1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451967303321

Autore

Thursby Jacqueline S. <1940->

Titolo

Funeral festivals in America : rituals for the living / / Jacqueline S. Thursby

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lexington, Kentucky : , : The University Press of Kentucky, , 2009

©2006

ISBN

0-8131-3494-3

0-8131-4987-8

0-8131-7183-0

Edizione

[Paperback edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (167 p.)

Collana

Material Worlds

Disciplina

393/.9

Soggetti

Funeral rites and ceremonies - United States

Festivals - United States

Wake services - United States

Electronic books.

United States Social life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Funerals as festivals -- The final passage -- Wakes and other amusements -- Funeral biscuits and funeral feasts -- Mourners' rites -- Explaining the festival and the American way of death.

Sommario/riassunto

When Evelyn Waugh wrote The Loved One (1948) as a satire of the elaborate preparations and memorialization of the dead taking place in his time, he had no way of knowing how extraordinarily creative and technical human funerary practices would become. Jacqueline S. Thursby explores how modern American funerals and their accompanying rituals seem meant to benefit the living rather than the dead. Funeral Festivals in America suggests that there is an irony in the festivities surrounding death and that the American response to death often develops into an event celebrating the ties between family