Tears or Happiness

339 Words2 Pages
When you die, what do you expect your family and friends to do for you? I can easily imagine if I die, my mother, relatives, and friends will fall into a deep sorrow, and my funeral will be full of tears, depression, and mourning. There can be no laughing or any enjoyable events. It is not over saying I am loved very much by many people, but this is a natural response to someone’s death in Japan. Death is sorrowful, and a funeral is a place to express sadness for someone’s loss; however, in different cultures, such as Toraja, Indonesia, death is accepted as a natural experience rather than a sorrowful event. At a Japanese standard funeral, women wear black simple dresses with black tights, and men wear black suits and white suits with black ties. Black represents death, and if people go to a funeral not wearing black or dressed inappropriately, that means they do not feel sadness and they are showing disrespect. Japanese culture puts emphasis on harmony of people and atmosphere, so it is the first thing to match surroundings and follow customs even though people do not want to do so. Japanese bring money to a funeral. The amount of money depends on how close they are to the deceased not on how much people feel sorrow. Relatives need to give 30,000 to 50,000 yen (approximately $400 to 600), and others should bring 3,000 to 30,000 yen (approximately $40 to 400) in general. The side of the chief mourner gives sets of tea, see weed, baked sweets, or light edibles as showing gratefulness for being able to attend a funeral. Japanese people, in general, are cremated a few days later after deceased. The family has time to spend time with the deceased recalling memories or even deepening their sorrow. Then, the deceased is cremated in a public facility for cremation, and the family keeps the ashes for at least 49 days at home for the mourning period, then ashes

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