Jamaican funerals

Jamaican beliefs about death

Most Jamaicans are Protestant, and the largest denominations are the Seventh-day Adventist and Pentecostal churches, alongside Anglicans, Moravians, Quakers, the United Church and a branch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. So the funeral service itself comes from your own church, and it varies a great deal.

Running alongside that is a body of Jamaican belief and practice with African roots. Revivalism began in Jamaica in 1860 to 1861 during the Great Revival, and its rituals involve singing, drumming, dancing, hand-clapping and prayer. In rural Jamaica the older belief complex included duppies, spirits of the dead held able to help or harm the living.

Jamaican funeral ceremonies

Nine Night is a wake that takes place on the ninth night after a person’s death, and it is described by the Government of Jamaica as based on African tradition and an important ritual in Jamaican culture. It is not a fringe survival: the Jamaican state has organised official Nine Nights for a former Prime Minister and for a University of the West Indies Vice-Chancellor.

Observance often runs from the death through to the ninth night rather than falling only on that night. The associated folk forms – Dinki Mini in St Mary, Gerreh, and Zella in Portland – are performed in the nights after a death.

Nine Night is a gathering, not a service, and guests are part of it. Here's what to expect:

• Nine Night: A wake held on the ninth night after a death, based on African tradition and a mainstream Jamaican observance.
• Dinki Mini: A lively folk dance and music form of St Mary, performed after a death until the ninth night.
• Gerreh: A celebratory folk dance performed the night after a death, geared to cheering the bereaved.
• Zella: A Portland death-observance form, accompanied by a pair of Kumina drums.
• Benta: A bamboo instrument used in Dinki Mini.
• Kumina: A Congo-derived religious tradition centred on St Thomas, brought by free Africans between the 1840s and 1860s. Its drums are used in Zella.
• Duppy: A spirit or ghost of the dead, believed in rural Jamaican tradition to be able to help or harm the living.
• Revival, or Revival Zion: A Jamaican Christian movement dating from the Great Revival of 1860 to 1861, combining Christian and African elements.
• Obeah: A Jamaican spiritual practice invoking spirits.
• Great Revival: The religious movement of 1860 to 1861 from which Revivalism in Jamaica began.

The cost of a Jamaican funeral in the UK depends on the funeral director, the church, and the cemetery or crematorium. Two things commonly differ from a standard arrangement: attendance, since a Jamaican funeral usually draws a larger congregation, which affects the venue and the transport; and timing, because Nine Night and the nights before it place the funeral later than a typical UK schedule. Repatriation to Jamaica, if your family chooses it, is a separate arrangement with its own paperwork and lead time. Your local Dignity funeral director can talk you through everything that is included, and the costs.

At Dignity, we’re here to support families of every culture. We can arrange Caribbean, African, Nigerian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Irish and Spanish funerals, and funerals for people of every faith and none. Contact your local funeral director to talk about what your family needs.