Day and Night

I went to a funeral last Monday for a relative. And in a week I'll be going to another one, this time for the husband of one of my mom's closest friends. This will be my third funeral this year. *sigh*

In Japan, there are two major religions, Shinto and Buddhism. They are often intertwined and has often been said that the Japanese are Shinto during the day and Buddhist at night, meaning Shinto celebrates life and Buddhism celebrates death, like flip sides of the same coin.

Because of my Buddhist upbringing, death was always a part of my life. My parents often took my brother and I to funerals (and there were many) of various members of my extended family so we were not strangers to the concept of death and the various Buddhist rituals. I never really grasped the finality of death though until my grandfather died when I was 14, and about a decade later with the passing of my grandmother.

Perhaps because of some strange, unknown, perverse reason, I like going to funerals. As painful as it is to see loved ones grieving or be among the bereaved, it's events like a funeral that puts you face to face with your own mortality, and for a moment, realize that life is short, fleeting, transient.