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Igbo Funeral Ceremony Essay

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Igbo Funeral Ceremony Essay
Many people don’t think about their funeral ceremony or what they want it to be like. Death is a situation that is faced all over the world every single day. It is grieved and life is celebrated in many shapes and forms. Death to the Igbo people can result in a beautiful, vibrant celebration or a ceremony or recognition at all. Burial rites and traditions of the Igbo people are created around how the person has lived their life, roles of the family, and the ceremony. How a person lives their life in the Igbo culture plays a big part in how one is buried. For example, if someone were to be in a tremendous amount of debt, they were to be given no funeral at all and left to rot in the Evil Forest. (Chinua 15-25) Chiefs, or leaders, get the most elaborate celebrations. Chiefs bodies are washed and dressed with the finest clothes, the family pays their respects, other leaders bring gifts and pay their respects, there are also songs and dancing to commemorate them. Women on the other hand, differ from the chiefs. Old, free women are to be honored with dance and a feast, whereas when young, free women die, they are given a play performed by their family and buried at her family’s home. Finally, for men, cannons are fired to signal their death over a span of six …show more content…
One role the family plays in the celebration is the preparation of the body. They wash the body, the sons and brothers carry the body to a room with shrines of their ancestors, and they dress the body in the finest clothes. Sacrifices are another important role of the family in the burial ceremony. It is common for the children to sacrifice animals such as dogs, cats, parrots, and eagles to assure their parents’ safety and power in their afterlife (Hauser 1). Finally, another role that the family plays is the meal and music. Drums play and feasts are made by all of the women so that the widows and their families will not go
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