77 The Traditions of Death

CHAPTER 1 Going out with a Bang ONE MAN WAS REMEMBERED AS HE HAD LIVED. For most of the year, Meredith Smith of Indiana, USA, worked in a school. He took care of the school building and repaired things that were broken. However, every summer, Mr. Smith was also a pyrotechnician— someone who works with fireworks. For nearly 40 years, Mr. Smith ran a fireworks show in his neighborhood. The show was to celebrate the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the United States. It was one of his favorite things to do. Some years, when the neighborhood didn't have enough money for the show, he paid for it himself.

Mr. Smith died in 2008. To remember him, that year's show had one special firework. It was bright white and shone in the night sky when it exploded at the very end of the show. Inside it were some of Mr. Smith's ashes. Death is a part of human life, but different cultures have very different views about it. To some, death is a sad event. Many cultures have rituals that allow the living to feel sadness over the death of a relative or close friend. This time of mourning may be many months or even years. In 19th-century England, a widow was expected to mourn as long as two years. Other cultures see death as a time of celebration. In these cultures, people have parties or even festivals to celebrate the person's life, not mourn his or her death. The people close to Meredith Smith saw death as both a time of mourning and a time of celebration. They were sad that he had died, but making his ashes part of a fireworks show was the perfect way to celebrate his life. A friend of Mr. Smith's told the newspapers, "I can't think of a better way."

CHAPTER 2 The Power of Death MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE DEATH HAS A MYSTERIOUS POWER. There is an Indonesian myth about the power of death. The people in this myth, Joko Seger and Princess Roro Anteng, were a couple that could not have any children. One day, Joko Seger received a message from the gods. They said he and Princess Roro would have 25 children if they agreed to do one thing. They had to sacrifice their last child. They had to take the child to the top of Mount Bromo, a nearby volcano, and throw the child inside. When the time came, if they didn't make the sacrifice, Mount Bromo would erupt and destroy all the land around it. Joko Seger agreed, and soon he and Princess Roro had their first child.

Twenty-five children later, it was time for the couple to make the sacrifice and kill their youngest child, but they couldn't do it. The gods sent an earthquake to remind the couple of their promise. Finally, in a big ceremony, Joko Seger and Princess Roro Anteng threw their youngest child, Kesuma, into Mount Bromo, and the gods were pleased. Interestingly, although this story is only a myth, the sacrifices at Mount Bromo continue today. Every year there is a festival, and people come from far away to throw food, money, and animals into the volcano. Sometimes, local people climb inside the volcano and try to catch the sacrifices as they are thrown inside. Happily, child sacrifices are not part of the modern festival. In some places, human sacrifice still exists, but it is extremely uncommon. Animal sacrifices, however, continue in many parts of the modern world.

As in the Indonesian myth, sacrifices are usually made to a god. In ancient times, human and animal sacrifices were common. For example, farmers often gave the gods sacrifices, hoping it would make their farms successful. In ancient Greece, the hecatomb was a sacrifice of 100 cows to please the gods Apollo, Athena, and Hera. Over 700 years ago, the Chimü people of Peru sacrificed nearly 200 people to the sea god, Ni, for success in war. Of course, not all sacrifices happened in the past. The Gadhimai festival in Nepal is a yearly celebration that includes animal sacrifices. Over 200,000 animals are sacrificed each year during the two-day festival.

People make the sacrifices hoping the gods will grant their wishes or to thank the gods for granting their wishes. Thousands of people attend the festival every year, some coming from other countries. India, like many places, has a history of human sacrifices. Today, they are extremely uncommon, but sometimes they do still happen. In 2012, a woman in a small village in India was looking for her missing daughter. She was told by a tantric, or religious person, to sacrifice a young boy from the village, and her daughter would return to her. She took her neighbor's seven-year-old son, hit him with stones, then threw him down a well. Amazingly, the boy lived and was rescued by a local farmer. The woman and the tantric were both arrested.