Funeral Parlour
Monday, 23 August 2021 23:58![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekI actually went and asked someone so I'm able to say a little more about the funeral customs we have here. My Uncle (my Mom's Sister's Husband) passed away a couple days ago, and they had to arrange for his funeral. They are going to cremate him tomorrow instead of queuing for a plot of land in the cemetary.
There are 2 funeral parlours in Macau. One is run by the private hospital. Colloquially we call it the "Hospital Hotel" because, well. I guess in Chinese it's not auspicious to say "the funeral parlour" and so they say the Hospital Hotel. The other is by the Roman Catholic Church. All the family funerals I've been to were held at the Church halls, because I guess coz the family is of that religion. I've been to 2 funerals (workplace colleagues) that were held in the hospital one. It's HUGE.
The mid-sized hall was booked so my aunt had rent the large hall, because, apparently the small hall could only cater for like, 10 people. Admittedly the large hall was a bit too big, but it's grand. Hey, it's got a chandelier! The funeral halls got a bit of an upgrade since my last visit so my cousins and I had a bit of a running gag going on about fancy chandeliers, fancy computer screens, fancy electronic displays, etc... It's customary to send white flower baskets and there was that.
I didn't want to make a big show of taking photos as I don't think it's considered polite to do so, so instead of the front view, here's a side view. You go into the funeral hall, and you sign on that white paper pad, like signing your attendance. The custom would then pass a white envelope with money in it (sympathy money?). But because this is because of a funeral, meaning there has been a death, so according to Taoist culture (Chinese), you add a dollar coin to it. It doesn't matter if you pay a million dollars, you have to add that one dollar coin inside. Once you give the sympathy money, the person at the reception (usually family, younger ones or those not super close with the dead because, this is just grunt work) will pass you back another white envelope. Inside there is a candy and another dollar coin. You have to eat the candy, because there has been a death, and so something sweet will make life look not so bleak, and the dollar coin... has something to do with negating stuff (coz you gave a dollar coin already, so you get it back). HOWEVER, you do not just pocket that dollar coin you were given, you put that dollar coin into the donation box. The candy wrapper and that envelope you received will then go into the bin. However, I've seen people return the dollar coin INSIDE the envelope into the donation box as well.
Then you go in to greet the family proper. The thing that didn't change was that mural on the far end of the hall. Behind those doors is where the body would be stored. When it was my grandma's funeral, one of my cousins joked that "if we are too noisy they grandma's coming out to yell "SHUT UP!" LOL. And you can somehow see some family and friendship dynamics out here LOL. Oh yes, I was one of the grunts sent to sit outside as the greeter.
You can tell I'm obsessed with the chandeliers in a funeral hall. I don't know why. Oh yeah, then I saw the price list of the hall rentals on the door, and it was another opportunity for a light-hearted gag. Would be more of a dad joke I suppose. There are 3 halls by the Church. The largest one (the one we were using) is called the "Pascoa Hall" ("Easter Hall") so I joked that if we let Uncle lie there for 3 days, he will come back out later? At least it was pretty well accepted by the cousins and they all laughed.
So using a Church hall means we had a funeral Mass. Pretty standard. Then my Mom had to say "It's the Korean priest! He's pretty handsome!" When the priest arrived. Yeah, he is tall. Yeah, has an aura. Yeah, stands up straight. But, definitely not handsome. Also, I've mentioned before I've been over-saturated with Mass services in my High School Life, so I really hate going to Mass. This time it was worse. Before, I hated going to Portuguese Mass because I didn't understand shit. Today, the Mass was difficulte for me because, I still didn't understand shit, but the priest's reading was horrible. I don't mean to belittle people who are speaking in a second or third language... but... it was like going all those years back to Portuguese classes where everyone else didn't know Portuguese, and classmates trying to read Portuguese but couldn't quite nail the intonation, pronunciation, and such. And he kept trying to get that hard R sound like saying harkhhhhh which honestly, native Portuguese speakers don't do that.
So this time, it was a Portuguese Mass that I didn't understand shit because it was spoken really badly. It was brutal. Excruciating. Portuguese is a rather easy language to pretend to know. What you write is what you will pronounce out. (Unlike in English like the fish bass and the musical bass and you have to guess which to use LOL) I don't even mind the accent, accents are fine, but it's so difficult listening to someone speak/read with such difficulty, he had go over the same words a few times... if you've been to a foreign language class, imagine having to listen to some kid try to read a text, not sure how to read, how to pronounce, butchering the words.... WHICH, may I reiterate, is absolutely fine when you are learning a language... but aren't priests trained to speak in a few certain languages so they can say Mass in those languages? Shouldn't they be.... slightly more proficient?
Then there's the actual Funeral Mass tomorrow. There will be no burial because they are going to send his body to China to be cremated (no human crematorium in town, there's only pets crematorium here) and then bring him back into town for... I don't know if they're just going to place him at home or they will have a burial box for him.
