Funerals in Ecuador and the USA

Description

The USA is a multicultural country, and for that reason, it is influenced by a lot of

cultures from differences continents. Funerals in the USA have a lot of mixtures from

different cultures. The 70% of the population from USA are Christians, so the most of

funerals are carrying out according to this religion.

Comparison

In both countries, the family of the deceased do an obituary to communicate to the rest

of the family and friends the notice of the death making an invitation to the funeral for

the last goodbye. In Ecuador the death person’ relatives have a wake for one day or two,

but in the United States they immediately do the ceremony in the church. In this

moment the family and friends say some words in honor to the deceased, both countries

do this. In the USA when the deceased is going to be buried, one familiar or friend take

a handful of sand and throw it in the coffin, but in Ecuador people just listen the words

that the priest says.

Reflection

Question 1: Which aspect surprise you?

I was surprised by the fact that in the USA, people do an obituary too. I didn’t have idea

about how in America do these ceremonies and I like to see that we have that kind of

similarities being one country so far from our country. I think an obituary is important

to notice close people of deceased person can carry with their presence honor to their

relatives.
Question 2: Why do you think this differences exist?

Because both countries are so separated and the most of Ecuadorian culture is from

Spain mixed with our native culture. But in United States the influence is from UK and

some of their native civilization. Also, the USA is a multicultural country, so people

there have influence from other cultures and not just one.

Question 3: What might a person from the target culture find different from the

chosen topic in your culture?

The fact that we have a wake the deceased for one or two days. He can be surprised that

we stay with a death person for a whole day, because they only bury him and that’s all.

They don’t stay with the deceased a lot of time after his or her death.

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