Braiding western and eastern cultural rituals in bereavement: an autoethnography of healing the pain of prolonged grief

ABSTRACT

Despite the decline of rituals in North America, contemporary grief literature emphasises the healing potential of these practices. After my father’s death, and due to my cultural hybridity as an Indo-Canadian, once the short-term western ways of mourning concluded, long-term Indian rituals offered meaningful and sustaining ways to honour my grief. By engaging in year-long mourning traditions of prayer, fasting, sacred ceremonies, and charitable contributions, I learned how braiding western and eastern cultural rituals into my bereavement enhanced my ability to heal. This article narrates the positive impact that rituals had on lifting my prolonged grief: releasing my suffering through tangible actions. Using an autoethnographic approach, I combine storytelling, cultural traditions, and grief research to explore my interdisciplinary approach to healing.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian Christian mourning traditions
• death rituals
• prolonged grief
• communal grieving
• reconciling loss

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Data sharing not applicable – no new data generated

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 William Stafford, “The Way It Is” from Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems. Copyright © 1977, 2004 by William Stafford and the Estate of William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, graywolfpress.org.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Linita Eapen Mathew

Dr. Linita Eapen Mathew is an English and mental health support teacher in Calgary, Canada. She is the author of Life: To Be Given Back Again to Whence It Came and The Revelations of Eapen, both academic memoirs of her experiences with death and prolonged grief.