I have been reasoning on this and try to make sense out of it but still can't find any sense in it. So, you lost a relative and then you start crying and the next thing is arrangement for a burial - 'befitting' or otherwise. 'Befitting' burial here refers to taking out time to arrange for the burial: what the obituary poster would look like; the people you'll be inviting; the number of days the burial would take; the live band you'll be using, radio and television announcements and so on. Then, the burial activities start and from day one, you suspend or take a leave break from your work and start welcoming and entertaining sympathizers. Then again, the family members [possibly] get a uniform (usually pure black or white) and use that as a formal dressing throughout the period of committing the death to mother earth. In most cases, the wife of the deceased would have to or be mandated to continue mourning the death with this attire for a certain period of time. Again, either she gives herself or she is given a period that she'll have to mourn the husband before thinking or getting married again. On the other hand, if the deceased was the wife, the husband does not have to or is not mandated to mourn the wife in like manner. Usually, fellow men would advice that he is a man and so he should act like one and move on. After a month or less, they'll begin to ask him what plans he has about taking a second wife that's if he's still in his reproductive age - atleast he is a man and can't continue that way. Apart from these, even if the man decides to 'cheat', nobody ask him questions but let the woman try this during this period. It becomes an abomination. So the death situation here 'favors' the men. Why? Anyway, let's continue.

And now I ask, what were these people doing all these for? Did I hear you say for the dead? Throwing some kind of night party; killing goats and cows to cook food; hiring live band to entertain people; going on a uniform to show that they are truly in a period of grief; suspending their work to fully partake in all activities etc.

The big question now is, who is the death? You would agree with me that the death is someone whose life has ended. And if this is true, it further means that that person has no value whatsoever again. It also means the person lying there is as good as a dead wood. So why the vain honor? Eventhough you burn, bury or throw the carcass into the sea for fish to feed on, it doesn't make much difference. Let's quickly recall how man was made, I'll try to summarize this. The Bible says that God created man from the dust of the earth and then breath into his nostrils and man became a living soul. We can then say that the flesh [or body] that we can feel or touch is just the man's housing or casing to function with here on earth while the real man is the soul we cannot feel or touch which came from God.

And for us Christians, we understand that we died once i.e. when Jesus Christ was crucify on the cross, we died with Him. When He rose, we rose with Him. The life that we live now is therefore eternal. We must understand that physical death does not represent a cessation of life but a transition. Transition here means movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another. So we transit to another realm of life - not on this physical earth realm again. And in the Bible, we are assured of where our lives continue after here - in Heaven or Hell depending on how we lived it while we were on earth. It therefore means that we should rather be celebrating death and not mourn about it knowing that we are going into another phase of life - a higher one. So if this is true, it makes no sense mourning the death. The 'befitting' burial is pure waste of time, energy and resources. It is ignorance. It's the tradition of men. We can define a new way of doing things.

On a typical burial day, there's lying-in-state where people are made to walk past where the corpse is being laid to pay their 'last respect' to the dead and there is crying - some by loved ones and others from people whom the death was indebted to before he passed on. So they are just crying because of their money which is now gone with this person. And then, you look at the coffin - a casket running into millions of naira. This is money that is enough to pay WAEC fee of more than 200 students in a secondary school - just wasted for almost nothing. In some cases, if the deceased wasn't a church goer, the family would have to 'buy' a church to come and conduct the burial. Why are they doing this? It's simple, they do this because they believe it must be the church that must bury the dead. And I ask, what exactly is the preacher preaching on the burial day? Is he preaching for the lifeless flesh lying there or he is preaching for the people there? If preaching for the carcass, what for? Can the dead hear? On the other hand, if preaching for the people, is that the right place? Must the preacher even be the one who conducts the burial on that day?

And then the preacher prays for the dead and ended his prayers with Rest-In-Peace to the dead while others echoed. What's that one for? To grant the dead a repose of his soul or the body that the ground is going to eat up? Which exactly? Because I see nothing that is going to rest in peace here. Life continues either in Heaven or Hell for this person.

I can go on and on but I want to stop here. My message is that we should stop this waste. Let's stop this tradition of men. A family can meet, arrange and bury their dead within days. Whether you put the dead in a coffin or wrap it up and bury, it makes no difference. The costly coffin is a total waste. Please channel that money into profitable venture. It amazes me to see that some people would spend so much to organize burial for the dead - pay for live band; pay for church; pay for coffin; pay for all sort of things just to commit a lifeless body to the earth and they do all these with mourning all through. What a life! And at this time, if you try to crack jokes with them, either them or others would tell you that this is mourning period and hence no jokes or laughs. Everybody is in the mourning mood. Some could mourn for 6 months; some 12 while others forever. They become emotional attached to the dead and then familiar spirit begins to appear unto them and they'll say it's the dead coming back to hunt them or trying to tell them something. This is not necessary my people. Don't cry for anything. Don't sink yourself down because of anything. Rather you can choose to celebrate knowing that death is only but a transition to a another realm of life. I know you won't be seeing the fellow again but crying doesn't make sense to me.

This is how I think. Are you in support or against?