THE NEED TO MAKE THE COST OF FUNCTIONS INFORMAL
PAT DIAL
Kaieteur News- Complaints about high living costs are universal and this topic, either directly or indirectly, occupies much of the discourse of media attention. One rarely, if ever, hears complaints about the high cost of dying.
Funeral arrangements for burials cost the bereaved families tens of thousands of dollars, which they cannot afford and which leave them poor. Families deplete their savings and often take out oppressive loans as money is urgently needed as undertakers never give credit and demand all payments must be made in advance.
In a normal burial, the family has to enter into a contract with a funeral home that will commit to bathing and dressing the body, but family members usually do so in the funeral home building, but again they are charged for this service. Then a coffin is bought and many bereaved relatives, unbalanced with grief, feel that they would please the deceased or pay due respect and honor to him or her by choosing the coffin or gasket most expensive. Many families feel that buying expensive barrels would earn them prestige.
Then comes the church, which has its own kind of expenses like paying for the organist, printing programs, paying the priests and other helpers.
Finally, there is the transportation, purchase of land and the cost of building the tomb and paying grave diggers and other such ancillary expenses. And the priest would always be there to give the final committal. Family and even friends are exploited by all involved.
Hindu burials, in their original form, were quite simple and affordable as the understanding is that the body has no value and that it was thrown away by the owner who moves on to another body. The body would be matted, dressed in about six yards of white cotton and applied to a doll. A doll is a type of stretcher made of bamboo and covered with a white cloth. If the cemetery is within walking distance, the doll is carried there by friends and relatives. The doll is usually covered with net material. The pandit performs the last rites when the body is buried. Nowadays, funeral homes are employed for providing transportation, coffins, grave diggers and tombs. Despite the use of many Western burial traps, Hindu burials are still cheaper.
The most efficient and least expensive form of burial is probably the Muslim. Muslims try to intervene the body the same day as death or at least the next day. The body is washed dressed in two pieces of white cotton since in the Resurrection, all Muslims would be dressed alike. The coffin is a box usually made by a carpenter at home. Many Muslim families have adopted the practice of employing a funeral home to carry the body and arrange for grave and tomb diggers, but most Muslims feel it is an honor to help in the whole burial process. And delivery is quite simple and efficient. Indeed, in some Muslim organizations, minibuses have been converted to hearses and these are supplied to the bereaved families or these organizations themselves take all responsibility for the funeral.
Another way of disposal is by cremation. There are two types of cremation in Guyana: an electrical process, which is fast and clean and allows the ash to be later shaken and the pyre process, which is very ancient and found in every Civilization. The electrical process is being proposed by the authorities of Le Repentir Cemetery, while the pyre system is found in various cremation areas throughout the Coast. In fact, cremation was illegal in Guyana until 1956 although it was traditionally practiced on the foreshore. Cremation was a custom that came to Indian immigrants to Guyana in the 19th century and as such, the cremation grounds are held by Hindu groups who happily cremate people of any Faith. As the Law requires bodies to be buried or cremated in coffins, coffins were burned wastefully in pyre cremations. Cremation as a form of disposal has been growing rapidly in popularity and wooden dolls are used instead of bamboo dolls, saving the cost of a coffin. Ms Eileen Cox, founder of Consumerism in Guyana and a doyen consumer advocate in the Caribbean and sole President of the Guyana Consumer Association (GCA) Emeritus, was cremated by Hindu rites on Ruimzight cremation ground. She was one of Swami Paramhamsa Yogananda’s early Guyanese disciples. Pyre cremations, using dolls, could be as cheap as Muslim funerals.
The cost of funerals could be made much more affordable for bereaved families if the public were educated about how to arrange affordable but dignified funerals. This would involve interested religious and non-governmental organizations meeting and planning and implementing such education campaigns.