Funerals and coronations in the age of Instagram

WE enter the new year with the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict 16th. In the Philippines, I heard the news of the 95-year-old pontiff's death just before the 7 p.m. New Year's Eve Mass. There was no mention of it at Mass, which made me think they hadn't heard the news yet. I follow the Vatican and other Catholic social media sites and saw the events unfold immediately. I waited for the St. Peter's Basilica mourning bells to ring. This is different from the sound of the usual daily bells. The mourning bells, according to Mountain Butorac, a travel guide who lives near the Vatican, are long and recognizable for their somberness. They weren't rung. Every detail in the death of a pope means something, so the lack of this detail matters. Later we found out that Pope Francis is honoring Benedict's wishes of having a simple funeral.

In an age when everything can be done instantly, like the artificial intelligence-generated digital portraits that went viral, the details of traditional ceremonies matter. We learned the significance of every movement through the video production of Queen Elizabeth 2nd's state funeral. Some critics found it excessive in a time of great loss and financial recession. But the grandeur and formality of the 10-day-long wake for the longest reigning monarch also brought a very moving global and individual response. Though these may have elicited some anti-monarchy sentiments, it also made people want to understand the very complicated past of British history. Colonialism, religious wars and all. The irony is not lost on me, that a link to the lost absolute power of church and state, also felt like just the death of a woman, a mother, a grandmother.