Halloween is just around the corner, so let's talk about something that scares us and makes
us feel a little bit uncomfortable -- or at least makes me feel uncomfortable -- death.
Hey everyone! I'm Dana and you're watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
In two days it will be Halloween, a holiday during which millions of people in the U.S.
and more and more people in other parts of the world dress up in scary costumes.
Some people, as I explained in last year's Halloween video, dress up in funny or sexy
costumes too, but the holiday itself is in general still about the celebration of things that
haunt and terrify us. One of those things being death.
Death is something that we often try to avoid talking about the whole rest of the year,
and then kind of let ourselves go crazy with on certain days, for example Halloween in the U.S.
So in honor of Halloween, I thought that I would make a video talking exactly about that
very uncomfortable and terrifying topic.
Because while death is something that we all have to face, it is handled differently in
some ways in Germany and the U.S.
For one, because death makes us feel uncomfortable, in both cultures we have a lot of euphemisms
for death.
In fact, I could probably spend a whole video just talking about sayings related to death,
but I'll just mention a couple of them here.
In English some idioms for "to die" include pass away, which is a polite ways of saying it,
as well as some more crude sayings like to bite the dust and to kick the bucket.
In German there's actually a similar saying to bite the dust except instead of dust, in
German it's grass -- ins Graß beißen.
And a polite way of saying it that's kind of like to pass away in German is
von uns gegangen, which literally means "went from us."
Another more crude way of putting it in German is abkratzen, which basically means something
like in English "to croak."
And then in German there's also den Löffel abgeben, which literally means in English
"to give up the spoon."
And in English I also know of two idioms that describe a person actually being dead:
six feet under and pushing up daisies.
And speaking of pushing up daisies, as far as I could find, in the U.S. when you purchase
a cemetery plot you're basically paying for that plot for "forever."
Of course at some point in the future it could happen that that land starts being used for
something else, but the general idea is that you are buying the cemetery plot for "forever."
So for the foreseeable future "forever."
Whereas in Germany that's not the case.
In Germany the cemetery plots are actually rented.
Exactly how long the rental period is differs around the country, but it's often around
20 to 30 years.
And for some graves, after that time the family can renew the rental, but for some types of
graves they can't.
For some types of graves that's it; you just get the one rental period.
And one difference that I've noticed as far as the cemeteries go is that in the U.S.,
from my experience and from what I've seen on American TV shows and in movies, because,
you know, that's a great place to get the most accurate information, movie and TV shows...but
yeah, from what I've seen, it seems like in the U.S. people often visit the grave of a
loved one on a special day of the year, for example maybe an anniversary.
And then they often bring a bouquet of flowers to lay on the gravestone.
Whereas in Germany I've seen people visiting the grave or graves of their family members
every week.
They go there, put out new candles, they light the candles, they place new flowers on the
grave, and they clear away any leaves that have fallen on the grave.
They pick out the weeds that have grown there, really tidying up the grave or graves on a
pretty regular basis.
Something else that I have heard of and have seen happen here in Germany that I personally
haven't ever seen or heard of happening in the U.S. is that sometimes in Germany when
a person dies at home, instead of the deceased being picked up right away, the body is kept
in the home and friends and family can come over and say their final goodbyes, gather
around together and cry, tell stories.
And then later on in the evening, the deceased is picked up and taken to a funeral home in a hearse.
Like I said, I don't have any experience with that happening in the U.S., and I don't
really recall ever seeing it in any American movies or TV shows or hearing about that from
my friends or anything like that.
I think that usually the deceased is picked up right away, but I would love to hear about
your experience with it down in the comments. Thank you.
Also while in the U.S. cremation I would say is a pretty common thing, in Germany the option
of cremation is still a relatively new one, and up until rather recently even if someone
was cremated in Germany those ashes still had to be buried, whereas now from what I
could find Germany has started to allow the possibility of ashes, for example, being strewn
in a cemetery, rather than being buried.
Or brought out to sea, beyond the three mile limit. But that's it.
Unlike in the U.S. where many families keep the ashes at home in an urn, which is sometimes
put up and displayed in the living room.
And as far as funerals go, in both the U.S. and Germany black is the traditional color
worn for mourning.
And in Germany after the funeral it's a common tradition for the family of the deceased
to provide what is called Beerdigungskuchen, literally "funeral cake."
So my question for you is: What are your thoughts on this topic and how are things surrounding
death done differently in other places?
Please let me know in the comments.
Thanks so much for watching, I really hope that you enjoyed this video about a little
bit more of a creepy topic this time.
And also a really big thank you so much to our patrons on Patreon, who help make these
videos possible.
Thank you so much for your support.
If you would like to check out our Patreon page, you can find a link to that down in
the description box below.
Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
Yeah, but I laugh when I am talking about topics that make me nervous.
I start to laugh.
And then people are like, this isn't funny.
And I'm like no, I don't think it's funny, I'm just nervous.
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