Another Funeral

On Saturday Gwen and I went to the funeral of one of the girls from our church.  In most funerals even though the person that died may have been a Christian unsaved family members do many things that are not Christian.  The pictures below are from a funeral earlier this year, but the practices are basically the same at all funerals.

Here you can see men lowering a cow skin to be placed over the casket of the deceased.  The Basothos have a lot of beliefs and practices that center around ancestor worship. Many of these practices can be seen especially around the time of a funeral. The cow skin "tradition" comes from the time when animal skins were the only clothes that were worn.  When someone dies the Basothos believe that the spirit of the deceased will be cold and will come back to haunt the family unless a skin is placed over the casket.  Thus the cow skin over the casket - to give warmth to the spirit.

One custom is for close family members to throw dirt down on the coffin before the grave is filled in.  It too is closely tied together with ancestor worship, though many people today simply do it as a tradition. It was originally intended help keep the spirit of the deceased from coming back to haunt the family. Family member file past the one holding the shovel full of dirt.  Each one takes a handful and throws it into the grave.

Also as you can see in the two pictures below after the grave is covered and the soil is mounded up some form of container is placed on top of the grave as a way of providing water to the deceased spirit.

The reason I included the picture below is so you can see the vast amount of fresh graves in one of many cemeteries here in the Ladybrand area. Many of these graves are more than likely from AIDS related deaths.