Old money
Today I went to the wake of an old family friend-- he died at 101 years old (and was still spry enough at 100 to write a book and go skiing) so while it's terribly sad, he lived and amazing and full life.I've never been to Japanese wake (otsuya) before, so I asked my assistant and a colleague at work to help me with the obituary money etiquette. You have to get the right envelope with the right label (it's usually white and green). Pre-cremation, it should say one thing, post cremation something else. There must be an odd number of bills. The bills must face a certain way. The writing must be thin, not thick.
As I was putting the money in the envelope, my assistant stopped me as I was putting in new bills. They must be old bills, she said. So we took the money out and wrinkled them until they looked old.
posted by SomewhatAtlanticPacific @ 8:59 PM
1 Comments:
i went to a coworker's mother's funeral awhile back. Luckily, our department gave money as a group, which kept me from making dumb mistakes.
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