From the Camerlengo formally calling out the Pope’s baptismal name three times to confirm ...

Death is a shared commonality of the human condition, yet the rituals that attend it vary significantly across cultures and religions. The one commonality is that while the nature of death itself does ...

Death. It’s the one certainty we all share, yet it’s become the shadow we dare not name. How did this happen? How did something as natural and sacred as death transform into a subject of fear and ...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The death of a pope sets in motion a series of carefully orchestrated rites and rituals well before the conclave to elect his successor begins. They involve the certification of ...

After Pope Francis’ funeral, 135 cardinals will gather for a conclave to elect a new pope. The traditions include oaths of secrecy, paper ballots and white smoke from a chimney of the Sistine Chapel.

Ancient Romans and Greeks placed coins in the mouth of the deceased for passage through the mythological Styx; memorials are dedicated to victims of genocide; vultures consume bodies in the high ...

The discovery of wooden staffs and clay trays near the sarcophagus of King Tut might be the oldest known evidence of a ritual known as the Awakening of Osiris. As its name suggests, this ritual is ...