Different Funerals But Same Emotions

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DIFFERENT FUNERALS BUT SAME EMOTIONS Death is the final point of our life. Everyone was thinking about it. It makes us feel fair and sad. However, facing your death is not the problem. Mostly, we had to face the death of our relatives, so called funeral. I just read an essay by Jessica Mitford. In the essay, she talks about American funerals and how Americans treat the dead body before putting it in the coffin, and how they use antiseptic drugs to preserve the body. In this way, everyone has to walk around the coffin and look at our dead. However, you will never see dead body in a traditional Chinese funeral. When relatives come to the funeral, the coffin is already closed. They use a black and white picture instead of show the body of dead. I think the most important reason is that look at dead person directly is very impolite Culture can differ among countries. Chinese funerals are very different than American funerals. I am from China. As we know, China is a country full of culture and tradition. So we have a lot of custom and convention. But United States is a younger country. Death not means that much in our U.S. culture and values. In China, we have several types of funerals. It depends on the dead. Nowadays, cremation is becoming more and more popular in China. But in the old time, nobody could stand cremation. In Chinese tradition, people believe that you have to have a completed dead body after your death; otherwise the bad luck will come to the rest of families. In China, everyone in the family wants to choose a good place to build the tomb of their parents. Good “Qi” (a kind of balance all over the world, this is the key Philosophy of Taoism) of the graveyard not just means a good ending, but also means the fortune of the whole family. Therefore, Funeral rites for an elder must follow a prescribed forms depending on their status, age, etc.
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