Good Ritual

This is the time of year when we think of those close to us whom we’ve lost. But in many parts of the world people celebrate the life and death of loved ones throughout the year. When I was in Madagascar, for example, I saw tombs everywhere, painted and decorated with intricate funerary arts, some constructed to resemble two and three story homes. Stranger, some Malagasy remove the dead from time to time and dance with, even eat, the corpse.

Not nearly as strange, but sometimes as elaborate, Kenyans celebrate the life and death of loved ones years after they’ve passed, through huge gatherings involving song, dance, banquets, and a service to their Godly faith.

I had the opportunity to attend one of these events when my friend, Dutch, invited me to the large and lovely home of her Kenyan mama, Sophia, one warm Saturday. The gathering, to celebrate Sophia’s mother’s death 10 years ago, was a joyous affair full of guests coming from as far away as Canada. We ate wonderful Kenyan food, listened to the choir sing, and watched as some of the younger children danced.

In Kenya, constantly remembering and reliving the memory of lost loved ones is an almost daily event. It made me wonder why we don’t do the same thing here in the U.S., why so often we tend to put aside such thoughts, bringing them out only on special days, like holidays. Is it that such thoughts are too painful? Or are our busy schedules dealing with living just too much already. Either way, after witnessing the ways Kenyans and other Africans keep such memories alive, this year I think I will try their way.