A funeral here in Paraguay

I wanted to write a quick post about my friend Guille's dad suddenly dying last Thursday. It was quite sudden and therefore extremely unexpected. He is hanging in there, I haven't actually had a chance to talk to him since last week.

But that night, a bunch of us drove to his family's house 2+ hours away that night for the wake. I wasn't sure what to expect, but since it was different, I thought I would share the death/funeral traditions here.

Basically when someone dies here, they have a viewing/wake like we would. The difference though is that it is at the person's house. So when we got to his parents' house, the coffin was open and on their porch. It was a simple wooden coffin. His dad was lying in this beautiful lace material. There were wild flowers at his feet and the cloth covered his eyes. Behind the coffin was electric candles and a figure of Jesus on the cross. Then behind that were the HUGE flower decorations that people had sent. By huge I mean like min 3 feet across! I wanted to take pics, but got the feeling it wasn't super appropriate. Under the coffin there is also a cup of water in case the dead spirit gets thirsty (Catholic thing I think, or maybe a PY Catholic thing, not sure about that).



So everyone comes to the house to pay their respects. It was actually SUPER cold that night. So they passed around hot coffee and mate and then cookies and stuff to munch on. A few of the women did a Catholic praying thing with the Rosary. Frank used the Bible and shared some scriptures for everyone. We prayed and sang some songs. Guille and his sisters shared a few kind memories and that was it.


If you can, most people stay through the night and on to the next day. At 10am the next day, I guess they took the coffin to the cemetery where he was quickly buried. My friends and I ended up leaving around 2am, so I didn't see that part. Gotta be honest though, I am really glad we don't have the tradition about staying up all night. It was super cold and most people just sat around outside in plastic chairs all night! But it was really cool to be able to share about our traditions in the US and to hear about their traditions here. Most were surprised that we wait a few days before the actual funeral. Although I am told they have funeral homes in Asuncion, they don't in the country-side, which is why you need to bury the body quickly. But the tradition still holds in Asuncion.

Anyway, just thought you all would be interested to learn the cultural differences down here.

I definitely love and miss you all very much!
Thanks for all of your prayers and continued support!