Tag Archives: death rituals

Burmese Possession Story – Memorate

Text:

My mother’s mother (my grandma) was a very spiritual person, and susceptible to being possessed. Strangely enough, her father (my great-grandfather) had a few encounters with ghosts as well. Let’s call him GG for short. GG was a Burmese citizen, and grew up in the time after World War II. He worked for the government in a British building (Burma was a British colony until 1948). During the war, Burma was invaded by Japanese armies but freed by British armies. Lots of Burmese soldiers and citizens were said to have perished in the buildings where GG worked, and were therefore rumored to be haunted. GG was sleeping in a four-post bed, but there was no sheet or cover draped between them. In the middle of the night, he saw an Indian man wearing only a sarong (a cloth wrap, like pants) climbing down one of the four bed posts towards him. The man strangles GG and they fight. GG claims the experience was much more real and vivid than any dream he’d ever had. 

Context:

My mother heard this story and others from her mother and from GG’s wife, her grandmother. My grandmother obviously believes in ghosts and spirits, having been possessed by them herself. My mother definitely believes they exist but is unsure of their connection to some sort of afterlife. My mother also definitely believes that certain places can be haunted – she told me a similar story of a house she lived in with a long staircase to reach the front door. Multiple people one day heard a knock and someone begging for a doctor, but there was no one there when they opened the door (and not enough time had passed for them to run back down the stairs). The building she lived in was said to be haunted.

Analysis:

Spirits and impossible-to-explain phenomena are common in my family’s Burmese stories. They compound on each other to reinforce the belief that spirits do exist, and that places can be haunted. This is especially true when multiple people witness the same supernatural event, like the invisible knocker. These particular ghost stories of my great-grandfather also serve a secondary purpose – to remind my family of the atrocities that happened to Burmese citizens during World War II. It’s strange to hear about the British people being the good guys in Burma, but in this case they were. Being a British colony, my grandparents (and to some extent my mother) were forced to learn English in school, along with British history and customs. The fact that it was the ghost of an Indian man and not a Burmese man could mean anything or nothing at all. My mother did tell me that Indian citizens often crossed the border to Burma in search of better living conditions and better work opportunities. Unfortunately, they were often met with discrimination and had to pretend to be Burmese to be accepted.

No Marriage After Death

‘It is a Hindu custom (based on what my mom says) that you are not supposed to get married within a year of death of a close family member. That is a time of mourning. Also, after one year, you basically have another funeral called the Last Rites. When my dad’s mom died my parents couldn’t get married that year even though they met 10 months after she died and were engaged.’ -HP

While HP has never had to partake in this custom, she recognizes that it is an important custom of Hindu culture. She believes that it brings unity to the family before bringing in someone new. This custom is centuries old in Hindu faith.

My first impression of this custom was surprise at how the Hindu community respects and remembers loved ones that have passed and allow a period of mourning. Refraining from such celebrations, like a wedding, allows those involved to grieve and truly acknowledge the loved one who passed away. I think that this is a very sensitive and beautiful way to show honor to the departed, as they refrain from any activities that may take away from the impact the person had. Additionally, the celebration of the Last Rites practice, being common in Hindu tradition a year after death, feels like a final remembrance and closure for all. These customs are from traditional beliefs, many of which probably sprouted from folk practices throughout the history of India and Hindu culture. Folklore also encompasses cultures and beliefs, sharing this in common with these customs. It is also evident that HP and her family learned these rituals from ancestral sources; practices that have been learned, taught, and passed down through generations, just as folklore is known for.

Vietnamese Celebration of Life After Death

Tags: Death Rituals, Vietnamese, Money, Symbolic Burning

Text

Every year, on the death of someone in the family, fake money and objects symbolizing wealth are burned as an offering to the dead.

Informant Info

Race/Ethnicity: Vietnamese

Age: 20

Occupation: College Student

Residence: Northwest Arkansas, USA

Date of Performance: March 2024

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

Relationship: Sister

Context

GP, the informant, was born and raised in Northwest Arkansas (NWA) to Vietnamese parents.

Analysis

In Vietnamese culture, it is important for them to remember the dead. In doing so, those who are alive must offer food or other material items to help them ease into the afterlife.

Karma Points

Text:

Karma Points

Minor Genre:

Superstition; Ritual

Context:

“I believe in karma. Even if someone is justified in stealing or doing horrible stuff, I could never do it because I am superstitious of the idea of karma. Even though I see so much cruelty in how people act, whether that’s on the news or politically or whatever, I still can’t bring myself to do anything horrible on purpose because I believe in it coming back to me in some sense.

“As part of my belief in karma, I believe also in ‘karma points.’ Every time I see a piece of trash I pick it up now. I got used to feeling like it’s bad karma if I lock eyes with a piece of trash on the floor and don’t pick it up and just walk by it. Every time I look at one and register it in my mind as a piece of trash, I have to go grab it and throw it away in the trash can, which gives me a positive karma point. This superstition started in the beginning of 2024. I don’t know exactly why it happened, I just picked up the trash and it transformed into the superstition it is now.”

Analysis:

It is interesting to consider how the larger concept of karma translates into every-day actions in the informant’s life, and what that says about the idea of karma as a whole. If, for example, a person convicted of murder was considered to have a low level of karma, by the informant’s logic, they could work to restore their karma by picking up pieces of trash. This is an extreme example, but it goes to show that superstitious rituals often defy logic; routinely picking up trash would not make a serial killer a “good person,” but it may have a greater positive impact on an average person. The next logical question in such a perspective is then: at what point is someone’s poor karma irredeemable by small actions?

The idea of “karma points” therefore poses interesting philosophical considerations, but it can also be examined in a psychological context. The compulsion for the informant to pick up a piece of trash every time they lock eyes on it may be suggestive of a disorder such as OCD. While the inability to suppress an obsessive urge is a symptom of OCD, it is also a common experience for people who consider themselves superstitious; they will go to great lengths to avoid taking an action that they believe will bring about a negative outcome in their life. Ritualistic superstitious actions “dig the hole deeper” for the person who engages with them; as one gets in the habit of taking a specific set of actions, they assign more emotional significance to it and therefore become less likely to disengage with the superstition.

Funeral Headbands

Context:

H is a pre-med Biology major at USC who grew up in Vancouver, Washington. His parents immigrated to the US from Vietnam.

Text:

H: “For funerals, you have to visit every day for the first week after the funeral and then once a week for seven weeks. And then, on the hundredth day since the funeral, everybody comes back to the temple. It’s like, the biggest day for them (the dead). You pray for them, wish them well at the temple. The hundredth day is when you have everybody together and you have a big feast. You have these white headbands that you wear and on the hundredth day, they chop off the headband.”

Analysis:

Since H was raised in a Viet-American household, he and his family’s celebration of weddings is similar to an Irish wake funeral, but also adds cultural specificity to Viet customs. For example, it is common in Irish funerals to throw a party on the deceased’s behalf, not only as a celebration of the deceased when they were alive but as a re-engineering of the domineering sorrow of a funeral. H’s feast on the hundredth day pays homage to the one who died without inviting negative emotions into the celebration of the individual.

Funerals are a liminal space, as Von Gennup puts it, lingering between the stages of life and death in a person’s existence on Earth. Rather than using funerals as a chance to mourn, H and Irish funeral traditions connect with members of their community and pray for safety into the next part of existing for the dead. This acceptance of death, the massive respect and commitment to the dead after the funeral, seems cultural, as does the white headbands and time. There is an acceptance of death as time marches on, not a denying of it. Rather, H’s family seems to come to terms that nothing can get in the way of death but glimmers for an appreciation of life and the one the once dead led.