Death customs

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece has instructed its priests not to conduct funeral or memorial services for people who have chosen to be cremated after their death.

“The incineration of the body is not in keeping with the practice and tradition of the Church for theological, canonical and anthropological reasons,” the Synod said in a statement.

Grave of a young man on whom was performed an anti-vampire ritual was uncovered at archaeological excavations at the Perperikon site, reports News.bg.

The man was buried with an iron knife in his heart. His left leg, cut in three pieces was buried beside him.

Three coroners in Thessaloniki came to the unanimous decision on Friday that a woman who had been buried in the northern city on Thursday was dead when she was placed in her coffin despite the fact that passers-by and a cemetery employee heard a voice coming from her grave.

As works get under way at a huge burial mound at Ancient Amphipolis to structurally reinforce the site, the Culture Ministry’s general secretary Lina Mendoni indicated on Tuesday that those who built the massive tomb “had taken measures to avert tomb raiders.”

The Church of Greece’s Holy Synod on Wednesday objected to the creation of crematoria at parish cemeteries in a potential setback to efforts by local authorities in Athens and Thessaloniki to facilitate the practice in Greece.

Archaeologists uncovered a Christian necoropolis with 80 graves during a dig in downtown Plovdiv, reports Vesti.bg.

One of the skeletons had a brick in its jaws and a roof tile on its head. “This is a typical European practice between XV – XVII c. and was done to prevent the dead from turning into a vampire,” the leader of the archaeological team Elena Bozhinova said. 

Family and supporters of Michael Brown on Aug. 25 celebrated the life of the black teenager killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in a music-filled funeral service ringing with calls for peace and police reforms.

A Medieval funeral of a man was found during an archaeological dig near Bulgaria's northwestern town Vratsa, reports the Bulgarian National Radio. 

The man was buried near the Vratsata pass, in a Christian manner, but with a large stone on the left side of his chest, where the heart is, said Nartsis Torbov, one of the archaeologists at the site. 

Thousands of people gathered to mourn as the remains of 284 people recently found in Tomasica at the biggest mass grave discovered since the 1992-95 war were buried.

The mayors of Athens and Thessaloniki, Giorgos Kaminis and Yiannis Boutaris, have joined forces in an appeal for cremation to be allowed in Greece, an option that has been enacted by law but never fulfilled amid opposition from the Church of Greece, among others.