In Nigeria, there’s a troubling development of abandonment of family members left-overs in morgues, pushed by means of the emerging prices and societal expectancies state extravagant funerals. This phenomenon has resulted in overcrowded mortuaries, as households frequently prioritise elegant send-offs over right kind burials. With some corpses languishing for years, the aftereffects of this quandary are stark, GODFREY GEORGE writes
For 18 months, Prince Chibundu may now not lay his father to extra. The top prominent had kicked the bucket quietly. As morning time poor on a heat morning in Might 2019, his frame succumbed to the ruthless clutch of a stroke.
A person who as soon as strode the corridors of accounting corporations, operating as a licensed accountant, he after grew to become his again on spreadsheets and audits to include the traditional throne of his ancestors.
However at the same time as his spirit left this global, his people discovered themselves paralysed, trapped by means of custom and torn by means of the insidious pursuit of a lavish, “befitting” funeral.
What must had been a duration of mourning and mirrored image unexpectedly become a battlefield of wills. Chibundu’s people—his mom, Chioma, and his father’s 3 alternative better halves—discovered themselves on opposing facets of a cultural jerk of conflict.
His mom, pragmatic in her despair, proposed a easy burial two months then the prominent’s demise, reasoning that they may proclaim him after with a elegant remembrance rite when price range and feelings had been in a greater park.
However the alternative better halves, pushed by means of the load of ancestral expectancies and the calls for of family members, vehemently disagreed.
“It was a real struggle,” Chibundu recalled, his tone obese with the reminiscence. “I was still in school at the University of Abuja, trying to focus on my studies, but the family battle consumed me.”
His telephone rang often. His mom would name, her tone low and strained, pleading with him to go back to Imo Environment and support her manufacture sense of the chaos.
However Chibundu’s elder sister, who was once dwelling out of the country on the occasion, begged him to stick away. She feared for his protection, blackmail that tensions had been operating top and that an struggle to intrude would possibly govern to violence.
The prince was once stuck in a whirlwind of conflicting feelings—torn between responsibility to his people and the haunting risk of risk. The battle, alternatively, was once now not as regards to timing or people rivalries; it was once about condition and satisfaction.
Chibundu’s father, although slight in future, had accrued vital wealth and homes. But, in demise, those property become a secondary worry.
What in point of fact mattered to the prolonged people was once the spectacle of the burial. The person’s soul, they believed, would in finding disagree vacation with no rite valuable of his condition, a lavish show of energy and opulence that will fulfill the ancestors.
“They wanted a burial that people would talk about for years,” Chibundu defined, his tone rising sour. “It wasn’t about honouring him—it was about showing off.”
Nearest got here the request that shook him to his core. One era, in a while then completing his third-year checks, Chibundu gained a decision from his uncle. His tone was once quitness, nearly businesslike.
“I need you to get access to your father’s bank accounts,” his uncle had stated, slightly hesitating. “We’ll need at least N20m for the burial. You are his first son. You have the money; give us!”
Chibundu, surprised, stared at his telephone. The determine was once staggering, the request much more so. “N20m? For a burial?” he recalled asking, and his uncle’s tone was once stern. It was once N20m or not anything.
“I called my mum immediately,” Chibundu recounted, nonetheless sounding incredulous on the reminiscence. “She told me to stay out of it. She said we needed that money to survive now that my dad was gone. How could they expect us to throw it all away on a single day?”
The people’s calls for grew extra outrageous with every passing month. The elders, of their fervour for a “befitting” burial, took issues into their very own arms.
With out blackmail, they seized the prominent’s frame and transferred it to a central authority morgue in a neighbouring situation, out of achieve of the speedy people.
For months, the corpse of the once-revered guy languished in chilly attic, held hostage by means of custom and people satisfaction.
In spite of tearful pleas from Chibundu’s mom and siblings, the frame was once saved from them, cloaked in secrecy and held underneath the iron clutch of the elders.
Chibundu’s people may do not anything however attend to. Because the months slipped away, the load of despair become heavier with every passing era.
It wasn’t till the police intervened, along every other revered monarch, that the corpse of Chibundu’s father was once in any case excused from the clutch of custom. Eighteen months then his demise, the prominent was once in any case laid to extra. However even after, vacation was once elusive.
