Cemetery. Heredia, Costa Rica, Central America. April 2008. Digital Image. Held by Cheryl Palmer

CULTURAL DIFFERENCESDeath is an essential feature of the human condicion that requires people to develope means of coping with it. To neglect death is to ignore one of the few universal parameters in which the social and individual life are constructed. (Berger, P. 1967)

According to Rosenblatt Paul (2012), to really understand sense of death in the cultures own perspective a person has to explore factors like; what has been lost with death, death rituals, cultural constructions and how is the future relationship with the deceased.

IN COSTA RICA-Culture differences in the culture

- Different religions and cultures (catholic, jewish, indigenous)

- Poor&rich

- Close familyties

ATTITUDE TOWARDS DEATH- Día de los muertos- generally funerals are tended to be held in a good spirit

RITUALS / CEREMONIESRituals varie in different parts of Costa Rica

NOVENARIO/NOVENA- Night before the funeral- church / house

- Elements of water and incense- funeral procession- cemetery- last words

- 9 days of prays with rosary- final ritual shows in the way of dressing in black

CEREMONY

GUANACASTE- Closing a street with barrels and ropes- common to carry the coffin to the cemetery

LIMON- African culture

JEWISH CUSTOMS- Focuses on celebrating the life and not the death- as soon as somebody dies, person is placed on the floor of the house, there volunteers prepare the body for the burial- 7 days of shiva

INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES-Tonjibe: bury the deceased under a roof, starts the funeral 4 am andAsks for forgiveness for the deceased. Community chooses a woman toDo the mourning for the community.

Berger,, P. (1967). by Mellor, P. & Shilling, C. ”Modernity, Self-Identity and the Sequestration of Death ” SAGE, Sociology 1993 27: 411. Web. 9 Nov. 2014

Costa Rica travel Buss. ”Costa Rica funeral: A peacefull goodbye” Online video clip. Youtube, Youtube, 2 Jan 2014.Web. 9 Nov. 2014

Google maps. ”screencapture”. Google maps. 2014. Web 12 Nov. 2014

Henfling, Ivo. ”Costa Rica Funeral homes and cemeteries”AE American European Real Estate Group. Web 9 Nov 2014

Randall, Corella V. ”Muchas formas para un adiós”Revista Dominical. 2014. Web 12 Nov 2014

Rosenblatt, P. ” A social constructionist perspective on cultural differences in grief.”American Psychological Association 2012. Web 9 Nov. 2014

Wilson, Valerio. ”Costumbres funerarias 1000 años antes del presente en la costa sel Golfo de Nicoya”Museo Nacional de Costa Rica. Web 12 Nov 2014

Zanca, Liliana Ramos. ”Dia de los fieles difuntos”. Sicultura, Sistema de información cultural Costa Rica. Web 9 Nov, 2014

REFERENCES