The first question that arrives in our minds is, who works with the dead?
A mortician. Yes.
A mortician beautifies and restores dead bodies but it’s not that simple. Undertakers works in funeral homes, embalming bodies for visits and funeral ceremonies. As glamorous as the word Mortician sounds, there isn’t much glamour involved in this job.
The aim of embalming bodies is to guarantee the family of the dead, that their loved ones will be represented to them in life-like condition and make their experience of meeting them pleasant. They do everything to make the dead look alive, starting with cosmetic restoration to their clothing, they take care of every tiny detail of the deceased, so that they can comfort the grieving family faithfully.
The life of a mortician is not so easy, it comes with many challenges and labels. Most people find embalming creepy because they believe that human bodies are meant to decompose after death and that preserving the body is unnecessary and wrong. But to morticians and people who like to meet their decease in a more life-like appearance, it is an honorable service.
The ancient Egyptians were the first who introduced the concept of funeral embalmers/directors, as they use to clean the insides of the body with alcohol and spices. Covering the body with salt for 70 days, preparing the dead for the hereafter.
A suitable name was suggested for the undertakers in 1895. The “Embalmers” in a funeral business trade magazine called “The Embalmers Monthly” that gave a decent portrayal of the people working as undertakers in the funeral industry.
At the time of the civil war, embalming was made mandatory for everyone, out of military necessity until embalming was only performed in medical schools, to preserve the corpse solely for research purposes.
When Abraham Lincoln’s 11 year old son Willie died to typhoid fever, his body got embalmed as per the president’s decision. After three years of his son’s death, when Lincoln was assassinated, his body also got embalmed by the doctor, who embalmed willie and reburied his son alongside his grave in the family cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. He got embalmed for his funeral procession (13 days).
Lincoln’s life-like death really surprised the mourners, that many came near to his body and touched his face. Before his death, Americans hadn’t seen an embalmed body before, and his death gained national attention. Lincoln’s death profoundly influenced the people and changed their perspective about funerals and death.
Compared to the United States, very few countries in the world embalm their deceased as it is an expensive method and is considered bizarre.
As Buddhists believe in reincarnation, so they prefer cremating bodies instead of embalming them, but today in Japan almost everyone is cremated. That is the reason why, Japan is running out of cemeteries, making it difficult for Muslims to bury their dead. The cremation rate of Japan is 99.85% last verified in 2008, while South Korea’s cremation rate calculated in 2022 is 92.1%. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam forbids cremation and considers it unclean practice.
Most people still dislike embalmers and find their profession creepy and cold, but the fact that this profession is rapidly expanding is undeniable. The increase in the mortuary schools shows that people are interested in studying embalming and want to continue it professionally.
While a lot of others believe that morticians are passionate, humble and necessary for the society as they make families comfortable in their sorrowful time. To many people it’s an interesting career as it serves the needs of countless communities. With the rising numbers of morticians in the world, the stigma associated with the funeral processes has started to fade away.
Whatever they say about dead bodies that they can’t hurt us, it’s still not an easy job. Life-like deaths, anatomical art, and mortality fascinate every curious soul.
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