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Creepy. Must be a cultural thing. I knew a woman who had a picture of her dead baby. It was really in bad taste, INMO to have it on the wall with pictures of her other kids.
Many Latinos have shrines, or is it a Catholic thing? A shrine in the home with candles, picture of deceased. Pictures of the casket, funeral.
I'm Catholic and don't have any shrines or post-mortem pictures in my home, nor do other Catholic's in whose homes I've been. I do, however, know that in barrios and ghettos with large street gang presences it seems to be a fairly widespread practice along with the street shrines, RIP graffiti and tee-shirts, etc. They do seem to love to publicly mourn and make a big deal of it. While it seems somewhat cultural it also seems to be socio-economic.
Location: West of the Catalinas East of the Tortolitas
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I was brought up Protestant, but next to my Elementary School was a Catholic Church and school, so I had tons of friends who were Catholic and never once saw a shrine in anyone's home.
Are these "shrines" you're noticing for Dia de los Muertos? If so, they're not meant to be creepy at all. They're to welcome back the memory of the loved ones.
My partner took pictures of his grandmother in her coffin, apparently it's something that's expected in his family. I had never heard of anyone doing this until I met him.
I've seen some bodies where the person looks like themselves and very peaceful, but I've also seen some where the person didn't look anything like they did when they were alive.
I think its better to remember people when they were alive, not after they are dead. For this reason, we do not have open caskets at all in our family.
I was brought up Catholic and everyone I knew was Catholic and never saw a "shrine" in anyone's home either.
I was brought up in the era of Pius XII, before Vatican II. Many Catholic homes in my town had "shrines" of various sorts. Most popular were the Sacred Heart pictures or statues with a votive light always burning before them, but people sometimes had statues or pictures of saints, etc. It was not unusual for a photo or photos of deceased family members to be on the same shelf.
Seems entirely routine for someone of my era, I think. There was in those years a very strong emphasis on the Church as being constituted of the living, those in Purgatory and those in Heaven. And the boundaries were not as rigid as they may seem today.
I had a sister-in-law, now deceased, who had a son named "Richard". When I first met her, we were having dinner at her home; her husband, my date, (her brother), her son Richard. Over coffee and dessert, she told me about her older daughter, Tessie. Then she took out a folder and showed me a photo of "the first Ricky". There was this baby, still-born and lying in a coffin. I was totally unprepared for such a picture and promptly threw up.
Now it doesn't matter to me that people want to have such a picture, but I can't see any reason to share it with a person you've just met. And may never see again.
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