There are 2 funeral parlours in Macau. One is run by the private hospital. Colloquially we call it the "Hospital Hotel" because, well. I guess in Chinese it's not auspicious to say "the funeral parlour" and so they say the Hospital Hotel. The other is by the Roman Catholic Church. All the family funerals I've been to were held at the Church halls, because I guess coz the family is of that religion. I've been to 2 funerals (workplace colleagues) that were held in the hospital one. It's HUGE.
The mid-sized hall was booked so my aunt had rent the large hall, because, apparently the small hall could only cater for like, 10 people. Admittedly the large hall was a bit too big, but it's grand. Hey, it's got a chandelier! The funeral halls got a bit of an upgrade since my last visit so my cousins and I had a bit of a running gag going on about fancy chandeliers, fancy computer screens, fancy electronic displays, etc... It's customary to send white flower baskets and there was that.
I didn't want to make a big show of taking photos as I don't think it's considered polite to do so, so instead of the front view, here's a side view. You go into the funeral hall, and you sign on that white paper pad, like signing your attendance. The custom would then pass a white envelope with money in it (sympathy money?). But because this is because of a funeral, meaning there has been a death, so according to Taoist culture (Chinese), you add a dollar coin to it. It doesn't matter if you pay a million dollars, you have to add that one dollar coin inside. Once you give the sympathy money, the person at the reception (usually family, younger ones or those not super close with the dead because, this is just grunt work) will pass you back another white envelope. Inside there is a candy and another dollar coin. You have to eat the candy, because there has been a death, and so something sweet will make life look not so bleak, and the dollar coin... has something to do with negating stuff (coz you gave a dollar coin already, so you get it back). HOWEVER, you do not just pocket that dollar coin you were given, you put that dollar coin into the donation box. The candy wrapper and that envelope you received will then go into the bin. However, I've seen people return the dollar coin INSIDE the envelope into the donation box as well.
Then you go in to greet the family proper. The thing that didn't change was that mural on the far end of the hall. Behind those doors is where the body would be stored. When it was my grandma's funeral, one of my cousins joked that "if we are too noisy they grandma's coming out to yell "SHUT UP!" LOL. And you can somehow see some family and friendship dynamics out here LOL. Oh yes, I was one of the grunts sent to sit outside as the greeter.
You can tell I'm obsessed with the chandeliers in a funeral hall. I don't know why. Oh yeah, then I saw the price list of the hall rentals on the door, and it was another opportunity for a light-hearted gag. Would be more of a dad joke I suppose. There are 3 halls by the Church. The largest one (the one we were using) is called the "Pascoa Hall" ("Easter Hall") so I joked that if we let Uncle lie there for 3 days, he will come back out later? At least it was pretty well accepted by the cousins and they all laughed.
So using a Church hall means we had a funeral Mass. Pretty standard. Then my Mom had to say "It's the Korean priest! He's pretty handsome!" When the priest arrived. Yeah, he is tall. Yeah, has an aura. Yeah, stands up straight. But, definitely not handsome. Also, I've mentioned before I've been over-saturated with Mass services in my High School Life, so I really hate going to Mass. This time it was worse. Before, I hated going to Portuguese Mass because I didn't understand shit. Today, the Mass was difficulte for me because, I still didn't understand shit, but the priest's reading was horrible. I don't mean to belittle people who are speaking in a second or third language... but... it was like going all those years back to Portuguese classes where everyone else didn't know Portuguese, and classmates trying to read Portuguese but couldn't quite nail the intonation, pronunciation, and such. And he kept trying to get that hard R sound like saying harkhhhhh which honestly, native Portuguese speakers don't do that.
So this time, it was a Portuguese Mass that I didn't understand shit because it was spoken really badly. It was brutal. Excruciating. Portuguese is a rather easy language to pretend to know. What you write is what you will pronounce out. (Unlike in English like the fish bass and the musical bass and you have to guess which to use LOL) I don't even mind the accent, accents are fine, but it's so difficult listening to someone speak/read with such difficulty, he had go over the same words a few times... if you've been to a foreign language class, imagine having to listen to some kid try to read a text, not sure how to read, how to pronounce, butchering the words.... WHICH, may I reiterate, is absolutely fine when you are learning a language... but aren't priests trained to speak in a few certain languages so they can say Mass in those languages? Shouldn't they be.... slightly more proficient?
Then there's the actual Funeral Mass tomorrow. There will be no burial because they are going to send his body to China to be cremated (no human crematorium in town, there's only pets crematorium here) and then bring him back into town for... I don't know if they're just going to place him at home or they will have a burial box for him.
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Date: 2021-08-23 16:48 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-23 17:01 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-24 07:31 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-24 07:34 (UTC)I donât doubt he can speak the language (he speaks ok-ish when just speaking), but when reading itâs just painful. Usually the homily is just the priest babbling, but even that he was reading from a paper and itâs just painfulâŠ..!!!!!
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Date: 2021-08-25 05:36 (UTC)Thank for sharing this.
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Date: 2021-08-25 22:20 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 00:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 02:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 14:51 (UTC)