{"id":17702,"date":"2010-02-03T20:41:25","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T20:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/site\/2017\/2\/1985\/usa_today-mass_graves_may_have_lasting_spiritual_impact_in_haiti\/"},"modified":"2010-02-03T20:41:25","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T20:41:25","slug":"usa_today-mass_graves_may_have_lasting_spiritual_impact_in_haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=17702","title":{"rendered":"USA Today&#8211;Mass graves may have lasting spiritual impact in Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For Haitians in particular, the mass graves are wrenching. [Karen] Richman says Haitians place significant emphasis on dying with dignity and holding a funeral, a process that can take nine days. Relationships with the dead last forever; survivors believe their ancestors visit them in their dreams and give them guidance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every culture has its way of making sense of the beginning and end of life. Our rituals are the way we control what these events mean to us: Irish wakes, Jews saying the Kaddish prayer, Hindu processions,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Catholic Church frowns on voodoo culture, it is pervasive in Haiti, where many are buried with both Catholic and voodoo rites. &#8220;Every family inherits the spirits their ancestors worshiped,&#8221; Richman says. &#8220;You need to communicate with the ancestors to reach these spirits or souls. You need to know they have been respected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/religion\/2010-02-03-bury03_ST_N.htm\">Read the whole article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Haitians in particular, the mass graves are wrenching. [Karen] Richman says Haitians place significant emphasis on dying with dignity and holding a funeral, a process that can take nine days. Relationships with the dead last forever; survivors believe their<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=17702\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,39,50,42,206,438,241,154,155,184,108,364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-life-church-life","category-culture-watch","category-international-news-commentary","category-religion-news-commentary","category-caribbean","category-death-burial-funerals","category-haiti","category-other-churches","category-other-faiths","category-parish-ministry","category-religion-culture","category-roman-catholic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}