Jewish Burials by Dr. William Mann 19 apr 2006 Jews are buried on the day after the death unless the death occured on a Friday. Then the burial is on Sunday as one cannot get married or buried on Saturday. Casket is normally closed. As the world has changed and the family has spread out, obviously sometimes the funeral cannot be held that quickly as the family must assemble. But tradition holds and the funeral is as close as possible to the day of death. This is from the time 5,000 years ago (Judiaism is 5,000 years old) when bodies did not age very well after death. (You will find that most religious traditions have a basis in historical need.) You will see markers on recent graves, not tombstones. Some of the markers being 9, 10, 11 months old. One year to the day of death (not funeral) there is what is called an unveiling. The headstone is placed and it is uncovered in a ceremony. This is because the time of mourning is one year. The last thing you may notice is the lack of Jr. II, III IV and so forth. Jews are normally named after someone who is deceased. It is extremely rare for a Jewish child to be named after someone who is still alive. One that comes to mind is Edgar Bronfman, Jr. of the Bronfman family that owns the Seagrams distilling company in Canada. Papa Edgar ran the brewery and his son Edgar bought one of the movie studios before he sold it to Sony. But that is out of the ordinary. Besides, they have enough money that they do not have to worry about tradition. :-) You may see some rocks or pebbles on some of the headstones. Tradition holds that when you visit the grave, you leave a rock to show that someone has been there to honor that person. I do not know when or how that tradition started. I do believe that in some other cultures the same thing happens as I noticed some stones on markers in some cemetaries, especially in eastern eurpoe where there were stones on some of the markers and the names on the stones would leave me to belive that the deceased were not Jewish.