Brazilian funeral customs?

September 17, 2007 3:40 PM

Funeral customs in Brazil?

In quite a few cultures, it's customary to contribute money at a funeral to help defray funeral expenses. Is this the case for Brazilians? Or do people send flowers, like in the U.S.? Any info much appreciated--I am pretty clueless and not finding much info.

posted by agent99 to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Brazilian custom is to get the deceased (the 'defunto') into the ground within 24 hours. Wakes and funerals tend to be quite simple affairs, really. People do not dress in any special way, hell, I have attended most Brazilian funerals in flipflops. Sad as the occasion is, Brazilians tend to get it over with pretty quickly. Seven days following death, they hold the "Missa do setimo dia", the seven day mass, if the deceased was Catholic. If you can attend that, it is usually a good time to express your condolences to the family. Other than that, one normally does not send flowers, and money generally only exchanges hands among family members. You can buy flowers at the cemetery, if you plan on visiting the grave site.
I hope this is helpful, and 'meus pesames' (sorry for your loss).
posted by msali at 4:23 PM on September 17, 2007

Thank you, msali, that was incredibly helpful!
posted by agent99 at 6:21 PM on September 17, 2007

msali is right, but I'd like to add a couple things.
First, if you need to talk about the deceased it's best to use a term slightly more formal than defunto, as this word is too colloquial and may be viewed by some as sort of insensitive. It's best to say "o corpo" (the body) or "o falecido" (the deceased).
Second, I can say for sure I have never seen a funeral attended by people in flip flops... The northern part of the country tends to be more relaxed in general, but that's not true for the the south and especially not for the larger cities. It is true that most people don't wear black or formal attire, but shoes and discreet clothing are expected.
posted by AnyGuelmann at 7:20 PM on September 17, 2007

Oh, another thing: it is very common to send a "coroa de flores" (a large funeral wreath) to the funeral venue. It is also perfectly acceptable to send flowers (though not huge wreaths) directly to the family.
posted by AnyGuelmann at 7:25 PM on September 17, 2007