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Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

I remember when growing up with my grandma in 1990 Germany that after funerals of people that died of "old age", you would always have a get-together afterward to celebrate the person that passed, either at someone's house or at a simple local restaurant. I hope people get together and celebrate when I die.

I have fond memories of those social events.

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One of the best parties I’ve been to in my life was the reception after a funeral for my wife’s great-aunt. Generations of relatives and family friends, some of whom hadn’t seen each other in thirty years, took over their house from after the ceremony at noon until 10pm that night. It was a rager.

> I hope people get together and celebrate when I die.

phrasing might need a little work.

Does it? I kind of feel that way too, no rephrasing needed.

Will they be celebrating because you've died or celebrating the life you lived? (the phrasing above sounds like the former) I want to live my life in such a way that people aren't happy (and/or relieved) when I die. I know some people whose passing will cause relief among the living - probably we all know people like that.

You can obtain the proper context from GP's whole comment. They were talking about celebrating someone's life after they passed so it's natural, contextually, to assume celebration of life.

Context is important.

> to celebrate the person that passed

It is clearly written that such celebrations are for the person who has passed.

It isn't even implicit: It's literally spelled out, in very plain English, what the purpose of these celebration are.

> I hope people get together and celebrate when I die.

Here, it is clearly written that the author hopes that people will perform such a celebration for him when he does eventually die.

Not because he is dead, but because he has lived. That's what celebrating a person means.

Everyone understands this. It was a joke. It is funny to propose that the commenter hopes that people will get together and go "wow, thank god that asshole has finally kicked the bucket" and this proposition is made possible by the fortunate coincidence that "get together and celebrate when I die" can, divorced from context, be interpreted in either the intended way or the funny way.

If we're talking semantics, the celebration is not so much for the deceased, but for the living "left behind."

Prepositions are a fundamental part of English, and having a celebration for a person [alive, or dead -- it doesn't matter] is using "for" as a preposition.

who's phrasing and why do they need a job?

I think the "Leichenschmaus" is underappreciated, both for the communal aspect and also simply for how good it feels to eat good food after the emotionally demanding funeral.

I told my wife, that if I die before her, to cheap out on the coffin and the tombstone and to spend the money on a fine meal instead.

This custom known as stypa (or konsolacja more often today) is still present in Poland - tho nowadays it's easier to host it at restaurants that provide such services for the grievers rather than run it by yourself. People in small towns or villages somewhere in the mid of the country may still opt for organizing these by themselves.

As for the food itself - it's nothing special, you pick your menu.

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