Almost identical lamentations took place during the funeral of Ramose, a vizier during the 18th Pharaonic Dynasty (around 1400BC). Contracted women were screaming loudly, weeping and tearing their clothes off. One of the most peculiar Egyptian death practices from older times that made it all the way to modernity, are the death letters. In other words, these were letters addressed to the dead that the living would write for closure. Egyptians may publish these letters on newspapers and use them as a way to get closure. Up until the 1970s, around 14% of educated Egyptian were still writing these letters.
However, the letters to the dead were not the only way to communicate with the dead. Alternatively, the dead may also appear in dreams that occur as a result of istikhara – referring to asking Allah for guidance. Additional means of communication is to touch the top of a loved one’s grave and say the Salam greetings, However, Egyptians don’t just try to ‘communicate’ with their dead loved ones through letters. Visiting graves of relatives is also a common practice. It is even really common for most Egyptians to have specific dates that they devote to visiting cemeteries.
