Greetings everyone!
Valentine's day is a day of happiness and a day globally viewed and celebrated with love.
For many years, this is what has been passed down and widely accepted amongst several cultures of the world.
The day is usually expected with so much pomp as exchange of gifts are expected and a norm as it is said that "giving is a show of love". This is how it should be but sadly a twist occurred in my plot.
This year's Valentine's day began with so much tears as against the usual pomp and merry making. I lost an uncle the previous night being the 13th at about 10:15pm.
This uncle of mine was severely sick and there were times we thought he wouldn't make it through the night but he always pulled through at dawn and we would continue on like all was okay.
When we crossed over to 2024, I and my entire family had high hopes that he would be alive even till the end of the year but life had other plans, one of which was to take him away from us.
His death led to alterations in many plans. Initially, he was scheduled to be moved to the village as per certain cultural rites and beliefs because he was an elder and as such it was required for him to be buried alongside his fathers.
This was a norm for indigenes that lived far away from their homeland, at their deaths, their bodies are to be brought back to their place of origin and the burial rites performed in the village.
Such was supposed be my uncle's fate but like I said earlier, many alterations occurred. Financial incapacitations led to us breaking that tradition. With the sharp inflation in the country, following the initial arrangement of sending him to the village would incur expenses rolling into six digits.
What to do..? We decided to communicate and explain things to our people over at the village and fortunately, they agreed for us to bury him here in Lagos State, where he died. The next day being Valentine's day was chosen to bury him, this shatterred any plans or events planned for that day.
All through that fateful Wednesday, I was in shock as I had never experienced something like this before... burying someone on a day supposedly meant for celebrating but in all I was humbled by the experience and the lessons learnt will not be forgotten in a hurry.
Amidst tears and shock, I followed the hearse (funeral car) down to the cemetery and watched as he was lowered into Earth's bossom and covered with earth.
I'm grateful the elders in the village didn't insist on is keeping to traditions at a Tim like this and allowed our uncle lay to rest.
I'd like to know if such traditions exist in your tribes and cultures, let's share in the comments section below.
Thank you all for reading.
First time posting in this community.
Images used are mine.