Blanket Funerals

I was at a friend's granny's wake today. As usual, we saw the blankets hung up by the side of the void deck with well wishing messages from relatives who had sent them. This was in place of funeral wreaths. I was surprised as I thought this to be a Taoist practice and I knew my friend's granny and entire family were Christians. Apparently it was a cultural thing, not a religious one. The symbolism? It's a form of support shown to the family that relatives will take over the role of the deceased to keep his/her family warm. Hence the blankets. Again, asians live up to our reputation for strong family values. We may be quick to turn up our noses at superstition, but we can certainly learn a lot from the motive/idea behind our many many practices.