Germany and Cameroon

CAMEROON

Cameroonians have a variety of religious beliefs, and many individuals combine beliefs and practices of world religions with those of their own culture groups. Approximately 53 percent of the population are members of Christian denominations, about 25 percent practice mainly "traditional" religions, and approximately 22 percent are Muslim. Most Christians live in the southern areas, and most Muslims in the north. Traditional religions are systems of practices and beliefs that adapt to changing social conditions. Most involve the veneration of ancestors and the belief that people, animals, and natural objects are invested with spiritual power. Several cultures, including the Bamiléké in the west and the Maka in the east, practice divination and/or perform public autopsies to determine the cause of death. These peoples are particularly concerned with death caused by witchcraft. In many cultures, a death is announced through public wailing by women. Grassfields peoples bury their dead quickly but observe a week of public mourning called cry-die. Close relatives shave their heads. Approximately a year later, lavish death celebrations honor the deceased, who has become an ancestor. Death provides the occasion for the most important ceremonies of the forest forager groups (Baka, Kola, and Medzan). The forest spirit is believed to participate in death ceremonies by dancing under a raffia mask. The honoring and veneration of ancestors are common to nearly all groups. Ancestors may be remembered in oral literature (the Fulani), buried in elaborate tombs in the family courtyard (Catholic Ewondo), or reburied and provided offerings of prayer, food, and shelter (the Bamiléké). The Fulani, like other Muslims, believe in an afterlife of material rewards for those who obey Allah's laws.

GERMANY

German Catholics observe “Allerheiligen,” All Saints Day on Nov. 1. It is not observed as an official holiday in all of Germany but only in the states with mainly Catholic population such as Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Baden-Würrtemberg and Nordrhein-Westfalen. Here, stores, banks and public offices remain closed. The day is a regular workday in the rest of Germany. On Allerheiligen, or even some days prior, Germans visit cemeteries to light candles and to decorate the gravesites of deceased family members and friends with flowers or wreaths made of fir tree branches, pine cones and dried flowers. But since All Souls Day is not an official holiday, most people visit the gravesites on All Saints Day, their day off. November is known as the month of remembrance, contemplation and mourning. Protestants remember the dead on “Totensonntag,” Nov. 20. It always falls on the last Sunday before the first Advent Sunday. Funerary rites involve either a church service or a civil ceremony, depending on the beliefs of the deceased and his or her survivors.