Stop wasteful 1-week death anniversary – Palmer-Buckle

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle, has condemned the one-week celebration of the dead in Ghanaian culture.

According to him, the one-week celebration is unnecessary and a waste of time and resources.

In his sermon at the funeral ceremony of the late Senior Minister J.H. Mensah at the Accra International Conference Centre on Friday, 17 August 2018, Rev Palmer-Buckle wondered why everything must come to a standstill just to celebrate the one-week passing of the dead.

He told President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and other government officials present at the funeral not to give state approval for the one-week celebration of the dead.

“Do not let us give, unwittingly, state approval to that beautiful custom of Eighth Day because people look at what we the leadership of our country do, how we stop everything to go for eighth day ceremonies, how we stop government work to go for it, how everything comes to a standstill when somebody dies because of eighth day ceremony. Yes, people look at what we the leadership of our country do and they copy it and even overdo it. We spend undue time, government time and personal resources,” he stated.

Rev Palmer-Buckle also condemned the lavish expenditure on funerals describing it as unnecessary. “We’ve learnt to borrow money for funerals and we all know what happens after lavish funerals,” he stated.