Saturday matinee

Charles 5 Comments
Charles

 

 

A Catholic funeral in Tonga.

 5 mins. Click the icon bottom right to bring it up to full size. 

 

 

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Lyra Mollington
Lyra Mollington
12 years ago

Now imagine this done by the Co-op or Dignity. Bet all those extras would soon add up…

james showers
12 years ago

Indeed, a lot of theatre for your money – 2 bands, 6 (?) clergy, 30m of calico sunshade for the ‘pall bearers’. And a load of flowers. The procession behind the 4 x 4 I really liked, echoing our Victorian (?) tradition of coffin bearers being covered and walking underneath by the ‘pall’. This was all fantastic, tho I didn’t quite see if it was a burial as in most Catholic traditions. The man sitting with the big empty armchair beside him was so profound. I wonder if we could incorporate this sometimes as a potent symbol of loss and… Read more »

Jenny Uzzell
12 years ago

Sounds as if it was fascinating. Sadly, all I am getting is ‘sorry, this video does not exist’. Just my luck 🙂

Jenny Uzzell
12 years ago

Thanks for the new link, Charles. Very interesting. The thing that strikes me most here as the ‘big difference’ from British funerals is the sense of community. I do not know who the lady whose funeral this was was, whether she was a community leader or not, but she was clearly a valued part of a very large community. In Britain this community system is, I think, very much in decline and we are becomming very issolationist. This is ref;ected by recent comments about collections at crematoria being used for funeral expenses, or not, and may, I think, be the… Read more »

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[…] you enjoyed the brass band in Saturday’s film of a Catholic funeral in Tonga here, you’ll love the Green Street Mortuary Band. It plays for Chinese funerals in San Francisco. […]