on funerals.
Funerals are a dance.
How it is in other parts of the world, I don't really know for certain. I've once heard people chanting la ilaha illa allah repeatedly outside my Damascene house. Revolution had already started, though in a small scale. I opened the door and a person was strapped on a wooden stretcher, covered in shroud. Four men were holding the stretcher up, running around the entire neighborhood. Many followed, some with drums. It was an announcement to everyone around.
Then in Nepal, I see a colorful shroud, or perhaps a gown, covered over a body and similarly strapped on a wooden stretcher, perhaps waiting to be taken around. Hindu ceremony perhaps?
It is probably a relief for those who leave, but a tough one for those who are still around. Grass is always greener on the other side; not the gate of death, at least most think.
How it is in other parts of the world, I don't really know for certain. I've once heard people chanting la ilaha illa allah repeatedly outside my Damascene house. Revolution had already started, though in a small scale. I opened the door and a person was strapped on a wooden stretcher, covered in shroud. Four men were holding the stretcher up, running around the entire neighborhood. Many followed, some with drums. It was an announcement to everyone around.
Then in Nepal, I see a colorful shroud, or perhaps a gown, covered over a body and similarly strapped on a wooden stretcher, perhaps waiting to be taken around. Hindu ceremony perhaps?
It is probably a relief for those who leave, but a tough one for those who are still around. Grass is always greener on the other side; not the gate of death, at least most think.
So funerals are meant to be sad, many of them rightly so. Certainly, memories and legacy are what's left. But what matters more is the sudden reminder that all things are temporal, even life itself, and everything else you do in life. Those who see through that move on, though it is almost never easy, but some could get stuck for a while.
Funerals are a dance because, regardless of which corner you are from, it is an expression of what we plan for the dead, assuming the dead wants it. An afterlife, a heaven, nirvana, or nothing.
From my limited knowledge of hollywood movies, the standard representation of funerals are people standing around a coffin about to be lowered in the cemetery. Everyone dressed formally, in black. One person, sometimes a priest, sometimes a relative, say a few words about the dead. Then everyone leaves.
A hot Chinese novel called Wolf Totem 狼图腾 I read a while back speaks of Mongols and their Tengri, the sky or heaven, or the untranslatable Chinese 天. To control the wild wolf population, some pups had to be killed, but killed according to a ceremony where an elder throws the pup into the sky, signifying that it would enter heaven directly. For wolves are sacred.
Then there are Chinese funeral halls, which are ever fascinating. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had a closer observation of it recently, mostly through participation. Those who have what we call the yin-yang eye, an eye that sees beings in the other world, called yin-world, report seeing many of those hanging around the funeral hall areas. You can't cease to imagine how these beings actually look; long hair in a white robe? Red eye sockets? Or just a more abstract version of humans?
But this is Hong Kong, where no one set of religion dominates. I haven't yet seen a church funeral. But funeral halls here are truly multi-religious. Funeral halls are designed in a similar manner. In the middle there is a big photo of the person passed away. On the side above, there are banners with big Chinese characters saying stuff like rest in peace. Just in front of the photos, there is incense. And around, there are flower cards from relatives and friends.
Banners often indicate immediately the religion/culture (whatever those words mean) under which the ceremony is held. So despite a similar setting for all funeral halls, its rites and contents could vary a lot. A Christian one would say something like Lord blesses you so rest in peace, Buddhist one gives you mantra in Chinese, and a Taoist one I forgot.
Whichever religion, some basic things don't change. The entire family wears white, following Chinese traditions. Stacks of paper with a patch of silver or gold come to you, and you as a relative fold them and burn them. Paper money it is, for the dead to spend in the other world. Every person who comes for the memorial must go through a set of ceremony, basically involving three bows, towards the dead, and towards the closest relatives.
At a certain point, paper cars, paper houses and paper money get burnt in big quantities. Next to the big oven family members call out "aite man receive the house now, now receive the car!" Toward the fire. As if someone actually hears you. Maybe so. If there was really another world, there must be hyperinflation worse than Zimbabwe, whether the dead have any purchasing power is rather questionable.
What does religion mean in such rites? One I sat through had Taoist rites but a Buddhist red and yellow shroud. How much of this is imposed, part of the package sold by funeral companies, telling you to do what to do with your close dead?
