2 weeks ago my Uncle passed away (my dads younger brother) so we made a last minute trip over to Melbourne to attend his funeral, In the Maori culture (I am half NZ) they keep the body in the house in a room until the funeral is held, instead of keeping the body in the morgue, The body is never to be left alone and someone must be with the body at all times day and night, they set mattress and pillows up all around the body so at night when its time to sleep you sleep next to the body. We arrived in Melbourne early Sunday morning picked up our hire car and made our way to my grandparents house where we stayed for the next 10 days, Later that afternoon my parents came over and we made our way over to my aunties house to visit my uncles body and see the rest of the family. My dad and I went into the the room where my uncles body was and laid next to him for some time talking, smiling & crying. I think it's lovely that the Maori culture do this i think it makes the grieving process that little bit easier. Later that night we held a family service open to all at the chapel, where my uncle was placed in his coffin and was put at the front with flowers surrounding him. There were a few hundred people there. All my uncles brothers & sisters said a few words each (there are 13 siblings in my dads family, 9 alive) and all the family sung a few church hymns, there was a haka and a few more words spoken by extended family.
The next morning the Tangi (funeral) was held, It really was a beautiful service, very sad but very special. In the Maori culture they preform the Haka as the coffin is being walked out to the car, Here it is below ( My dad is holding the coffin wearing the blue tie)
(I had troubles uploading the video onto the blog, but click on the link and it will take you onto Facebook where it was posted by a relative)
We decided we would make this trip into a temple trip also, so Brett & and I were able to attend the temple together to do a session while my parents babysat for us. We were in melbourne for 10 days so we did alot of shopping, eating out, catching up with all my family, date nights, (thanks mum and dad for babysitting!)
We wanted to do something fun for the kids so we took them to the melbourne aquarium we caught the train into the city the kids loved this experience! especially when the train went under the tunnels and it was all dark. Here are some photos from our day --->
We had a great time away despite the first few days with my Uncles funeral. We were lucky Brett was able to take time off aswel.
Very interesting traditions!! Glad you were able to have some fun despite having to go visit on a sad note!
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