Many cultures have a strong bond to the idea of honor. The Greeks lived and died for honor, and their post-war funeral processions were yet another step to honor their comrades. In Pericles's funeral oration, the first paragraph stands as exposition to explain the cultural significance of the funeral procession. It detailed "cypress coffins are borne in cars, one for each tribe; the bones of the deceased being placed in the coffin of their tribe.Among these is carried one empty bier decked for the missing, that is, for those whose bodies could not be recovered" (Pericles, page 1). In this way, they honored their fallen peers. This is very different from the honor I picture at funerals - a meek, quiet church, with quiet crying, and solem hymns playing on a well-worn piano. Between the Greeks clamoring for the armor of their fallen brothers, and the parade they throw for their dead back home, it's tempting for me to shake off their traditions as silly and outdated. But honor was different for the Greeks, and this image of a parade of coffins, complete with innumerable men and weeping women, would be strange to me, if not for one thing. When I was seventeen, I visited Nicaragua during Holy Week, which is the week leading up to Easter. Though I stayed in many different cities, throughout the entire country there were extravagant funeral processions. There were so many people, motorcycles, tuktuks, and chicken buses that it was hard to see the coffin in the middle of the processions. And the processions were everywhere! On Good Friday, however, I was in the city of Leon, which has one of the most amazing cathedrals ever built in South America. I got to join in the funeral procession and follow meekly into the cathedral, where the coffin was placed in the middle of the room. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. The "coffin" was a clear, plexiglass box, similar to a human-sized beta fish aquarium. Neon light strips were at every corner of the box and underneath the "body". The "person" inside it was a plastic mannequin, like the ones that stand in the front of Old Navy, adorned with a wig and a sash.
It was Jesus. Well, a version of him, I suppose. I was so taken aback when I finally saw him. The picture I saw in front of me would be similar to a Mardi-Gras float, but with a "dead Jesus", and parked in the middle of an extravagant cathedral. It seemed sacrilegious and gauche, to say the least. I asked my translator why they did this in such a gaudy and irreverent manner, but she chided me. It was different than American funerals, but the Nicaraguans throw parties for the people they honor, and who better to honor than their Messiah? Honor looks different in different cultures, after all. I'm glad to learn about honor in cultures beyond my own.
PS Hailey Morgan and Clabo
I find it very interesting that you say you couldn't see the coffin in the middle of the procession. It reminds me of how it takes several paragraphs of Pericles' speech before the dead are actually discussed. I've always said funerals are for the living, not the dead. Funerals are for people to have closure, to grieve, or to celebrate and hopefully move on. It sounds a bit insensitive, and of course, it is very important to honor the dead, but it is also important that the living keep living, the soldiers keep fighting, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe spend so much time in American culture taking about Jesus's rising and his pain but we forget his humanity. Jesus was fully human and full God which means he died. He didn't just die but we fail to recognize the absolute power in that he was fully dead. "Metherell's gaze locked with mine. He replied with authority, 'There was absolutely no doubt Jesus was dead.'"- Strobel, 200.
ReplyDeletealthough some still support the swoon theory, I love how lee stable goes into detail in The Case for Christ of how we know Jesus died.