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Why coffin should be a boring box, where you can order to be made in the form of a lobster, red pepper, poultry or shoe? Indigenous inhabitants of a small African nation of Ghana believes that the funeral - it’s not a sad farewell to the deceased, and the celebration of a man crossing the road to a better world. It is here that there was a tradition of putting the corpse in the coffin of a special bright intricate shapes.


1. This tradition was quite young and came from a stupid accident: in the middle of last century one of the Ghanaian rulers ordered for a litter (stretcher as a bed or chair for 2 poles) in the form of an eagle, delivery of which has fallen exactly on the day of his death. Resourceful families have provided the litter cover, and buried him in the monarch.

2. A new way to the funeral came to taste the local population. Soon, many wealthy people, and then everyone else started ordering fancy coffins to commemorate the deceased with a special luxury.

3. The design of the coffin is based on some aspect of the life of a deceased person. For example, if the street carry a coffin in a car, then most likely the one who lies in it was the driver. A farmer can put in chicken, but for seamstresses to produce a coffin in a sewing machine.

4. The coffin could symbolize and some specific feature or habit and be in the form of beer bottles or cigarettes.

5. The body of one who dreamed of buying a luxurious car or on his own plane’s relatives put in a wooden copy of “Dream”.

6. Often, the coffin is so eccentric shape, which put back the body of the deceased in the usual way is problematic. But the Ghanaians are not worried about it and placed the corpse as necessary. Importantly, to his soul rejoiced specific identity of the last refuge of the body, and the very shelter took place in a doorway. To this end, some parts of the tomb, for example, the wings of the plane can be easily removed and attached again.

7. Manufacture of such coffin takes a lot of time. And Ghanaians because of superstition and religiosity are not bought a coffin in vivo. Therefore, the situation when the body of the deceased for several weeks in the morgue, is quite ordinary.

8. Because of the complexity of the average cost of production figure of the coffin is 500 - 600 dollars. For many Ghanaians is the sum of annual earnings. State authorities are already concerned that, despite the benefit to multiple service providers from costly funeral, the country’s population is deprived of huge sums of money, and the production of coffins is becoming one of the most productive sectors in Ghana.

9. Fashion on the original coffins had time to spread beyond the African state. Figured coffins began to order some of the residents of England. Ghanaian coffins are buying European collectors.

10. And in France (city of Besancon) is the Ethnological Museum, which collected more than 20 copies of the coffins from Ghana and England.