Program for June 26, 2011: ADAPTING TRADITIONS TO MODERN LIFE -- MODERN MUSIC IN FUNERALS
doannhutung 26 Jun 2011 08:45
Program for June 26, 2011
ADAPTING TRADITIONS TO MODERN LIFE:
Should We Use Modern Music in Funerals?
Prepared by Bích Ngọc
“On the day I die, please bury me with one guitar! Please say good-bye to me by a happy melody! Let me come to a new world with an everlasting happiness” –- that’s my wish.
Traditionally, Vietnamese people play a very dreary melody in a funeral. It is a tradition, and we should treasure it. However, there is a fact that this kind of music pushes people deep down to sadness and other negative feelings. What would happen if we played a meaningful song to the dead or a song which helps us memorize him/her rather than saying bye-bye in tears only? The question is how many ways there are to say good-bye to the dead. Or in other words, should we change our traditional funeral music?
Discussion questions:
- What do you feel when listening to Vietnamese traditional funeral music?
- In your opinion, what is the original meaning of this type of music?
- In your opinion, does this type of music keep its original meaning nowadays?
- In your opinion, what do the dead need from the alive? And what should the alive show to the dead?
- What do you think about this statement: “Our ancestors pass on their values to us in form of traditions. What we should maintain is not actually the traditions themselves but the values carried in those traditions."
- What are major difficulties in making this change?
- What other traditions do you think should adapt to modern life? (Hints: wedding, New Year, etc.)