Kingdom of Knuffel

I've only been to ones I was expected to be at
But there's also more cows than people for neighbors and more cows than people in the county to where it's how they encourage people to participate in a census, to see if the number finally flipped. Spoiler alert: it hasn't so that might make a difference

Ive mostly attended family funerals.
But at least here the idea of family is quite extensive, and funerals are usually meant to show your support to the living - so it's not just the family of the dead one but the family of the living ones!

Family includes not only parents and siblings, but also uncles/aunts and cousins, granparents and their siblings, great-greatparents if you were lucky enough to meet them (I did) and also all the family in-law.
Last funeral was my granpa's, but the previous one was my husband's granmother. A very nice woman btw.

Unfortunately I've assisted to a friend funeral too.
And to a friend's father and another friend's grandparents funerals, whom I barely knew, but to support my friends.

Ah.
Here, it's...
you attend the funeral of the postmistresses' mother-in-law, and the funeral of your neighbor's brother who lived just two towns over, and the funeral of the former librarian, and the funeral of the daughter of the family who owns the orchard down the way, and the funeral of your cousin's ex-husband, and the funeral of the man who used to be the county arborist, and whoever all else before or after them.

And you always bring something to the funerals. Food for the family or a card showing the donation to the deceased person's favorite charity/cause, or something for the baby that the daughter of the orchard family left behind, or whatever is appropriate. You never go to a funeral empty-handed.

Here it used to be like that, going to everybody's funeral.
There are still some compromises, but not for most people. For example, when my aunt died some of my cousin coworkers attended the funeral. She works in a town council and politics are like that.
But nobody frowns upon you for not going to the funeral of someone you hardly knew anymore, so most of young-ish people like me just won't go. Old people still do though.


And no gift-giving either.
We had our share of strange and kinda ridiculous traditions too, but gifts were not between them.

No gift giving in France either. Thankfully, you usually do offer food to (some) of the guests though it's done less and less.

In Japan you bring money to the family of the deceased and you go home with a gift.

Money, gifts...
As if arranging a funeral was not complicated enough, having all that in mind seems a burden.
I'm glad of not having to do it.

It's the little cultural differences and details like these that always make me nervous when I travel -go to a wedding in another country and I'm always worried there's some small thing I'll miss.

I've never been to a wedding (or funeral, or anything) in a foreign country, but if I did I would be anxious about doing something inappropiate.
Well, at least I think so, cause I kinda get slightly anxious for anything at all.

My family has members in a few different countries, so I've gone to weddings in a couple different countries now. Mostly, because they are family, they will alert you to what it's obvious you don't know.
But.... there are things they think are so basic they don't realize it needs mentioning, and I'm always worried that it's one of those things which are going to trip us up.

I live too far away from the few people of my extended family who have died (recently, during covid, so it's not like I could have gone anyway), and no one I know has gotten married since I was born, soooo. xD