A striking funeral worker takes a break near a casket placed at a parking lot as they protest over changes to a host of procedures and regulations, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak outside the department of home affairs in Soweto, South Africa, September 16, 2020. (Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

Unnati, 6 years old, at home with his sister Ishika, 4 years old, in the Mahamai Ka Bagh neighborhood. Unnati was born to parents contaminated by a carcinogenic and mutagenic water supply. This year marks the 31st anniversary of the 1984 Union Carbide gas tragedy that killed thousands of citizens of Bhopal within 72 hours and has gone on to claim thousands more as a result of the polluted environment. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

It is said that Torajans are people who “live to die”. For this Indonesian ethnic group, funerals are such extravagant events that they sometimes attract tourists. Families can postpone burials years (and the deceased are considered sick and hosted at home until the funeral) until the family can raise enough money and gather as many relatives as possible. And then it’s a jubilant multiday social event with a parade, dances and animal sacrifices. Agung Parameswara photographed these funerary practices when he traveled to South Sulawesi province, where the Torajans live. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/The Washington Post)

Susan Njeri (C), mother of late face mask vendor Boniface Mwangi Kariuki, breaks down at Kenyatta University Funeral Home in Nairobi, Kenya, 11 July 2025. Kariuki was shot by police on 17 June during protests over the death of a Kenyan blogger in police custody. He died two weeks later while receiving treatment. (Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA)

Architects Christophe Berdaguer and Marie Péjus get scary with this sculptural,bogey-inspired arts center in France. Situated behind the severe Synagogue de Delme, the center's design transforms an old house, which previously served as a prison, a school, and most recently a funeral home. The new intervention draws inspiration from the latter, cloaking the structure in a white veil of molded concrete that creates a "living body" which expands into the surrounding areas of the house.

In this undated photo entitled “Close Call”, a Hawaiian green sea turtle swims through a breaking wave on the North Shore of Oahu near Haleiwa, Hawaii. The image appears in photographer Clark Little's new book, “The Art of Waves”. (Photo by Clark Little via AP Photo)

A seagull flies through a rainbow near the Savannah River and the open spillway at Thurmond Dam in Clarks Hill, SC, Monday, January 4, 2016. (Photo by Michael Holahan/Augusta Chronicle via AP Photo)

Claire and Rupert Callender of the Green Funeral Company pose for a photograph with a environmentally friendly coffin in woodland close to their office at Dartington Hall Estate on February 4, 2011 near Torquay, England. The Devon-based company operates as funeral directors and undertakers throughout the South West, offers an ecological alternative to traditional funerals, with coffins made from ecologically friendly materials such as wicker and bamboo, and can arrange funerals that encompass diverse religious and spiritual beliefs everything from a Catholic Requiem Mass, to a Pagan ritual at a stone circle on Bodmin Moor. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)