Digital Dying By: Justin Nobel

by Justin Nobel

A British company will press ashes into vinyl records lined with metal music. Meanwhile, across the globe, the Catholic church in Melbourne, Australia has banned pop music from funeral services.

In May of 1859, a rowdy full-contact game that involves two teams battling each other for a ball that they try and rush down a field and kick between two posts was invented in Melbourne, Australia. In the century and half since this game, known as Australian rules football, or simply, Footy, has become extraordinarily popular; it is now played in more than 30 countries and in Australia it has become the nation's most popular winter sport, with more than 600,000 registered players. Funerals often feature the theme song from the favorite footy club of the deceased.

But in Melbourne these songs have gained a bit too much attention; last week the city's Catholic diocese ruled that footy songs along with a host of other popular songs are not to be played at funerals.

“The music for a Catholic funeral is liturgical,” says a statement put out by the Melbourne Catholic church. “Recorded music should be avoided…Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs.” Nursery rhymes are also forbidden. The church provides a few examples of appropriate funeral songs, such as “Lord have mercy”, “Holy, holy”, and “Lamb of God”. Read the rest of this entry »

by Justin Nobel

King Midas was remembered for his ability to turn everything he touched to gold. The discovery of his tomb about 50 years ago revealed the largest Iron Age drinking set ever found and evidence of a funeral feast that included wine, spicy lentils and a stew of barbecued meats.

There were 70 cooked tortoises, three aurochs (a now-extinct species of giant cattle), a section of a leopard pelvis, some eagle wingtips and 28 human skeletons. These remains were discovered last week at a site in northern Israel and are believed to be 12,000 years old. The find, which represents the oldest funeral feast unearthed to date, belongs to the Natufian people, a tribe that thrived during the transition period between hunting and gathering and agriculture. The tradition of giving elaborate meals for the dead has a rich and strange history. Read the rest of this entry »