This week in class we discussed funerary feasts. All this talk about food made me, almost, completely forget about death and focus on my grumbling tummy. One thing that I pondered this week was that our class seems to view these feasts as something that only happened in the past, AND, that funerary feasts were like a party to celebrate the dead.
This got me thinking about what happens in our current period when someone dies. Now, unfortunately, I have been to more funerals in my short 20 years of life then all of my friends put together. These funerals were both for friends and family. Since neither side of my family is religious in any way, shape, or form, our funerals have been rather simple: just a wake. When my Dad's dad passed away, all we had was a wake at my Nana's house. This entailed just a few close friends and family, sitting around the house, discussing my Grumpa's memory, and eating. Now, we weren't feasting, just snacking on some finger foods.
I see eating as a way of dealing with grief rather than a celebration of someone's life or passing. I find that people, whether the loss is a death or something as silly as a break up with a boyfriend/girlfriend, we tend to eat our feelings and drown our sorrows in alcohol (at least that's the motto I adopted after my first breakup...I was too young at funerals to be "experimenting" with alcohol). I've also noticed (especially on TV shows) that when someone in the neighbourhood dies it is customary to bring the spouse/family of that person casseroles or other meals, so that they don't have to cook. Sometimes people are too grief stricken to feel an appetite so this throws off my whole theory. I'm still sticking with my theory of people eat when they are depressed because I've seen it happen so many times, with many different people, in a variety of depressing situations.
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