A Taiwanese Funeral

I accompanied Michael to a Taiwanese/Chinese funeral a while back.

Everyone took turns bowing to the living family members and then to the deceased (if I remember correctly, three times). Obviously, I already stuck out like a sore thumb, so I felt a little dumb, but luckily Michael stayed by my side and we bowed together. I was just reminded of my own grandpa's passing, though I'd never seen so many flowers. I counted over 40 of the arrangements you can see in the picture. (This reminded me of how very strongly I feel that flowers should be prohibited at my funeral--after all, I'm not going to stink at that point, so all donations can go to a scholarship in my name.)

There were some really great pictures shown and stories told (which Michael kindly translated). Sometimes the choice of music was a little weird; I guess that's how it is when you don't have hymns to fall back on. I was also surprised that the political party the man had belonged to in Taiwan played such a big part in flowers, decoration, and honoring.

As each attendee left, he or she was given a box packed with a sandwich, water, and cake, as well as a red envelope with a dollar in it. There were so many lunchboxes left over that we left with several.

Interesting. That makes three kinds of funerals I've been to--Mormon American, Mormon German, and American Taiwanese/Chinese.