“The burial was fine, by all standards,” Chibundu stated, his tone cushy with the exhaustion of recounting the date. “However my uncles weren’t happy.
“They complained that we didn’t slaughter enough cows, that we didn’t perform certain rituals, that the goats we used weren’t sufficient.”
Chibundu paused, frustration discoverable in his sound. “They said if we didn’t do these things, my father wouldn’t have a smooth journey to the spirit world.”
And so, a person who had spent his future serving his society and people, who had risen from accountant to top prominent, had his ultimate moments on earth marred by means of war.
In any case, his burial was once now not about celebrating his future or grieving his demise, however in regards to the spectacle, in regards to the calls for of a convention that left his people fractured.
Chibundu’s tale isn’t sovereign. Throughout Nigeria, particularly within the South-Jap pocket, households in finding themselves trapped within the clutch of age-old customs that call for elaborate and dear funerals.
In a rustic the place poverty charge is emerging, many are compelled to make a choice from day-to-day survival and the cultural legal responsibility of a lavish burial.
For some, this leads to months—from time to time years—of storing their family members in morgues, ready till they are able to store plenty cash to satisfy societal expectancies.
Morgues around the nation are starting to flooding, as households, strapped for money, release their family members’ our bodies unattended for prolonged sessions.
The load of custom weighs closely on the ones left in the back of, turning despair right into a monetary and emotional nightmare. Within the race to lend a “befitting” send-off, the humanity of the departed—and the sanity of the dwelling—is frequently forgotten.
In a tranquility tone, Chibundu mirrored at the ordeal that almost tore his people aside.
“My father was a good man,” he stated. “He deserved peace. But in the end, we gave him a funeral for the living, not the dead. And that is something I will never forget.”
Corpse held for 15 years
Prior to his passing in March 2004, Eminent Felix Odinukaeze, a revered patriarch from Umumbaneto Village within the Isi-Mgbidi Self reliant Society, Oru West Native Govt Segment, Imo Environment, expressed only one want—to be buried within the foot garden of his uncompleted development mission.
A husband to a few better halves and father to diverse youngsters, Eminent Odinukaeze had lived a complete future.
His luck in industry and his popularity as a former Nigerian Postal Carrier worker made him a pillar of the society, proudly owning giant homes, together with a number of industry premises across the bustling Orlu junction.
However then his demise, his people was once thrown into disarray. His demise want, easy because it gave the impression, would stay unfulfilled for 15 lengthy years as a sour dispute erupted amongst his youngsters.
The foundation of the condition was once certainly one of his sons, who, it was once stated, refused to present his esteem for the burial, stalling all efforts.
The past due prominent’s frame lay rejected within the morgue for over a decade, wrapped in layers of people discord, felony battles, and monetary burdens.
Because the years handed, Odinukaeze, a person who had nurtured his people and supplied them with wealth and safety, remained in limbo. Deny grave was once dug, and disagree see you was once stated.
He was once left suspended between future and demise, a sufferer of the very people he had cared for dearly. His frame, nonetheless unburied, become a still observer to the dreadful results of unresolved people feuds.
Rumours circulated within the village that that son (title withheld) had left the rustic, escape his father’s frame within the mortuary as he pursued his personal future in another country. Some stated the people was once looking ahead to his go back, moment others whispered of felony headaches.
The reality, it gave the impression, was once buried as deeply because the unresolved despair throughout the people.
Something was once unclouded: the people’s refusal to behave had taken a toll now not handiest on them however at the health center the place their father’s frame was once saved. The owner of St. Felix Health facility, Dr Felix Iwudibia, had saved the past due prominent’s frame for 15 years and incurred vital losses within the procedure.
“After several entreaties to the family to come and take away the corpse of their father failed, I was compelled to institute a legal action against the family,” Dr Iwudibia defined, recounting the long courtroom case he had filed towards the Odinukaezes. In spite of the felony combat, disagree solution got here temporarily.
In any case, on April 29, 2019, a shocking flip of occasions befell. The people, then 15 years of state of no activity, settled their N1.4m health center invoice and took their father’s frame for burial.
It was once a while of each pleasure and be apologetic about. Some of the past due prominent’s sons, Leonard, defined the deep ache the people felt over their father’s extended keep within the morgue.
“Our father took very good care of his family. He sacrificed everything for us, left us with a legacy of wealth and property, but sadly, we could not give him the respect and dignity he deserved in death,” Leonard lamented.
