Freezer boxes are something I had never heard of until yesterday. We drove past a funeral and the body was placed in a freezer box, basically a cold coffin. The freezer box has 3 metal sides and a glad lid. The body is kept cold while mourners pay their respects to the dead. This really seems like a great concept for India as they don't embalm the body and the body may not be buried or cremated for several days so that family members may have enough travel time to pay their respects. This is probably only used by the middle/upper class in India. Below is a photo of a van advertising the freezer box.
When the body is on the way to the burial site or electric cemetery (crematorium) it is placed in the back of the van and people sit in back with the body (laying on bed of flowers) and throw flowers onto the street. Evidently they drive by all the places that were important to the deceased. Very interesting to witness the procession.
3 comments:
Interesting Jennifer! I have not seen this before either. I'm sending this to see if my message gets through!
an Indian now living in the US. The body is not taken through areas of interest, but funeral routes are usually predetermined - no passing by weddings or religious processions for example. Also depends on the religion of the deceased person, as there are different crematoria/cemeteries for different religions and sometimes sub-groups within religions.
M
M
My Hindu driver is the one that told me about the funeral processions. Thanks for sharing your information with me!
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