LOMU Wrote: Hope the ceremony goes well, Pete.
They usually do.
_________________
"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars - the rest I just squandered". George Best
_____________________________________________________________
Thanks Lomu. Perhaps I'll try to explain some of the fine points of these exercises over the next days if I really feel like it. NAAHH...this is the second funeral I've been to in as many months. Last month was a Thai woman I've know since "back in the day". Besides that, I have been in hospitals here visiting people more in the last year than I have in my entire life. I am sick of hospitals and sick of Wats..at least the funeral aspect thereof.
Today was the bathing ritual which I find quite (what is the word...?)... calming... as it gives the immediate family a time alone with the deceased to talk, bond and at the same time, prepare the person. I don't know of another religion/country who does what the Thai's do concerning "bathing" the deceased.
I also was reminded again, it is strictly taboo to take a child under the age of 2 to a funeral ceremony. This is not only my wife saying this but her entire family, and it is an exact repeat of what happened when I suggested my wife and 6 month old daughter go the Wat last month for the other friend who died. Superstition/tradition says that a child under 2 can see the spirits of all the departed who have gone up in smoke at the Wat before, and it subjects them to violent dreams for many weeks/months thereafter.
So, I paid my respects while my wife stood outside the grounds with my daughter....then I collected my daughter and off we went to a small restaurant by the beach at Pala while everyone else attended the bathing ceremony.
Now, we have tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday a vigil and then the cremation on Thursday. Once again, I am the baby sitter and I am really happy for that as my baby is tucked into bed here at home and not getting over exposed to things like this too soon. Pete