Cornel wrote:
A little while ago I read your article/material on Goanet on the
'celebration', if that is the right word, of death(s) in Goa. I learned a
lot from your material. However, the question I have always wondered about
is-- why is 'after death', sometimes over a long period, made so
significant among the Catholic Goans in Goa? I am genuinly intrigued by
this element and what its historic origins, parallels and purposes might be.
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Dear Cornel,
After the Third Death Anniversary (for Goan Catholics) the bones are dug
from the grave and the place made free for a fresh burial. If the family
desires, a small amount of bones are kept in a tin which is then embedded
in a niche in the cemetery wall - which has to be purchased from the
Church. The niche is then normally covered with a marble slab and relatives
pray at the slab whenever they visit the cemetery.
Normally the First Death Anniversary is the last 'advertised' Anniversary.
But we do see adverts for 7th Death Anniversary, 23rd Death Anniversary
etc. One can understand this happening for the founder of a business house
where the advertisement serves as a PR tool more than a call for prayer.
But sometimes even relatively normal people have their XXth Death
Anniversary very expensively advertised.
Some people have told me that this is when the dead person has specified in
his will that this should be done. He/she normally keeps, before his demise
of course, a specific cash amount to be used only for this purpose. I know
this from hearsay and cannot verify it.
Cheers!
Cecil Pinto, Panjim - Aldona
M/ 38/ NP-CC/ NP-H
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