pieces of aloe to be placed in the cleansing water, with the belief that it can remove bad luck. Often, community churches are involved in this ritual, using sprinkles of holy water to cleanse guests of their impurities.
Food Traditions
In 1988, late Gullah culinary anthropologist and food writer Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor told the New York Times, ”You can’t have a proper funeral without food. Funeral food comes with a narrative similar to other food narratives in black culture. It tells us something about the people who have died and it tells us something about the living they left behind.
Depending on the enslaver and location, the enslaved often hosted elaborately-planned funerals for those in their community. Most funerals took place at night as not to interfere with their duties during daytime. Some West African beliefs about death meant that the deceased would return to their homeland, so the celebration of their life that involved great care of their body and kin was termed a homegoing.
A benevolent enslaver would allow enslaved relatives and friends to visit for these occasions, so food was a matter of sustenance for traveling guests and also a form of fellowship. The rare enslaver provided extra food allotments such as meat, rice, corn meal, and whiskey or rum. The foods prepared could include corn pone, sweetmeats, fried fish, and most likely pot meals such as a stew or gumbo or a pepper pot to accommodate a large volume of people, nothing fancy but it was plentiful and welcoming.
Post-emancipation, remnants of African funeral traditions remained as Black-owned funeral parlors and mortuaries became a norm in black communities. The same is true in the 21st century. Few know you never arrive empty-handed at the home of a shocked, newly mourning family. You bring food to give them one less thing to think about as well as to feed the people coming in and out of their home to sit with them.
Sitting food can be anything from a bucket or box of fried chicken with sides to a store-bought cake to ice to soda pop to a pot of greens or green beans to a pan of spaghetti. Black people will bring whole turkeys and hams with Thanksgiving Day fixings. A bereaved family will receive all of that and more from the time they start accepting visitors to the day of the funeral.
The post-funeral meal is often called the “repass” though it is actually a repast or feast. Technically, a repast is anything the bereaved family wants it to be from more of the same sitting foods to foods specific to their cultural and religious observances. The repast can run high or low, formal or informal, inside and/or outside, quiet or loud, and somber or raucous, but it is always familial.
Southern funeral food traditions are perhaps the standard for quality. Bringing something store-bought can be limited to ice and beverages while the food presented to bereaved families is prepared from scratch or as close to scratch as possible. It can come from a home cook’s kitchen or her caterer. Sending the deceased off with anything less is sacrilege.
In the same manner as our African ancestors, the focus is on caring for the memory of the deceased by caring for the deceased’s people. The menu will contain fried chicken, potato salad, macaroni-n-cheese, homemade cakes, pies and rolls - the expected fare to feed an influx of guests. Funeral food fare is as vast and extensive as the black southern foodways.
In Appalachia, smothered chicken and rice could show up in some hands. Pork chops and purple hull peas could be on a buffet in Northern Louisiana. Northern kin could possibly turn their noses up at some southern funeral foods like hog’s head cheese, chitlins, black-eyed peas, red rice, she-crab soup, tea cakes, and funeral grits (cheesy grits casserole). Down South those foods imply thoughtfulness for the deceased, their family and memory.
To paraphrase Vertamae Grosvenor, you do not serve food with bad vibes and dead food has bad vibes. Southern funeral food is alive and intended to lift the spirits of mourners. As the last visitor is sent off, there is some solace to be found in savoring a bite of your aunt’s banana pudding or your cousin’s cornbread dressing with a side of potato salad.
Black-Owned Funeral Homes
Black owned and operated funeral homes have a rich heritage and are as much cultural institutions as they are businesses. Prior to the Civil War, death was more of a family experience, as the body of the deceased was prepared and displayed in the family home.
The death services industry developed during the Civil War when the bodies of soldiers needed to be embalmed for transportation for burial, and this service moved from a trade to a professional business. Many within the industry view the business as a spiritual calling and are honored to have the privilege of counseling and helping people at a difficult time in their lives.
Funeral service workers organize and manage the details of a ceremony honoring a deceased person, and their duties include: offering counsel and comfort to families; providing information on funeral service options; and filing death certificates and other legal documents.
African American funeral directors maintain burial traditions as home-going or celebration of life ceremonies and honor a distinctive way of grieving. This often includes a level of theater and pageantry.
The National Association of Negro Funeral Directors was established as a professional organization affiliated with the National Negro Business League, founded by Booker T. Washington in 1900. The funeral director and his family often lived upstairs in the funeral parlor, and without access to traditional credit markets, the business was a family affair.
Today, the majority of the funeral businesses remain small, local, and typically family-owned independent businesses. Funeral parlors operate by reputation and word of mouth and are built around relationships. They do not generally advertise in a traditional way, as they thrive on client loyalty. Funeral directors are often leaders in their community, providing care and dignity to the deceased, and are often a base of operation within a neighborhood.
Slave Cemeteries: Preserving History
Nothing speaks volumes about African American mourning and burial traditions like the slave cemetery. Every tradition Black folks practice today is born out of a period of enslavement that tried to crush our humanity and erase our African roots. The slave cemetery, shunned by historical plantations, was the space amidst the trees, water and outskirts of the plantation that our Black ancestors claimed for themselves and their ancestors. They buried their loved ones and remembered them there.
As Lynn Rainville has uncovered in her research on hundreds of slave cemeteries in Virginia, these spaces tell the important stories of African American history and culture but also American history, and therefore must be protected instead of left to rot with no financial backing from the federal government.