Consistent with him, efforts by means of the people and society leaders to bury the past due prominent had been many times annoyed by means of his eldest brother, Emeka, who insisted that their father’s uncompleted development be completed ahead of any burial may speed park.
“Our father’s extreme want was once to be buried within the foot of the storey development he was once developing ahead of his demise. Sadly, because of the talk stirred by means of our eldest brother, we had been not able to lend that want.
“We had no choice but to bury him at the old house,” Leonard distinguishable with a obese middle. “Most ironically, Emeka did not even attend the burial.”
In any case, the people’s long-standing despair culminated in a last employment of closure.
The as soon as full of life patriarch, who had waited 15 years for a right kind burial, was once in any case laid to extra in April 2019.
Although the burial didn’t observe his extreme want, it introduced some vacation to the people. Leonard expressed his gratitude to Iwudibia for slashing the health center invoice from N1.8m to N1.4m then their pleas.
Unloved father’s corpse for 9 months, squandered N2m
In September 2023, within the tranquility the city of Awgbu within the Orumba North Native Govt Segment of Anambra Environment, the age-old traditions of burial and inheritance took a unlit, unsettling flip.
Uchenna (surname withheld), a tender guy estranged from his past due father, discovered himself within the crosshairs of the legislation then allegedly squandering N2m raised for his father’s burial.
As though the lack of the price range weren’t plenty, the frame of his father were rejected in a mortuary for over 9 months, left to the pardon of occasion as cultural expectancies and greed intertwined.
The tale started lengthy ahead of his father’s demise. Uchenna, born to his father’s ex-wife, were disowned then a sour people war that resulted in his estrangement. For years, he was once absent from his father’s future, by no means contributing a dime against his serve and even visiting all through his disease.
When the elder, Anadumaka, kicked the bucket, it was once his 2nd spouse, Lovina, who had lovingly tended to him in his ultimate days. She was once there, at his facet, in disease and despair, navigating the rigors rejected.
However demise, like a still thief, frequently brings the worst of human nature to the fore. The while her husband’s breath left his frame, Uchenna returned, unexpectedly showing from the shadows.
He, along his aunt, Chinelo, started to put declare to his father’s constituent. Chinelo, the more youthful sister of a dead body, had her personal troubles.
Just lately divorced, she had returned to her father’s compound in Awgbu, harassed by means of her failed marriage and the load of bitterness that adopted her. Her presence in the house become a supply of torment for her personal mom, Maryrose, who suffered usual abuse at her arms.
Chinelo, in keeping with a number of resources who confided in our reporter, was once disagree stranger to violence. Years previous, it was once stated, she had rented thugs to attack her former husband in Abia Environment, an employment that resulted in their eventual divorce.
Since after, she had taken ownership of vital parts of her people’s constituent, subjecting her aged mom to harassment, even calling vigilante officials on her.
Now, emboldened by means of Uchenna’s go back, she directed her venom towards Lovina, her brother’s widow, stripping her of the entirety she had left then her husband’s passing.
Consistent with Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, Community Members of the family Officer for the Anambra Environment Ministry of Girls Affairs and Social Welfare, Chinelo and Uchenna colluded to speed ownership of a dead body guy’s ATM playing cards, cellphones, and homes in each Delta Environment and Awgbu.
They started amassing hire from tenants dwelling in those homes, ignoring the grief-stricken widow who was once left in the back of with not anything however her tears.
Lovina, who had sacrificed the entirety to take care of her husband in his ultimate days, discovered herself unexpectedly beggarly, compelled to beg and borrow simply to capitaltreasury his burial.
As assurance unfold throughout the society, the tale grew extra gruesome. Uchenna, entrusted with N2m to organise his father’s burial, reportedly squandered all the sum.
He may deal disagree coherent rationalization when requested what had came about to the cash and without a price range left to barricade the burial bills, his father’s frame remained rejected in a mortuary for 9 months.
Akinwunmi’s case
Taiwo Akinkunmi, the esteemed fashion designer of Nigeria’s nationwide flag, was once laid to extra in Ibadan, Oyo Environment, then a year-long wait.
His funeral provider took park on the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium and was once attended by means of numerous dignitaries, together with individuals of the Oyo Environment cupboard, former lawmakers, and representatives from the safety businesses, in addition to people individuals and scholars from his alma mater.
