Spanish Word of the Day: fúnebre

[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

fúnebre - related to the dead or a funeral

https://dle.rae.es/f%C3%BAnebre

fúnebre

ADJECTIVE

1. 

corona fúnebre wreath of flowers for the casket

coche fúnebre hearse

pompas fúnebres undertaker’s ⧫ funeral parlor (US)

2.  (= lúgubre) mournful ⧫ funereal (formal)

A fancier horse-drawn hearse might be called a "carroza fúnebre".

A funeral director would be called, "director de pompas fúnebres".

It also means having a somber character appropriate for a funeral.

• Centenares de personas se agolpaban a los lados del camino y hacían un pasillo a la comitiva fúnebre.
  Hundreds of people crowded the sides of the road and made a corridor for the funeral procession.
  
  
• ¿Deberíamos llamar a una ambulancia, a un coche fúnebre?
  Should we call for an ambulance or a hearse?
  

Other words related to the dead and funerals:

entierro (n) - burial

enterrar (v) - to bury

tumba (n) - grave

lápida (n) - tombstone
exequias (n) - last rites
cementerio (n) - cemetery, although in my part of Costa Rica, "pantéon" is used
ataúd (n) - coffin, more informally "cajón" (big box)
lamentarse (v) - to mourn

Out here in el campo, we walk the casket to the pantéon.  A group of 6 able-bodied men will carry the casket almost 2 km on their shoulders, from the church to the cemetery, with others taking turns to spell each other.  Family and friends of the deceased have dibs on getting to carry the cajón.  I've done it twice, but it is hard to find a matching in height partner for a tall gringo on one side of the casket -- I normally end up having to stoop a little to match shoulder to shoulder the man across from me.  If you do this, be sure to bring water bottles and sombrillas on a sunny day -- lots of old folks and kids make the effort.  Neither cars, trucks or buses will try to squeeze their way past the funeral procession, so be prepared for whatever road to be blocked all the way to the cemetery.

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Sam

[Gene French]

I took a day a few years back to read all of the tombstones in our local cemetary...was quite interesting...the oldest i could find was 97...however quite a few of the graves were unmarked...they appeared to be the oldest...the most decorated was a 16 year old female who seemed to have died trajically ...

The above ground vaults did not appear to be very secure...it was nicely maintained with quite a few fresh flowers and adornment...

[Sam Wilson]

Gene,

> The above ground vaults did not appear to be very secure...

They are as secure as any other block box.  The follow on to this story follows:

Out here in el campo, we walk the casket to the pantéon.  A group of 6 able-bodied men will carry the casket almost 2 km on their shoulders, from the church to the cemetery, with others taking turns to spell each other.  Family and friends of the deceased have dibs on getting to carry the cajón.

While la comitiva fúnebre marches towards the Pantéon, other helpers have prepared the tomb vault and have block, sand & cement, off to the side. With their trowels in hand, they respectfully wait at the end of the line.  In our cemetery, the funeral procession enters the wrought iron gates which are never closed, and  heads over to what a future archeologist might assume was an altar table used for human sacrifices.  It is really nothing more than a fancy cement rancho with a casket table in the middle and a low-cut wall around.  The low-cut wall serves both as a place for elderly family to sit and for short ones to stand as they listen to the last words said over the casket by the family's pastor/minister/priest.  After brief solemn words are spoken, the casket is walked its final meters and slid into the soon-to-be-sealed tumba.  If sobs haven't already occured, this is where they start.  For some folks that is it and they either begin socializing a bit and/or walking back to their homes.  Others stay around to watch the masons seal the tomb which is a fairly quick process.  One or two master craftsmen will start sealing the tomb while a helper mixes cement. The lonely scraping of the cement shovel on gritty wet plywood and the trowel handle taps as blocks are aligned are the last things heard by the deceased.  Then silence as the cement dries.

Normally ahead of time, way ahead of time, a family will order a nicho (niche) which is one resting place in the cemetery.  It didn't used to be a cost thing, it was more of a bookkeeping thing.  My suegra was buried in that cemetery, I think Gene is referring to, 50 years ago. She was buried in the dirt.  Later the familia built 2 above ground vaults, and one of our favorite sobrinas used to wonder who in the family would be the 1st to use them.  Turns out she was the first after a bad car wreck when she was in her early 20's.  After 10 years in the ground or a vault, it is fair game to recycle the spot as a new nicho. Folks I've asked about that cemetery, say it has been around for hundreds of years.  I'd be surprised if it was more than a hundred, although our area was inhabited by a colony of Nahua or Aztecs before the arrival of the Spaniards. The first Spanish settlement attempt of our area came in 1687 with the erection of a hermitage to seed the population of our valley.  It was unsuccessful.  Later it was attempted again in 1739.  Finally, over 100 years after the initial attempt, in 1790 what is now our head of the cantón, was formed as the area's first successful permanent settlement.  So it could be hundreds.

That's our Pantéon.

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Sam

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[Joe Harrison]

LiCR:  There's also the word el funeral.  Not too difficult to figure out that it means the funeral.  On the same subject (and my own choice post-demise) is a feminine noun, la cremación.  joe

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