The family moved here from Botswana, for educational opportunities for their two sons. After they moved here the wife became pregnant with twin girls due this September, they were born in May and while one baby is doing well, one baby died last week. The family is Christian but not affiliated with a church here. A Presbyterian Church is having a memorial service for the baby, and I want to provide flowers for the service. I don’t want to provide something that is not suitable as to type and colors in their country, does anyone have any information that might help me.
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Funeral Etiquette For A Three Month Old Infant, We Are Having A Memorial Service?
Posted on August 18, 2011.
Instead of flowers you might prepare (strange as it may seem ) pumpkin
At large public events, such as the opening of a new government building, and at weddings and funerals, men prepare the centerpiece: meat cooked in large iron pots until in shreds. Women prepare porridge and/ or rice, pumpkin/squash, and often cole slaw or beet salad, and people are served heaping plates of food, arguing to get more meat for themselves. Beer is often served at weddings, and ginger beer at other events; tea and fatcakes are prepared for weddings and funerals that have all-night components.
Read more: Culture of Botswana – history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Botswa…
Many African burial rites begin with the sending away of the departed with a request that they do not bring trouble to the living, and they end with a plea for the strengthening of life on the earth and all that favors it. According to the Tanzanian theologian Laurenti Magesa, funeral rites simultaneously mourn for the dead and celebrate life in all its abundance. Funerals are a time for the community to be in solidarity and to regain its identity. In some communities this may include dancing and merriment for all but the immediate family, thus limiting or even denying the destructive powers of death and providing the deceased with “light feet” for the journey to the other world.
Ancient customs are adapted in many South African urban funerals. When someone has died in a house, all the windows are smeared with ash, all pictures in the house turned around and all mirrors and televisions and any other reflective objects covered. The beds are removed from the deceased’s room, and the bereaved women sit on the floor, usually on a mattress. During the time preceding the funeral—usually from seven to thirteen days—visits are paid by people in the community to comfort the bereaved family. In the case of Christians, consolatory services are held at the bereaved home. The day before the funeral the corpse is brought home before sunset and placed in the bedroom. A night vigil then takes place, often lasting until the morning. The night vigil is a time for pastoral care, to comfort and encourage the bereaved. A ritual killing is sometimes made for the ancestors, as it is believed that blood must be shed at this time to avoid further misfortune. Some peoples use the hide of the slaughtered beast to cover the corpse or place it on top of the coffin as a “blanket” for the deceased. Traditionally, the funeral takes place in the early morning (often before sunrise) and not late in the afternoon, as it is believed that sorcerers move around in the afternoons looking for corpses to use for their evil purposes. Because sorcerers are asleep in the early morning, this is a good time to bury the dead.
Please read the entire article: African Religions – rituals, world, burial, body, funeral, life, customs, beliefs, time, person, human, The African Concept of Death http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Afric…