(Photo from Elwafeyat Facebook page)
In Egypt, death is seen as an important part of life, with its own traditions and rituals. One of those rites is wearing black for 40 days by the family of the deceased. Contrary to popular belief, the act is not a religious one, but comes from Ancient Egypt.
However, the most important ritual is the announcement of the death and receiving mourners. Usually, the announcement is made in the newspaper, which costs a serious amount of money, and the mourners are usually received for three days after the funeral.
Yet, maybe the hardest part of all is expressing loss. Mortality is a hard concept to cope with, and people often struggle with expressing their sadness and mourning. In the past, the idea of wailing and crying was not rejected, but accepted as a way of expression. However, today in modern society displaying deep emotions and stepping out of the known public conduct is often frowned upon.
This is slowly starting to change. A new Egyptian website named “Elwafeyat” was launched to help grieving Egyptians make all the necessary arrangements for funeral ceremonies and the obituary announcements in newspapers.
“Unlike our parents, our generation doesn’t check the daily newspapers to read the obituary sections,” said Yousef El-Sammaa, the co-founder and CEO of Elwafeyat. “We normally learn such news from Facebook and other social networking website.”
The website aims to facilitate listing of obituaries and funeral arrangements, as well as making reservations and arranging the condolence hall. It also offer maps and directions for the attendees.
Out of consideration for the emotionally difficult nature of funeral, the website asks the essential questions and helps create a layout for the obituary announcement.
“People who want to send their condolences can also send a telegraph by simply clicking on the option from the web page,” El-Sammaa said, adding that a new application would come out for android and IOS software within the next two weeks.
“Aside from offering the same services the website has, the application allows anyone to send an SMS with the previously mentioned details to all his/her contacts,” he said.
Users of the application can also allow the access to their social networking website which will automatically create a connection tree and notify the users in the event of one of the members’ passing.
