I was sitting in front of a meetinghouse waiting for elder to finish one of his member records' meetings when I heard it! A live band was approaching! Wahoo! My chance! I grabbed my camera and headed for cover, which was a large fern.
Bands are hired to lead the funeral procession and play the deceased person's favorite songs. A picture of the deceased person is usually displayed somewhere in the procession. In this case, it is visable on the front of the black car. I was so excited to be catching everything on my camera!
And then it happened. I was so nervous that I would be "caught" as the procession got closer, that I accidently turned the camera off instead of taking the shot....and it would have been the best shot of the whole procession! Serves me right for being such an intruder!
This is all I got after I turned the camera back on. Rats!
If you look closely, you can see that the carriage is pulled by a white horse. This is standard. The mourners walk behind the carriage. The more mourners, the better. Sometimes a family will hire mourners to "beef up" the procession.
Previous to the procession, the deceased "resides" at the family home for a few days where visitors and family come. They erect a canopy that covers the street in front of their home...which blocks off the road. They have videoke going pretty much nonstop during the evenings. From what I understand, the music is supposed to make the deceased feel comfortable.
It never ceases to amaze me at how different each country is from another. What we think is normal in the states is definitely not normal to the Philippine people.
