Funeral Rites in the Phillippines

Wow. This totally out does our family funeral habits: (granted, this is the reporting of one inteviewee)

Rosary sessions are held each night for thirty days to aid the deceased in getting to heaven.

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For up to a year and often beyond, men will wear a black ribbon and women will dress in black to indicate they are in mourning. It would not be unusual for a widow or a woman who has lost a child to death to dress in black the rest of her life.

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Another showy, public tradition surrounding death is the family’s spending of lots of money — on the food offered during visitation, the casket, the flowers, the service, the burial place — to make sure that the deceased is seen as loved and esteemed.