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Stylish goodbye with fantasy coffins

Written by DeadGirl
Saturday, 10 June 2006
The day before his mother’s funeral, Donald Rockson had a last-minute change of heart about her bible-shaped coffin. He had wanted the coffin to reflect his mother’s position as a devout churchgoer in this suburb of Accra, Ghana’s capital. Ditching the bible idea, his search for the perfect coffin brought him to Daniel Mensah’s coffin shop. Rockson, who has saved a video of his mother lying in state on his mobile phone, comments with approval as Mensah and his apprentices pin silk and fix crosses and roses to an ornate white coffin, just minutes before the funeral is due to start. Funerals are important social occasions in this West African country and elaborate, brightly coloured coffins have become an art form. Fantasy coffins shaped like Coca-Cola bottles, chickens, cars, cameras, birds and bibles are all on sale in Teshie. Some say the coffin represents an aspiration, or pride in the achievements of a short earthly stay in a poor country. In many African countries, rich funeral traditions have been eroded by poverty and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS but Ghana’s stability and the relative prosperity in the world’s second largest cocoa exporter have helped preserve these traditions. People take out full-page national newspaper adverts, inviting all to the funeral, but the most vivid expressions of this commitment to saying goodbye are the fantasy coffins. Farmer Christoph Miensa Kofi Azornu harvested palm fruits and tapped palm trees, distilling their content into a popular local gin called akpeteshie. When he died earlier this year aged 82, his 12 children agreed he should be buried in a palm fruit-shaped coffin, as they believe, the coffin says what a thousand words could not. Buying a good coffin also offers a chance, some believe, to calm an angry spirit, who could wreak havoc from the next world. For many, fantasy coffins are a unique art form. It’s not just the money that coffin makers like veteran Paa Joe, who spends weeks shaping, sandpapering and polishing his works, find attractive. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C06%5C10%5Cstory_10-6-2006_pg9_2

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries