Beliefs, attitudes, and mourning rituals of Japanese and Turkish parents whose children died

In this review, we examined the beliefs,attitudes, and mourning rituals of Japanese andTurkish parents whose children died to drawattention to the importance of cross-cultural aspectsof parental grief. To the best of our knowledge, thisis the first study on this subject in the literature.Although Japanese and Turkish populations haveseveral common sociocultural features, beliefs,attitudes, and mourning rituals of Japanese andTurkish parents whose children died are quitedifferent. While Shintoism and Buddhism are thetwo dominant religions in Japan, the dominantreligion in Türkiye is Islam. For many Japaneseparents, the deceased person becomes an ancestor tobe worshipped at the family altar and grave;however, Turkish parents do not adore or worshipanything other than Allah. While dead Japanese children are cremated, dead Turkish children areburied. Bereaved Japanese parents consult thetemple priest about grief work, but bereaved Turkishparents do not consult a clergyperson regarding griefwork. Japanese and Turkish parents show differentemotional behaviors in the early and late periods ofthe grieving period. Most Japanese people believethat the dead return to the realm of the living inAugust and are communed with by the living.Turkish people believe that the body rots andbecomes soil, but the spirit does not die after death,and the news of the living always comes to the dead.Our findings suggest that the main factor affectingparents' attitudes, mourning rituals, and deathperceptions is religion.