UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE

HABILIDADES INTEGRADAS EN INGLS III

ESCUELA DE CIENCIAS DEL LENGUAJE
DPTO. DE LENGUAS Y CULTURAS EXTRANJERAS
Professor: Andrs V!"en#$! %.
S&'den&s: Yo(!n! %')o*
S&e+(!n$! V!"en#$!
V$,!n! V$""!
CO%PARISON ESSAY
De!&( r$&'!"s $n Co"o-.$! !nd /r!n#e
Death traditions around the world are varied. Making the comparison among them is a way
to know about different cultures and how people perceive death. Some people, see this
event as a tragedy and others, as a reason to celebrate, it depends of the country and
their regions. When we talk about death rituals between France and Colombia, there are
as many differences as similarities.
n France, for e!ample, people have two positions about death, the first one is the religious
position where they think there is another place after death, a new chapter of the life starts.
"o French people, the way to deal with death for them is very simple, they only want to
have a private moment between family and friends, have a #uiet and respectful moment to
reflect about the deceased. $ut here, there is also a philosophical position where people
wear black clothes but making reference to tragic life, they conceive death as a tragic
moment in life.
"he second position is the laic position, where people have the regular Mass when a
person dies, but there is one difference, in the Mass there is no a %riest, people who
attend to the Mass are who say some words about the deceased. For them, who have this
position, they perceive death as a regular process in lives of human being, they do not
regret it. &ife finishes after death.
n France, in small towns it is typical to follow the hearse on foot, because the cemetery is
not far from the church, if there's a religious service, or even if they go from someone's
house. "he idea, to go on foot, it is about being still alive. %eople accompany the dead and
unless, the deceased is a child or a young person in which case it is felt as unfair, and
then everybody regrets it. When the deceased it is an older person, they talk about him(
but also they share family news and happenings. "he fact of walk together, also makes
everybody feel better, even the people most affected, who need to feel that they are not
alone.
n France, the Catholic position is less common that the &aic one.
)n the other hand, lately in France, funeral rites become increasingly diverse( people
move away from traditions and make new practices of spirituality, now the cemetery is no
longer to their final resting place. For e!ample, they use to bury the urn in a forest or even
compressing the ashes into a diamond.
Meanwhile, in Colombia, there are several religions, but the main is the Catholic *eligion,
which also think there is life after death. "hen, when someone dies there is a Mass with a
%riest who runs the ceremony, where friends and relatives share their pains and they
accompany each other. +enerally, in Colombia it is also a time to be #uiet and be
respectful with the deceased family. $ut there are, some few cases where people decide
to celebrate death as a feasting moment, they do not deal with death and the pain, they
,ust want to forget they are having a bad time.
"here is another difference between both countries, referring the way to go the cemetery.
n Colombia, even in small towns people go to the cemetery in ,eeps or buses to
accompany the family of the deceased. -nd most of the times, the hearse is followed for a
caravan of motorcycles honking their horns.
$y other hand, the biggest difference that we can also perceive is, in France there is a
humanist or non.religious funeral, which is a way to celebrate and pay tribute to
someone's life, especially for people who have chosen to live their lives without religion.
Finally, if we talk about variety in Colombia, we can find a lot of this if we look into the
indigenous communities. Colombian tribes like /aguas, used to have some death rituals
and they distinguished them between0 the 1deceased in his own house2, where the corpse
was wrapped in fetal position in his hammock, then he was buried in the middle of the
room and his house was burned and abandoned( and the 1deceased outside1, that
included who died in war and their bodies never were found so the corpse was
decomposed and they thought that this became in vultures.
n conclusion, if we are interested for knowing the different points of view of people around
the world, it is not necessary to go so far, we can start to look into our country and its
communities and reali3e what their cultures offer us, and the cultural wealth of rituals and
celebrations about death we have. -nd, ,ust like in Colombia, we think there are e!clusive
things( in other places around the world we can find traditions that could keep similarities
with ours.