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.

有一个人，人们还记得他生前的样子。 一年中大部分时间，美国印第安纳州的梅雷迪思·史密斯都在一所学校工作。 他照顾学校建筑，修理损坏的东西。 然而，每年夏天，史密斯先生也是一名烟火技师——与烟花打交道的人。 近40年来，史密斯先生一直在他的社区举办烟花表演。 这个节目是为了庆祝7月4日，美国的独立日。 这是他最喜欢做的事情之一。 有几年，当邻居没有足够的钱来演出时，他自己掏钱。

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."

史密斯于2008年去世。为了纪念他，那年的表演有一个特别的烟火。 当它在表演结束时爆炸时，它是明亮的白色，在夜空中闪闪发光。 里面有一些史密斯先生的骨灰。 死亡是人类生命的一部分，但不同的文化对死亡有着不同的看法。 对某些人来说，死亡是一件悲伤的事。 许多文化都有仪式，允许活着的人对亲人或亲密朋友的死亡感到悲伤。 这段哀悼期可能持续数月甚至数年。 在19世纪的英国，寡妇要哀悼长达两年之久。 其他文化则将死亡视为庆祝的时刻。 在这些文化中，人们举行聚会甚至节日来庆祝一个人的生命，而不是哀悼他或她的死亡。 梅雷迪思·史密斯身边的人认为死亡既是哀悼的时刻，也是庆祝的时刻。 他们为他的去世感到悲伤，但把他的骨灰作为烟花表演的一部分是庆祝他一生的完美方式。 史密斯先生的一位朋友告诉报纸，“我想不出更好的办法了。”

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.

许多人相信死亡有一种神秘的力量。 印度尼西亚有一个关于死亡力量的神话。 这个神话中的人物，乔科·西格和罗罗·安滕公主，是一对不能生育的夫妇。 一天，乔科·西格收到了来自诸神的消息。 他们说，如果他们同意做一件事，他和罗罗公主将有25个孩子。 他们不得不牺牲最后一个孩子。 他们不得不把孩子带到附近的一座火山布罗莫山顶，把孩子扔了进去。 到时候，如果他们不献祭，布罗莫山就会喷发，毁灭周围的土地。 乔科·西格同意了，不久他和罗罗公主就有了他们的第一个孩子。

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.

在生了25个孩子之后，这对夫妇是时候做出牺牲，杀死他们最小的孩子了，但他们做不到。 众神派了一场地震来提醒这对夫妇他们的诺言。 最后，在一个盛大的仪式上，佐科·西格和罗罗·安腾公主把他们最小的孩子克苏马扔进了布罗莫山，众神很高兴。 有趣的是，虽然这个故事只是一个神话，但在布罗莫山的祭祀一直持续到今天。 每年都有一个节日，人们从很远的地方来，把食物、钱和动物扔进火山。 有时，当地人爬进火山，试图抓住被扔进去的祭品。 令人高兴的是，儿童祭祀不是现代节日的一部分。 在一些地方，活人祭祀仍然存在，但这是极其罕见的。 然而，在现代世界的许多地方，动物祭祀仍在继续。

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.

在印尼神话中，祭祀通常是献给神的。 在古代，人类和动物祭祀是很常见的。 例如，农民经常给神献祭，希望它能使他们的农场成功。 在古希腊，牛墓是用来供奉100头牛的祭品，以取悦阿波罗、雅典娜和赫拉神。 700多年前，Chimü秘鲁人向海神Ni献祭了近200人，以获得战争的胜利。 当然，并非所有的牺牲都发生在过去。 尼泊尔的Gadhimai节是一年一度的庆祝活动，包括动物祭祀。 在为期两天的节日期间，每年有超过20万只动物被宰杀。

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.

人们献祭希望神灵会满足他们的愿望，或者感谢神灵满足他们的愿望。 每年都有成千上万的人参加这个节日，其中一些人来自其他国家。 像许多地方一样，印度也有活人祭祀的历史。 今天，这种情况非常罕见，但有时仍然会发生。 2012年，印度一个小村庄的一名妇女正在寻找她失踪的女儿。 一位密宗或宗教人士告诉她，从村里献祭一个小男孩，她的女儿就会回到她身边。 她抓住邻居7岁的儿子，用石头打他，然后把他扔进井里。 令人惊讶的是，这个男孩活了下来，并被当地一位农民救了出来。 这名妇女和密宗都被逮捕了。