death cult

English

death cult (plural death cults)

A religious movement that worships death or the dead.
Synonyms: thanatolatry, necrolatry
- 1889 February, The Path, volume 3, page 351:
  Although this Death-Cult calls itself scientific, we have not yet heard of any careful or other collecting of statistics about appearances through mediums of the same deceased person at more than two places at once.
- 1892 August 13, The Literary Digest, volume 5:
  As regards the significance of the use of plants in the death cult of the Egyptians, we must make a distinction between the edibles which were ordinarily placed in earthen vessels on the floor of the sepulchre […]
- 2008, Evy Johanne Håland, Women, Pain and Death: Rituals and Everyday Life on the Margins of Europe and Beyond:
  We meet the same pattern at the Panathenaia dedicated to Athena, because death cults both in the Agora (market place) and on the Acropolis were of major importance in connection with the cult of the goddess.
A religious group that requires demonstrations of faith involving the risk of death.

type of religious movement