A consultant of the Oyo Environment Govt on the burial, Bayo Lawal, emphasized Akinkunmi’s nationwide virtue, declaring that his burial must had been an issue of federal worry instead than only the duty of his people and the situation executive.
Lawal highlighted that Akinkunmi epitomised a countrywide icon whose contributions to the rustic must be honoured accurately, each in future and in demise.
Overflowing morgues
The will for a “befitting” burial—an match steeped in cultural satisfaction and people proclaim—can from time to time overshadow the very humanity such traditions are supposed to conserve.
Households, like that of Uchenna Anadumaka, are left fractured, now not handiest by means of the despair of demise however by means of the bitterness of inheritance battles, the corruption of custom, and the inaccurate pursuit of wealth and condition.
As morgues throughout Nigeria proceed to fill with the our bodies of the ones stuck on this aim between aged customs and unused needs, the community is compelled to invite: at what level does the price of custom grow to be too top? How lengthy should the lifeless look forward to vacation, moment the dwelling squabble over the spoils in their passing?
The subject of rejected corpses in Nigerian mortuaries because of behind schedule burials touches on deeply ingrained cultural, financial, and social problems.
Consistent with a learn about revealed within the Global Magazine of Intercultural Members of the family, burial rites in Africa are frequently open as the overall alternative to turn admire to a dead body, which will suggested households to extend burial till all price range or assets are to be had to satisfy society expectancies.
In Nigeria, it’s ordinary for our bodies to be saved in morgues for prolonged sessions, from time to time for years, as households wait to lift price range for elegant funerals or unravel disputes.
The cultural call for for grandeur in burial ceremonies now not handiest playgrounds emotional pressure on households but in addition creates people fitness considerations, as many mortuaries are beaten by means of the collection of our bodies they space.
A 2020 article by means of The Dialog highlights what number of mortuaries throughout Africa aim to deal with such statuses, important to overcrowding, unpriviledged control of left-overs, and backup charges for households.
The extend in burials is frequently exacerbated by means of people disagreements. In the long run, moment the cultural virtue of burials in Nigeria can’t be understated, the expanding burden on mortuary amenities and the monetary toll on households have sparked conversations in regards to the want for simpler and sustainable approaches to honouring the lifeless.
UUTH’s case
In 2023, the Eminent Scientific Director of the College of Uyo Instructing Health facility, Prof. Emem Bassey, addressed the rising condition of rejected corpses within the health center’s mortuary.
Consistent with Bassey, one of the corpses of their morgue had been left there for over 15 years.
He emphasized that many households would possibly now not even remember that their family members’ our bodies had been dropped at the mortuary, particularly in circumstances the place the police had been concerned, additional complicating the identity procedure.
Some other key reason why cited for this abandonment is the top value of burials, in particular in states like Akwa Ibom and Go River, the place funerals are frequently elaborate and dear.
Bassey proposed the opportunity of accomplishing a accumulation burial for those unclaimed our bodies, declaring that it was once unfair to release corpses unburied for such prolonged sessions.
He additionally criticised the societal norm the place households, in particular the ones of decrease source of revenue, are stressed to spend closely on burials in lieu of supporting their family members moment they’re alive.
LUTH
The Lagos College Instructing Health facility confronted a indistinguishable condition in 2021, the place 124 corpses, together with 99 youngsters, had been left unclaimed of their mortuary.
These types of deceased youngsters had been unregistered sufferers, referred to LUTH because of headaches bobbing up from childbirth at conventional beginning properties.
Many of those youngsters had been left within the morgue by means of their oldsters, a few of whom had most likely died all through childbirth or had been too impoverished to assert their youngsters’s left-overs.
In spite of LUTH now not charging charges for storing the our bodies of youngsters, the corpses persisted to amass. The health center issued a understand to the people, giving people individuals 4 weeks to assert the our bodies or face a accumulation burial.
A specialist pathologist on the health center, Dr Martins Momoh, defined that those circumstances are in particular dreadful as lots of the youngsters had been by no means claimed, highlighting a dearth of right kind identity and communique between sufferers’ households and the health center.
Within the match the our bodies weren’t retrieved, the health center deliberate a accumulation burial, which added to the establishment’s burden of keeping up the frame’s long-term.
