Personal Narrative On Nine Night

I was very young When I first experienced Nine Night. I was scared at first I must say. I think mainly because I didn 't really understand what was going on. I remember a lot of music and people. it was drumming and lots of alcohol around. it was my cousin that have passed away and I thought to myself “ well this is nothing that is on TV.” my entire family and friends were there. I also remember the smell of all the good food in the big pot under the tent. it was hot and dark And I was no more than 8 when I first experienced Nine Night. I also remember being close to my mom and aunt as some people were in the house making noises, I really didn 't want to go inside because I was scared. I just wanted to go to sleep. I felt that if it

My favorite part and what i remembered most is the food. Everything is cooked from the yard, nothing is store bought. Some of the food made is yam, banana, and any type of meat they had or raised. Some would be chicken, goat, or even ox. All this food would be cooked on a fire outside in a huge metal pot. I remember never near it because i feared it would swallow me. That was when i was around eight or so but my mom told me lately that things have since modernized. “ they would drink tea, have some fry fish, and sometimes have jerk chicken with hard-dough bread.” I would also need to count drinks as part of the food. “ everyone would have have a cup of rum inna dem hand” my mom said as she recalled what type of drink would be there. “ white rum was there and it was very important. White rum would be served during Nine Night and the actual funeral, but not much was given out to drink because it was very strong.” she continued, Oh boy was it

Spiritually speaking the process first starts of with “ the seeing” when someone looks in the doorway and sees the spirit and tells people there. The host of the celebration/ ceremony greets the spirit and begins singing. The songs are usually played or sung for the spirit. On the ninth night of the death the bed/mattress is turned over ( liked my mother mentioned seeing) against the wall. This is so the spirit can leave the house and enter the grave. I found this crazy interesting because i don’t remember witnessing that process but i think i would have liked to see how it worked.

Nine Night is linked to African and European roots. Jamaican nine night was mixed with African and European cultural practices with christianity. Some of which is liked i mentioned. The process in which the person has to follow to ensure the spirits is passed through safely. Well in African belief the self had 3 components; the body, the spirit, and the shadow or duppy (spirit). Once the body was dead and the spirit began their journey to God, the duppy or shadow could live on and wreck havoc for the living. Sounds similar right? It turns out that this part is derived from Africa and their