Mastodon•ART 🎨 CuratorImagine some fictional culture where death is approached with more lightness, perhaps a celebration of a person's spirit returning to the care of their gods or an appreciation for a life well lived rather than focusing on the sadness of loss; what might the gravestones, monuments, or other structures marking a person's passing, look like in contrast to ours that are associated with being dark, gothic, and spooky?
Crowjane@Curator
Whirligigs, loved ones would place whirligigs as headstones. Bright, colorful, spinning in a breeze. Whimsical whirligigs.
Yep, that’d be cool.
Whirligigs, loved ones would place whirligigs as headstones. Bright, colorful, spinning in a breeze. Whimsical whirligigs.
Yep, that’d be cool.
kenImmediately made me think of these coffins from Ghana: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2021/01/fantasy-coffin-designers-accra. Here in Dorset some people choose to be buried in a cardboard box with a tree planted over them. My quick design is a scaled down version of that I suppose. I imagine the ashes of the deceased being mixed with the soil and the pot being taken home by their family, or even passed around the village.
@ken Ah sweet ^.^
Joana de Castro Arnaud@Curator One idea. More can follow. No drawings, sorry, I'm better with words.
That culture cremates their dead, as a symbol of freedom from the Earth: the smoke elevates the soul to Heaven.
As a further symbolic shift, the cremation pyre is symbolized as a paraboloid dish, open upwards. Big ones are in parks, serving as sort-of tables for families to chat and eat; smaller dishes, representing the dead relatives, are brought into the chat.
That culture cremates their dead, as a symbol of freedom from the Earth: the smoke elevates the soul to Heaven.
As a further symbolic shift, the cremation pyre is symbolized as a paraboloid dish, open upwards. Big ones are in parks, serving as sort-of tables for families to chat and eat; smaller dishes, representing the dead relatives, are brought into the chat.
@Curator Expanding a bit on the idea.
Since the dishes are very similar in form to satellite dishes, like this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_dish#/media/File%3ASatellitedish1.JPG
People recently took a gander to "make contact" or "tune into" the Beyond to talk to the dead using the dishes, a common practice in Spiritism.
There are no cemeteries; people store their relatives' dishes at home, or at "Soul Deposits", that rent space for them.
@Curator Continuing (last post, promise).
Personal dishes are usually small, the size of eating dishes - "Don't eat on your grandpa dish, insolent brat!" - of a very durable material, with the full name, dates of birth and death, often a photo, and all variety of decorations.
Often the dishes are carried around and put in the place of their folks, much alike the practice of leaving "that" chair empty or making a shrine - while people are still mourning.
vampirdaddy@Curator
When a Klingon warrior dies, his comrades howl out a warning call to the gods, so they can make way and allow for his unhindered passage (which is a nearly unreasonably nice move by the Klingons, considering the Klingons killed the gods in the first place, according to mythology).
When a Klingon warrior dies, his comrades howl out a warning call to the gods, so they can make way and allow for his unhindered passage (which is a nearly unreasonably nice move by the Klingons, considering the Klingons killed the gods in the first place, according to mythology).
Karsten@Curator
Anyone in for a full moon graveyard party?
Rotring ink w/ TG1-S pen on 120g sketch paper.
Elena ``of Valhalla''@Curator everybody of age has a “Sunday's best” garment which gets new embroidered at every major event in their life.
When somebody dies their body is buried under a convenient tree, at the beginning of the forest just outside the village, and their garment is draped on the branches of the tree: the belief is that part of their soul will hang around to care for the people who have remained as long as there are still pieces of the garment on the tree, and then they will have fully merged with a kind of peaceful nature's consciousness out of which life is sustained.
The garments are quite colorful and move in the wind, and often can be seen from afar when people are working in the fields.
When somebody dies their body is buried under a convenient tree, at the beginning of the forest just outside the village, and their garment is draped on the branches of the tree: the belief is that part of their soul will hang around to care for the people who have remained as long as there are still pieces of the garment on the tree, and then they will have fully merged with a kind of peaceful nature's consciousness out of which life is sustained.
The garments are quite colorful and move in the wind, and often can be seen from afar when people are working in the fields.
TheStrawberryOverkill 
Charly Dork (she/they)@Curator I think quite a lot of the icons on older gravestones are of angels but to us the are winged skulls etc, I’m not sure if ask a mortician has a video around it. I guess the loss of someone will always cause grief and sadness it wouldn’t be human otherwise, but lots of cultures have beautiful happy colourful traditions that celebrate the dead. I guess how people feel about death also changes what they do…
nancynew
@nancynew Ah I like this! ^.^
GraveArt@Curator sounds better.