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Did
you know?
Christian Dead
and facing East and West...
Recently,
I ran across a news story that said something about graves 'probably
being Christian' because they were oriented East-West... not having
heard this, I got curious, and snooped around a bit...
Noah,
a friend of mine who studied Religious history in college, sent the
following: "I believe the "east to west"
reference has to do with a historical-literal interpretation of
Biblical descriptions of the second coming of Christ and the rapture
of the saints, the living and the dead, and the significance that
plays in burial. Although a comprehensive account of second
coming events does not exist within Biblical texts, there are
numerous passages that include telling of the events by Jesus or
writing of them by other New Testament writers. Some of these
passages describe the ordinal-direction of Christ's return as coming
on the clouds from the west, thus the historical-literal
interpretation of burial from "east to west" so that those
saints that are dead "get a running start", so to speak.
Most people today would agree that direction of burial, whether you
believe in a second coming and rapture, is totally insignificant.
I do not believe there was any direct relationship between this
practice and a specific culture, geographic region, or people group.
I
also checked out the 'Catholic
Encylopedia', which had the following on the topic:
"...the
medieval liturgists apparently know no exception to their rule that both
before the altar and in the grave the feet of all Christians should be
pointed to the East. This custom we find alluded to by Bishop Hildebert
at the beginning of the twelfth century (P.L., CLXXI, 896), and its
symbolism is discussed by Durandus. "A man ought so to be
buried", he says, "that while his head lies to the West his
feet are turned to the East, for thus he prays as it were by his very
position and suggests that he is ready to hasten from the West to the
East..."
You
can get to the full article (it's LONG!) at:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03071a.htm
It deals with the ritual of
burial from the view of the Roman Catholic Church... its quite
interesting, oddly enough.
Jamestown Rediscovery"
http://www.apva.org/jr.html
http://www.apva.org/apva/jrfact.pdf
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