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Can you tell me why the priest smashes a plate on the coffin at a funeral? What exactly is the significance of this? No one I know seems to know the actual reason. I know it’s something Greeks/Cypriots do but why?
Answer to Question 566 There were some mixed answers so I would like to explain what exactly happens. The plate is brought to the grave full of kolyva, at the end of the funeral service the priest empties the kolyva into or onto the coffin saying "For Thou art the resurrection, the life and the repose of Thy departed servant [name], O Christ our God, and to Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thine eternal Father and Thine all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and for ever: world without end." The Kollyva are symbolic of the resurrection of the dead on the day of the Second Coming of the Lord. St. Paul said, "what you sow does not come to life unless it dies" (I Corinthians 15:36), and St. John, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). Thus, as the wheat is buried in the soil and disintegrates without really dying but is later regenerated into a new plant that bears much more fruit than itself, so the Christian's body will be raised again from the very corruptible matter from which it is now made. The Kollyva then, symbolize the hope in the resurrection of the dead and the several ingredients added to the wheat signify so many different virtues. As for the smashing of the plate the priest does NOT do this and if he does it is wrong of him. This is a superstitious custom as are many other things that people do at funerals. It has nothing to do with the teaching of the church and is supposed to set the soul free from the body. Of course the soul was separated from the body and the moment of death and doesn't need to be set free by having a plate smashed on the coffin, but then we all know how Greeks like to smash plates
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