Saying Goodbye to the Departed

                       

            There were lots of rituals described in news accounts of funerals for the Chinese victims of the recent fatal New York casino bus crash. A New York Times article mentioned placing cardboard models of things the deceased would want in the afterlife; the objects to be burned as part of the traditional Chinese funeral included fake money stacks, miniature sports cars, cellphones, double-breasted suits and even smiling dolls that will act as servants in the hereafter. “There was also gambling paraphernalia — poker chips, slot machines, a mah-jongg table — that might have appealed to the victims riding home from the casino.”

            One reference brought back a memory of Chinese funerals in Lower Merion Township’s South Penn Valley, home to what was known colloquially as the Black and Chinese Cemetery and formally as Merion Memorial Park.  The cemetery, on

Rock Hill Road

, has an interesting history. There was a time when “white” cemeteries in the area would not accept Blacks and Chinese for burial prompting formation in 1888 of one that would. It includes the final resting place of James A. Bland (1854-1911), an African-American composer and minstrel who wrote over 700 folks songs including “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” and “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers,” adopted years later as a Mummer’s anthem.

The evocative passage in the news account I read regarding Chinese funerals said “…mourners laid wreaths of chrysanthemums on the ground, along with dishes of food for the afterlife — tofu, bok choy, fruit and noodles…”  During the years I spent as head of Public Information for Lower Merion Township I heard stories about graveside Chinese funerals in the Black and Chinese cemetery back in the old days.  Families of Chinese decreased would bring pots and dishes of food to be left at the grave for the afterlife.  No sooner would the families depart than would be heard on the police radio, “Guys, we’re eating Chinese tonight…”  We say goodbye to the departed in so many different ways.