Okoye varsity’s people enchantment
In a isolated case, the Vice-Chancellor of Godfrey Okoye College, Reverend Father Coach Christian Anieke, made a people plea in 2024, urging households to return ahead and determine the corpses that were rejected within the college’s instructing health center morgue. A few of these our bodies were within the morgue for as much as 18 years.
An series from the Enugu Top Courtroom accepted the health center control to hold out a accumulation burial if the corpses weren’t claimed inside of 21 days.
This announcement was once a part of a broader attempt to renovate and improve the health center’s mortuary facility, which were beaten by means of the collection of rejected our bodies.
Anieke expressed that the problem posed a vital problem for the health center and the state society, and a accumulation burial would permit the establishment to move with much-needed renovations.
In the meantime, the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu College Instructing Health facility in Amaku-Awka, Anambra Environment, additionally struggled with a mortuary stuffed past capability with unclaimed our bodies.
By means of mid-2024, the health center control introduced its resolution to hold out a accumulation burial for corpses that were rejected since 2014.
The establishment’s Community Members of the family Officer, Henrietta Agbai, mentioned that the Anambra Environment executive, led by means of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, had licensed the disposal of those unclaimed corpses.
The health center issued a people understand, calling on households to return ahead and declare the our bodies inside of one while.
Situated in a hectic department with common emergencies because of street injuries and gunshot accidents, the health center’s mortuary frequently receives unidentified corpses from those incidents, including to the overcrowding condition.
UBTH
In Might 2024, the College of Benin Instructing Health facility in Edo Environment additionally confronted an amazing collection of unclaimed corpses.
The health center’s mortuary services and products coordinator, Dr Ehizogie Adeyemi, distinguishable that 270 corpses had remained unclaimed, together with 201 babies and 69 adults.
Lots of the households who had to start with supplied touch knowledge to the health center had been unreachable, making it tough to inform them in regards to the condition.
The health center control issued a six-week blackmail to households, giving them a probability to assert the our bodies ahead of a accumulation burial would speed park.
The health center expressed the desire for the people to remember that the quantity of unclaimed corpses now not handiest places power at the mortuary but in addition poses logistical demanding situations for the ability.
Enugu, Anambra burial regulations
Each Enugu and Anambra have enacted regulations aimed toward streamlining burial ceremonies, making sure affordability, and combating the quantity of corpses in mortuaries. On the other hand, the implementation of those regulations, regardless of their intentions, has now not been with out controversy.
In Enugu Environment, the mortuary tax was once lately clarified as now not being basically a revenue-generating measure however instead a method of discouraging the extended attic of corpses.
The situation’s Inner Earnings Carrier, via its Government Chairman, Mr Emmanuel Nnamani, famous that the tax is derived from the Start, Deaths, and Burials Legislation Cap 15 of Enugu Environment, revised in 2004.
This provision mandated a price of N40 in line with era for corpses saved past 24 hours in mortuaries.
Nnamani emphasized that the tax was once now not exorbitant, as some experiences had falsely recommended a N40,000 price, however simply a nominal N40 day-to-day fee.
This tax is levied on mortuary house owners, now not a dead body’s people individuals, although the price is frequently handed directly to households when retrieving our bodies for burial.
This legislation happened to deal with considerations over mortuaries being overcrowded with unclaimed our bodies, a development spurred by means of both unresolved people disputes or the need to look forward to plenty assets to habits a lavish funeral.
Consistent with Nnamani, the tax encourages well timed burials, combating corpses from piling up in morgues. That is in particular remarkable in a context the place, culturally, some households would possibly wait years to lift price range for a “befitting” funeral.
Soludo’s enforcement
Anambra Environment’s way is extra interested in lowering the monetary burden of burial ceremonies and discouraging elaborate and extended funeral practices.
The Anambra Environment Burial/Funeral Ceremonial Keep an eye on Legislation was once enacted in April 2019 underneath former Governor Willie Obiano, however stream Governor Charles Soludo has been a vocal suggest for its enforcement.
The legislation targets to reasonable the excesses of burial practices within the situation, which had lengthy been criticised for enforcing a obese monetary toll on households.
Soludo, all through the funeral of former Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife in 2024, publicly condemned the extravagant nature of the rite, highlighting the way it violated the legislation.
He criticised the show of opulence on the match, which was once in direct contradiction to the statute’s intent.
