There is no funeral home in Korea. So if someone dies, the dead will be home for three to five days. In the meantime, the local Catholic church announces the death to the members of the community and the place to go to pray. The people organize themselves to be available for twenty-four hours a day to pray for the deceased. The home is filled with the faithful to come to pray and the host provides a simple meal for the visitors. The Korean Catholics believe praying for the dead is a very noble thing to do as well as an obligation for the living to support the dead in their prayer. So many non-Christians convert to Catholicism after someone’s death because they are very touched by the Catholic’s compassion and dedication to the preparation of Christian burial.
It was first shocking to me when I visited a funeral home in the United States. The dead was viewed to the public and put on make-up because I had never seen the dead like that. After a while, I have come to understand the different view on death in the western culture. In the east, death is considered a way to conclude one’s life on earth with deeper understanding of life and death and move on to a different life. So getting old is not shameful but noble because the old see what the young can’t see. Therefore the aged are leaders, counselors, healers, and centers of the community. Even after their death, they are to be remembered in regular ancestral venerations in the family.