Now, let’s move on to the funeral.\u00a0 Every Japanese funeral has a portrait of the deceased in a frame and a ihai (\u3044\u306f\u3044<\/strong>) or a spirit tablet.\u00a0 The name of the deceased is written on the spirit tablet.\u00a0 In fact, the spirit of the deceased is thought to reside on the tablet.\u00a0 As a result, sometimes the relatives will take the spirit tablet with them and place it in a special room at home.\u00a0 As the deceased is carried out into the hearse, all the guests will start to cover their thumbs by placing the thumb within their palm.\u00a0 The Japanese believe that the oyayubi (\u304a\u3084\u3086\u3073<\/strong>) or thumb represents\u00a0one’s\u00a0parents.\u00a0 In fact, oya (\u304a\u3084<\/strong>) means parent while yubi (\u3086\u3073<\/strong>) means finger.\u00a0 Therefore covering one’s thumb while a hearse passes by is thought to protect one’s parents from an untimely death.<\/p>\n Next, the hearse will take the body to be cremated.\u00a0 Once the body is cremated, the relatives will pick out the bones from the ashes and place them in an urn using chopsticks.\u00a0 This may be a bit morbid for some of you out there, but it’s a time when relatives come together to spend some time with the dead and show their respect as well.\u00a0 Usually when the bones are picked out, one relative will pass the bone to another relative.\u00a0\u00a0The bones are passed\u00a0from chopstick to chopstick until all of it is in the urn.<\/p>\n There’s actually some interesting chopstick etiquette that stem from funeral practices.\u00a0 For example, the only time it’s okay to pass something from one chopstick to another is when you’re passing the bones into the urn.\u00a0 It’s not okay to do this when you’re eating.\u00a0 Also, don’t place your chopsticks upright in a vertical position in a bowl of rice.\u00a0 This act is thought to mimic the incense that one burns in a bowl when a family member dies.\u00a0 In general, nobody likes to mix the pleasure of eating with something somber as a funeral.\u00a0 So try to avoid these faux pas, because they tend to make one lose one’s appetite and at worst they may offend some people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you\u00a0ever seen or experienced the traditional rites that are carried out in a Japanese funeral?\u00a0 Talking about death and thinking about the prospect of death can be a bit depressing, but hopefully you’ll still get something educational out of this post. Before the funeral takes place, the relatives of the dead place six coins…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tchannel.hp.infoseek.co.jp\/daioo\/datueba.gif\")
The first crossing point consists of a bridge.\u00a0 Those who have committed good deeds will walk on a bridge full of precious gems, while those who have behaved poorly while they were alive, will be forced to wade through a river full of serpants.\u00a0 The second crossing point consists of a ford.\u00a0 Again, if you were a good person you can be tranported by boat to the third destination, but if you were bad, you have to swim among the snakes.\u00a0 (Ouch!)\u00a0 Finally, when you reach the shore you’ll be approached by a female god of the underworld called datsueba (\u596a\u8863\u5a46<\/strong><\/span>).\u00a0 She\u00a0will strip you of your clothes.\u00a0 Her husband, the male god of the underworld keneoo (\u61f8\u8863\u7fc1<\/strong><\/span>), will hang your clothes on a tree.\u00a0 If the branches bend or droop toward the ground, it means that you’ve accumulated a lot of sins and will be punished accordingly.\u00a0 The punishment consists of ripping your limbs out and reattaching them so that your legs might stick out of your\u00a0ears and such.\u00a0 So yeah, I’m really hoping this is a myth because I’m about fifty-fifty on the sins scale.<\/p>\n