The Funeral ceremony in the Highlands

It's very important for Malagasy people in the Highlands to honor their dead relatives in different ways. They believe that all those who die bless their descendants and in return, the batter should respect their ancestors by keeping the customs may be asserted that there are many casts in the Highlands.

Actually, I'm going to talk about the ceremony of the funeral of "Andriana" cast or noble cast which is different from the other casts.

To start with, when there is a death in an "Andriana" family, the close relatives of the family should sit up for the funeral. They should stay with the dead from evening till morning and sing and pray together. And during the day, they receive visitors presenting their condolences. Visitors have to contribute by standing in front of the dead and his family and having speeches of condoleances and giving money and Lambamena (shroud) as a symbolic contribution in order to help for the expenses because this kind of event needs a lot of money.

For the food which is special because they don't eat meat if the dead body is still home, they can eat only chicken meat killed at home.

Before beeing put in the family tomb, the corpse should be wrapped up with a special material called lambamena made with raw silk and may be red in color.

Finally they can't put the corpse with in the family tomb until the sunset.

So these are the main things to do to the ancestors if you want to have in return their blessings. Those who have fullfilled their duties will feel better and believe that all bad things will be gone with the deceased person.

Written by Seheno

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