Business of funerals, and demise of commonsense

Paying one’s last respects to the departed at funerals is a matter of societal obligation.

- by Sasanka Perera

(The writer is on X as @sasmester)

“Anicca vata sankhara” (impermanent, alas, are all conditioned formations) — Pali stanza often recited at times of death.

“Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honour of the dead.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The problem of being a sociologist, however, is that there is a tendency to take mental notes of what goes on around us as a matter of routine. I have done this over many years with regard to funerals and death, including in my own immediate family. My maternal grandfather had written a letter to my mother detailing what should and should not be done at his funeral: no expensive coffin, no cremation, no tomb and no alms to monks but to the destitute if the living wanted to do so. My father asked that he be cremated within 24 hours. I obliged his wishes. These were minimalists in a society where people complicate death just as much as they complicate life.