Traditions, after all. Oldest son holds s stick to lead the soul. A guide guides him. All relatives follow, in order of hierarchy within the family, which means women always fall behind, younger generations fall behind. All people make circles around the coffin. Two paper bridges are set up, a doll representing the dead is brought to climb through the bridge, the soul crossing into the other world.
None of this is done in silence. For Buddhists there are monks, and Taoists, Taoist priest is the closest translation. But these are the "professional religious." It's just a job. No real scripture knowledge is required. So there are people hired to sing scriptures and songs, cymbals and wooden percussion as backdrop, to send the soul away. In the name of tradition. But then again, that's not much different from a Christian priest, who is also there to perform a certain spiritual intangible function, albeit in a more sophisticated form.
Let them sing. It does no harm, and there is clearly a human need for it. It's after all "respect for the dead," a self-generating industry, a dance to pacify the souls of those alive.
But withdrawing yourself from the embedded being: this whole thing is rather grotesque.
Funerals are a dance because, regardless of which corner you are from, it is an expression of what we plan for the dead, assuming the dead wants it. An afterlife, a heaven, nirvana, or nothing.
From my limited knowledge of hollywood movies, the standard representation of funerals are people standing around a coffin about to be lowered in the cemetery. Everyone dressed formally, in black. One person, sometimes a priest, sometimes a relative, say a few words about the dead. Then everyone leaves.
A hot Chinese novel called Wolf Totem 狼图腾 I read a while back speaks of Mongols and their Tengri, the sky or heaven, or the untranslatable Chinese 天. To control the wild wolf population, some pups had to be killed, but killed according to a ceremony where an elder throws the pup into the sky, signifying that it would enter heaven directly. For wolves are sacred.
Then there are Chinese funeral halls, which are ever fascinating. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had a closer observation of it recently, mostly through participation. Those who have what we call the yin-yang eye, an eye that sees beings in the other world, called yin-world, report seeing many of those hanging around the funeral hall areas. You can't cease to imagine how these beings actually look; long hair in a white robe? Red eye sockets? Or just a more abstract version of humans?
But this is Hong Kong, where no one set of religion dominates. I haven't yet seen a church funeral. But funeral halls here are truly multi-religious. Funeral halls are designed in a similar manner. In the middle there is a big photo of the person passed away. On the side above, there are banners with big Chinese characters saying stuff like rest in peace. Just in front of the photos, there is incense. And around, there are flower cards from relatives and friends.
Banners often indicate immediately the religion/culture (whatever those words mean) under which the ceremony is held. So despite a similar setting for all funeral halls, its rites and contents could vary a lot. A Christian one would say something like Lord blesses you so rest in peace, Buddhist one gives you mantra in Chinese, and a Taoist one I forgot.
Whichever religion, some basic things don't change. The entire family wears white, following Chinese traditions. Stacks of paper with a patch of silver or gold come to you, and you as a relative fold them and burn them. Paper money it is, for the dead to spend in the other world. Every person who comes for the memorial must go through a set of ceremony, basically involving three bows, towards the dead, and towards the closest relatives.
At a certain point, paper cars, paper houses and paper money get burnt in big quantities. Next to the big oven family members call out "aite man receive the house now, now receive the car!" Toward the fire. As if someone actually hears you. Maybe so. If there was really another world, there must be hyperinflation worse than Zimbabwe, whether the dead have any purchasing power is rather questionable.
What does religion mean in such rites? One I sat through had Taoist rites but a Buddhist red and yellow shroud. How much of this is imposed, part of the package sold by funeral companies, telling you to do what to do with your close dead?
Traditions, after all. Oldest son holds s stick to lead the soul. A guide guides him. All relatives follow, in order of hierarchy within the family, which means women always fall behind, younger generations fall behind. All people make circles around the coffin. Two paper bridges are set up, a doll representing the dead is brought to climb through the bridge, the soul crossing into the other world.
None of this is done in silence. For Buddhists there are monks, and Taoists, Taoist priest is the closest translation. But these are the "professional religious." It's just a job. No real scripture knowledge is required. So there are people hired to sing scriptures and songs, cymbals and wooden percussion as backdrop, to send the soul away. In the name of tradition. But then again, that's not much different from a Christian priest, who is also there to perform a certain spiritual intangible function, albeit in a more sophisticated form.
Let them sing. It does no harm, and there is clearly a human need for it. It's after all "respect for the dead," a self-generating industry, a dance to pacify the souls of those alive.
But withdrawing yourself from the embedded being: this whole thing is rather grotesque.
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