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Article: Making a Spirited Exit
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 6, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Why are corpses carried feet first?
Is this a technique to avoid bumping the corpse's head? That seems
a bit silly. Why not worry about the corpse stubbing its toe?
Let's go straight to an expert: Dan Buchanan, president of Gupton-
Jones College of Funeral Service in Atlanta. He says the answer has
to do with Egyptians.
The Egyptians believed that evil spirits were inside some bodies.
They came out the nose and the mouth. Thus you would carry the body
away from the exiting spirits.
"Kind of like the body going one way, the spirits going another,"
Buchanan says.
And the tradition just stuck, he says. Bodies buried at sea go
feet first, always.
"Protecting the head of the deceased would not ...