Lonely Planet explores over 30 customs around death, grief and rebirth in cultures and communities around the world and highlights some of the lessons we can all learn from them. With first-person narratives, locals tell the stories of their culture’s customs in their own voices. Photography and illustration brings the fascinating pages to life. Through such topics as the tangihanga mourning tradition of New Zealand’s Maori people, Irish wakes and the annual Day of the Dead across Mexico, this book explores what it means to mourn loved ones. It also covers some of the funeral traditions of communities around the world, including Tibetan sky burials, the cremation ghats of Varanasi, India, and Ghana’s fantasy coffins. Special focus falls on thought-provoking places to visit, for example catacombs, magnificent cemeteries, and festivals of the dead, with details of how to travel and experience some of these customs.
