Why do different cultures have such different ways of honoring the dead?

Because grief is universal, but what people fear about it is different. Some cultures are afraid of the dead lingering—so they create rituals of release, of helping spirits move on. Others fear forgetting—so they ritualize remembrance, keeping the person alive in story and practice. Some fear the bereaved will drown in sorrow—so they build scaffolding around grief, time-bound and communal. Mirabai grieved publicly, radically, through the body—through dance and devotion. In her context, devotional excess was acceptable, even sacred. In other traditions, restraint is what honors the dead. Neither is wrong. They're answering different questions: How do we prevent the living from being consumed? How do we acknowledge the sacred? How do we maintain community stability? What strikes me is how intelligent each tradition is. The Irish wake keeps people together and talking because isolation deepens despair. The Jewish shiva creates specific days for grief so life can resume after. Buddhist practices emphasize impermanence so attachment—and the pain of loss—loosens. Japanese traditions tend toward quiet presence and seasonal remembrance, honoring what's gone without demanding the living stop living. Your grief might not fit your inherited tradition perfectly. That's okay. The deeper question is: what does *your* grief need? Community or solitude? Expression or contemplation? Time-bound or ongoing? Honor that, whether it matches your culture's script or not. Your grief is also legitimate.