Even though funeral ceremonies in the Luhya nation are never planned, they are always expected to go smooth with little room for error. Inside those ceremonies are secrete series of a whole rituals of syllabus
Any small error, the funeral directors will tell you that you will welcome back the ‘funeral spirits’.
At many times, the ceremonies and rituals are conducted according to the nature of death, Cause of Death, the age of the dead and so on.
Let us look into the details of the rituals and their hidden meaning, rather secretes of Luhya duneral ceremonies .
Other related rituals
For that funeral hearse that came carrying the coffin and its remains, the driver and the conductor deserve a chicken meal. Besides a live cork which is supposed to be thrown in a flowing big river.
A cork and a hen as a bird is a center of every ritual during any funeral rite. That is why this bird is so special.
One unwritten rule rule here is that every person in the funeral has to eat a piece of white meat from chicken.
The reason why chicken is such bestowed lies behind its blood, the smooth flowing blood carries and goes away with any evil spirit hanging on the village.
Another well orchestrated ritual, is the moment when your dead person cannot be located or neither his or her body remains fails to be discovered whatever the cause of the death, they proceed to bury a a banana stem and a very weak ceremony is held.
Drama comes when the dead come back home after being perceived to have died, he or she must be cleansed accordingly.
After burial, people dance, eat and laugh, then follows shaving of family members, before people disperse, note that it is not easy for people to disperse yet they are supposed to go away at their own pleasure.
Three ceremonies normally follow, which is a mandatory. That is if you only died from a ‘good death’
People come back for ‘Good Friday’ on the following immediate Friday which must be atleast 5 days away from the burial where it is declared officially that people are free to leave for their homes.
Then follows the 1st remembrance ceremony which comes within a period of 12 months, then lastly, the last respect of remembrance which should come at-least before two years fold.
A dead person maybe buried with his or her crude weapons such as a panga and a torch so that the hunt for the killers continues even in the world of spirits.
A good case study reflects on late Jacob Juma, who was buried with a powered spotlight and a machete