The legislation contained a number of provisions designed to short prices and simplify burial procedures.
As an example, corpses can’t be saved in mortuaries for greater than two months, and funerals, together with reassurances, should speed park in one era.
Additionally, the legislation restricts the collection of undertakers to 6 and outlaws the utility of billboards, posters, and 2nd funeral rites.
In spite of those laws, enforcement has been problematic. Future Soludo expressed his decision to conserve the legislation, violations persist, with citizens proceeding to host elaborate funeral ceremonies.
The governor said that the legislation predates his management, however wired that adherence to the legislation was once essential for making a sustainable, economically manageable observe round burials within the situation.
There were disagree arrests or prosecutions alike to the violation of the legislation since its enactment, elevating questions in regards to the executive’s capability to totally put into effect those laws.
Socio-cultural, financial context
In Nigeria, the observe of elegant funerals deeply intertwines with socio-cultural and financial dynamics, important to a troubling development of rejected corpses in mortuaries.
Households frequently prioritise ostentatious send-offs over dignified burials, to bring about morgues overflowing with unclaimed our bodies.
This condition underscores a fancy interaction of cultural expectancies, monetary pressures, and societal values.
A senior sociologist, Dr Chieze Okezie, mentioned that cultural traditions in Nigeria park large worth on how the lifeless had been honoured.
He added that funerals don’t seem to be simply a ceremony of passage, including that they’re people presentations of admire and condition.
Okezie stated, “Those overflowing morgues in Nigeria are a stark manifestation of a community trapped within the grips of custom and the relentless pursuit of social condition via funerary practices.
“The interaction of socio-cultural values and financial constraints compels households to leave their family members’ left-overs, highlighting a urgent want for a cultural reevaluation of funeral practices.
“Addressing this issue requires a collective effort from communities, scholars, and policymakers to redefine the narratives surrounding death, dignity, and the true essence of honouring a loved one’s legacy.”
Consistent with Coach Abiola Irele, a student in cultural research, “In many Nigerian communities, the burial of a loved one is a reflection of the family’s social standing. The more extravagant the funeral, the more respect the deceased commands in death.”
This phenomenon drives households into monetary turmoil, as they frequently lodge to loans or the sale of property to capitaltreasury elaborate funerals that meet societal expectancies.
The commercial context additional complicates this factor. Nigeria’s socio-economic park is marked by means of stark inequalities, the place many households aim to satisfy ordinary wishes.
As identified by means of Coach Kola Abiola in his analysis on socio-economic affects on cultural practices, “While the desire to uphold tradition is strong, many families find themselves in precarious financial situations, leading to decisions that leave the deceased’s remains unclaimed in mortuaries.”
This disparity highlights a dreadful irony: the pursuit of social respectability via elaborate funerals frequently leads to neglecting a dead body’s ultimate resting park.
Additionally, the rising development of unclaimed our bodies activates a deeper mirrored image on societal values.
As households extend burials in pursuit of the ‘perfect’ funeral, they inadvertently give a contribution to the humility of a dead body’s dignity.
Coach Olufemi Babatunde, who studied the moral implications of burial practices in Nigeria, argued that, “The neglect of proper burials speaks to a broader societal failure to prioritise human dignity, both in life and in death.”
The problem of rejected corpses in Nigeria’s instructing hospitals displays a broader societal and financial problem.
Future households will not be acutely aware of their family members’ deaths or are not able to come up with the money for burial prices, the hospitals are harassed with the monetary and operational prices of keeping up those our bodies.
In reaction, many hospitals have grew to become to the choice of accumulation burials to deal with the rising collection of unclaimed corpses, urging households to assert the our bodies or possibility shedding the chance for a right kind and dignified burial.
The combo of cultural norms state burial and the top prices related to funerals contributes to the complexity of the problem throughout more than one states and establishments in Nigeria.
Some other sociologist, Coach Iheriohanma Ekeoma, on the Federal College of Era, Owerri, Imo Environment, recommended that the cultural weight put on burial ceremonies contributed to the observe of protecting our bodies in mortuaries for prolonged sessions, from time to time years.
“Families may go into debt to finance extravagant funerals, which include large gatherings, expensive caskets, feasts, and multi-day events. These societal pressures are at odds with the government’s push for more modest and timely burials,” he added.