Fish Out Of Water

This past week I had a friend of the family pass away. Being that I am not Catholic I am literally a fish out of water when it comes to Catholic practices. Funeral’s in general are creepy, especially when it is an open casket. That’s right, open casket. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with how these ceremonies typically go, here is a recap. The night before the funeral, there is a rosary. The traditional rosary can last up to an hour or so. For each bead on the rosary there is a prayer. Just to let you know there are a lot of beads on the rosary. At the rosary I was unfamiliar with these prayers, while many of the others there knew them all by heart. Also many knew when the Priest would say a prayer and they knew exactly what to say after. Whether that was “thanks be to god,” “Amen,” or even “And also with you.” And then there is the body lying in the open casket at the front of the room. This was what everyone was looking at. Since I had never seen a dead person before, I was intrigued. My mom had always told me stories of when my Grandfather passed and had an open casket and how she never forgot what it looked like. Waxy is how she describes it. I would have to agree. The hands and face look waxy as if the body was dipped in a wax coating; creepy yet interesting. People would come to the front of the room and look at the body. Many were Catholics so they would cross themselves (father, sun, and holy spirit) traditionally done in this religion. I do not practice Catholicism, so I wondered if I should go up there and do I mimic what the others are doing to fit in? I paid my respects but I decided not to cross myself. The next day is the funeral. We went back to the mortuary in the morning to view the body one last time. If you wanted to place a note or memento into the casket you do that at this time. The casket is closed and then brought to the front and placed in the hearse. The whole time at the mortuary I was reminded of the movie “My Girl.” If you have ever seen this movie, you know why. We had a police escort, which is really retired cops escorting the procession. This is where you get to run red lights and stop signs. Then we went to the church and had a mass, which also takes about one hour. Again the questions arose, do you cross yourself like everyone else, and do you take communion, all of these questions for someone who literally was a fish out of water. After the mass is the drive to the burial sight. At this point, it was more like a funeral that I had been to before. Another prayer and the body is laid to rest. There really is no way to know what you are getting yourself into when going to a funeral. If you can, bone up on the religious practices or do what feels comfortable. Although I was a fish out of water, it was interesting and a valuable lesson to learn.

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