In South Korea, mock funerals have become increasingly popular since the early 2000s. Organizations therefore offer complete ceremonies where the person – alive and well – is placed in a coffin, surrounded by their portrait and farewell letters, ready to receive a sermon and tributes from loved ones.
The coffins, which have holes so that the person can breathe well, are closed for long minutes, up to half an hour, and hammer blows are given to reinforce the sense of isolation.
42 suicides a day in South Korea
The goal: to provide citizens with a realistic experience of death, to better appreciate life after it. Such a practice could make it possible to stop the suicide rate in South Korea, one of the highest in the OECD with 42 acts per day, twice as much as in France.
“Participants can reflect on their lives and realize that life is beautiful,” confided Kim Hi Ho, director of the Happy Dying Institute. Vice magazine in 2016. His company organizes 300 fake funerals a month. Jung Joon charges $25 per session at Coffin Academy, his funeral home in Seoul. “Then you feel empowered and ready to start your life again,” he testified Los Angeles Times.
“I really felt like I had died.”
If some of the participants cry openly, others prefer to keep the lid of the coffin open, others give up. But most testify to the realism and power of the experience.
“I really felt like I was dead. Until now, death seemed far away, but now I think I have to live a better life,” said participant Baek Kyung-ah. Financial Times.
The experience, which has already been experienced by tens of thousands of South Koreans, could also reduce depression in this country where the job market is extremely competitive. The number of patients taking antidepressants in South Korea has increased by 32% in five years, a record according toOnesep.
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