Chinese Funeral
On Sunday, as I mentioned before, I attended a funeral. Joseph was a member of the Nantou parish, and had worked so much for the Catholic Church in Shenzhen in his 20 years in Shenzhen. He had three daughters and one son. One of those daughters is a nun in Guangzhou. His son is married with two children of his own and lives in Hong Kong. More than 500 came to his funeral. The Mass was concelebrated by nine priests, including the first parish priest of Nantou Church who came down from Beijing where he now teaches seminary. Flowers came from all over China, including from one Bishop Jin of Shanghai.
Those who arrived before us were already chanting the rosary in the auditorium at the funeral home where the Mass was to be said. I signed the sheet of mourners and was given a black ribbon with a white flower to pin to my dress. Bottled-water bottles had been filled with Holy Water for anyone to bless the body before Mass. One hole was tapped in the lid to make this a sprinkle, not a pouring. The family wore black clothing, with these black caped tunics over their clothes that made them look like they were wearing trench coats.
The Mass was as any funeral Mass. The music and hymns were very slow and, well, funereal.
At the close of Mass we sang a litany of saints. This was followed by three bows to the body, and then as we all filed out of the room, each of us blessed the body again and, while there were some, showered his casket with flower petals.
One of the other parishioners explained to me on the way to the funeral that some Chinese Catholics do incorporate "home-town" traditions into the funeral. In this case it was the giving of gifts to all those in attendance. We each received a red bag that included some candy and a red envelope with 10 RMB . There were also cakes.
After the funeral we were all (500 of us!!!) invited to dinner at a hotel.
Monday afternoon Myles and I went over to visit the family. Their three-year-old grandson Lawrence spent the night with his grandmother to help keep her company the night after the funeral. Myles brought over some Thomas trains to play with him.
While the boys were playing, their aunt showed me some pictures from their family album. Many were of her and her two sisters and brother growing up in Shenzhen. One has them standing in front of Hai Shang Shi Jie when it was just a ship, and no shops. There were pictures of the family and some other people I recognized from church standing in the Nantou church.
"Those were taken when we finally got the church back. There were so few of us then!" Peggy told me.
There were pictures of priests that had visited their home to say Mass before the church was reopened. The priest used to go house-to-house to say Masses and provide sacraments for the Catholics on this end of Shenzhen. There were many pictures from the Nantou Church right after it re-opened, and of her sister professing her vows in Guangzhou when she became a nun. And then there were pictures of Bishop Jin. In their living room.
I asked about those. She said that Bishop Jin always visited them when he came to Shenzhen. "I guess he just likes us, " she said. They always visit him when they go to Shanghai, too.
And of course, she had very close-up photographs of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI (his Chinese name is Ben Du, by the way). I asked if she actually had taken those, too. At this point nothing would have surprised me. She said no, someone she knew had sent them to her. She tried to tell me how it would have made her feel to be that close to the Pope, but she couldn't find the English words. I understood what she meant anyway.
Those who arrived before us were already chanting the rosary in the auditorium at the funeral home where the Mass was to be said. I signed the sheet of mourners and was given a black ribbon with a white flower to pin to my dress. Bottled-water bottles had been filled with Holy Water for anyone to bless the body before Mass. One hole was tapped in the lid to make this a sprinkle, not a pouring. The family wore black clothing, with these black caped tunics over their clothes that made them look like they were wearing trench coats.
The Mass was as any funeral Mass. The music and hymns were very slow and, well, funereal.
At the close of Mass we sang a litany of saints. This was followed by three bows to the body, and then as we all filed out of the room, each of us blessed the body again and, while there were some, showered his casket with flower petals.
One of the other parishioners explained to me on the way to the funeral that some Chinese Catholics do incorporate "home-town" traditions into the funeral. In this case it was the giving of gifts to all those in attendance. We each received a red bag that included some candy and a red envelope with 10 RMB . There were also cakes.
After the funeral we were all (500 of us!!!) invited to dinner at a hotel.
Monday afternoon Myles and I went over to visit the family. Their three-year-old grandson Lawrence spent the night with his grandmother to help keep her company the night after the funeral. Myles brought over some Thomas trains to play with him.
While the boys were playing, their aunt showed me some pictures from their family album. Many were of her and her two sisters and brother growing up in Shenzhen. One has them standing in front of Hai Shang Shi Jie when it was just a ship, and no shops. There were pictures of the family and some other people I recognized from church standing in the Nantou church.
"Those were taken when we finally got the church back. There were so few of us then!" Peggy told me.
There were pictures of priests that had visited their home to say Mass before the church was reopened. The priest used to go house-to-house to say Masses and provide sacraments for the Catholics on this end of Shenzhen. There were many pictures from the Nantou Church right after it re-opened, and of her sister professing her vows in Guangzhou when she became a nun. And then there were pictures of Bishop Jin. In their living room.
I asked about those. She said that Bishop Jin always visited them when he came to Shenzhen. "I guess he just likes us, " she said. They always visit him when they go to Shanghai, too.
And of course, she had very close-up photographs of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI (his Chinese name is Ben Du, by the way). I asked if she actually had taken those, too. At this point nothing would have surprised me. She said no, someone she knew had sent them to her. She tried to tell me how it would have made her feel to be that close to the Pope, but she couldn't find the English words. I understood what she meant anyway.
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