Leaving

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Been busy.

I had the sad occasion to attend a funeral last week. One of my Young Women died. She was 17. Apparently she got a brain infection/virus, was in a coma for 4 weeks and then her heart gave out. Mark was kind enough to attend her funeral with me. It got me thinking as to how different cultures say goodbye to their loved ones.

In America we have the body taken to the funeral home, they prepare it, we view it. There is a service. We follow the casket to the burial site. It goes in. We say our final goodbyes. There may be some hymns sung, crying, but all in all it's a pretty hygenic affair.

In Malaysia its a little different. The girl was in a casket and at the chapel within 5 hours of dying. Not sure how it was prepared. People visited for 3 days before the funeral. When we arrived at the chapel there were young girls sitting in the room with the casket. Gold paint markers were provided and the youth were writing their goodbyes on the casket. Someone even wrote, "Till we meet again." Beside the casket was a book, where you signed your name and wrote the amount of money you put in the box beside it. Some of her classmates sang a sad pop song. Eulogies were given and then we went outside. The casket was loaded into a 'van' with clear glass so that we could see the casket inside. The back door of the van was opened so that the mom and sisters could walk in the shade behind the van. A band softly played "Hey Jude" as we followed the very slow moving van around the block (I never thought of this as a funeral march song before). Then the band loaded onto a school bus and everyone took off for the cemetary. We got lost and never got there.

In Nepal, if you so choose, you can have your body fed to the vultures. For real. After a person dies friends (usually not family) carry the body up the mountain. A priest waits for vultures to appear, then begins reading verses of scriptures. After each verse a part of the body is cut off and fed to the vultures. At times you have to fight the vultures off so that you can get all the reading done. Apparently a good priest will throw the parts far enough away as to not entice other vultures to come close. Last the heart is fed to the vultures. Then you must wait until the first vulture flies away before the funeral is done and you can go back down the mountain.

In an African country family is buried in the front yard of your home. To keep them close.

In India foreigners have netting above their backyards to keep body parts from falling from the sky and careless vultures. (Apparently they have a similar feeding funeral as the Nepalese - and Tibetans).

We all know of the Norse sending their seafarers on a burning raft out into the water.

The American Indians put their dead on platforms as well.

It's all very interesting. Sad, but interesting.

Sorry, nothing funny. But I am contemplating what song I would want the marching band to play at my funeral. Maybe, "Don't worry, be happy" would be a good choice?