"Death is a graduation. When we've taught all the things we came to teach, learned all the things we came to learn, then we're allowed to graduate."
So said Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who has done landmark research on death and dying.
And What a Graduation It Is!
While the approach to it might be a traumatic, stormy sad or desperate affair, there is nothing so final as someone dying. Consequent to a death, most folks forget all about how one managed to reach there, and remember only good things about the departed soul.
But for some, this is an event to be "Celebrated".
Typically, we think of the departed folks, in terms of someone looking down at us from the skies, thinking only for our good. In some parts of the world, this is translated into, well, reality.
In the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, there is a place called Tana Toraja, the homeland of Indonesia's most traditional people. Here, the departed souls actually look down over the populace, from burial sites situated on cliffs.
According to the local custom, life-size wooden effigies of the departed folks are erected on the cliff-face, and these, "look down", as it were over the village where their dependents continue to live. These effigies are called Tua Tua.
In Tana Toraja, according to custom, the dead bodies remain in their houses, till a burial place is readied on the cliff face, along with a wooden effigy. Death is not a morbid subject in Tana Toraja. These God-fearing people, in this predominantly Christian province, celebrate death, as we would rejoice, in a wedding or birth. There are huge feasts, animal sacrifices, and the like; its all about giving family members and friends a mighty good send-off into the hereafter.
None of this celebration comes cheap, and can cost the villagers up to a year's wages. But its important to have your ancestor looking down at you from a cliff face, white painted eyes , and all. Funerals there, are all about pleasing the spirits, with animal sacrifices, and upholding the social standing of the deceased with grandiose feasts and ceremonies.
Back in history, Alexander the Great, was returning from one of his final conquests, and he fell sick. With increasing weakness, and death staring him in his face, Alexander realized how his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth, were of no consequence. He called his generals around him, and they tearfully listened to his last wishes. He instructed them about his 3 last wishes, which they promised to follow scrupulously.
Alexander specified that his physicians were to carry his coffin; the path to the grave was to be strewn with precious stones from his treasury; and both his hands were to be left dangling outside the coffin. Being Alexander, he was not questioned; but he explained why.
It was to show, that no doctor could really completely cure a body; death was definite; and all the riches you collect in your lifetime cannot be taken by you after death. Finally, you go out of this world, empty handed, (like you came), hands idly hanging outside the coffin.
It's not terribly clear what happened after he died, but the possibility of greed overcoming restraint, during death celebrations, cannot be denied. History is also unclear about the hanging-arms-stuff, and also about what happened to all the strewn jewels after Alexander's body had been carried over them.
Back in the First World, Things Are Bit Different
Edward Headrick, the inventor of the game of Frisbee Golf, had just one dying wish. He wanted to end up as a Frisbee. According to the Freestyle Frisbee Association's web site, Frisbee golf involves throwing a Frisbee into a metal cage. He told his family, that his ashes should be incorporated into, and used in the making of a new limited edition version of a special Frisbee. These could then be sold to raise funds for a museum dedicated to, what else, Frisbees.
Headrick died of stroke complications while attending a golf Frisbee championship in Miami. He insisted on having a big family party while he was bedridden, and his family is working out, how he is to be incorporated into a Frisbee, post cremation.
While strewing ashes from airplanes over mountain ranges and rivers is popular, some people, plan really creative and sometimes weird, post-death "celebrations".
73-year-old Sammy Green of Georgia, was interviewed by two high school students of Tiger, GA, for their school magazine, dedicated to the Appalachian culture. He had, as it turns out, no wife, parents, sibling or any other family. No money either. He said he would probably be cremated as a result, and to a church-going, god-fearing mountain man, that was like rotting in hell.
