My first Yup'ik funeral.
When a Yup'ik person dies, their mourning family is forbidden to cut anything: no using knives or scissors. At first that sounded pretty random to me. But, upon further thought, I can see how it is a valuable function of mourning here. No knife use for a Yup'ik family means no hunting or preparing food. So, the village steps in to provide food for the family all throughout the mourning period.
We didn't have the funeral until last week. They were waiting for the weather to be clear enough for a plane to be able to land to bring the body back to the village. The body arrived Monday, and funeral was on Thursday. The body was first taken to the family home where people had a chance to view her. We knew the funeral was imminent when the grave had been dug and casket was sighted being transported to the Catholic Church.
It is interesting to me how comfortable the people here seem to be with death and dealing with the corpse. Kids relayed details that I would normally consider to be rather gory, like how they needed to have a shorter viewing time in the home and get her in the ground because the body was getting soft.
The elder was dressed in her warmest jacket, hood up, and warm gloves clothed her hands. There was a host of objects that surrounded her, including a new a jigsaw puzzle. Many people kissed the corpse goodbye, as well poking and feeling the face and body as they paid their final respects.
Those of you who know me well are probably surprised to find out that I went up to the casket at all. Well, to my squeamish surprise, I found that was actually the "exit slip" to leave the church. The pews exited one row at a time, in an orderly fashion, from back to front. The line formed in the aisle, then filed past the coffin, then past the family to give condolences, and finally out the door. ... kind of wedding receiving line fashion.
The service itself was a Catholic mass, mostly in Yup'ik. I enjoyed seeing some of my more active students serving as solemn altar boys. I marveled at how welll they sat for the 2 hour service, and was impressed that one of them swung the incense pot without spinning it around.
The burial was immediately after the church service, and then the village gathered for a feast prepared by community members. After the feast was Yuraq... signaling the time to mourn was over, it was time to dance.
An interesting cross-cultural experience. A time to die, a time to mourn, a time to dance.
