B.C. college issues cease and desist letter to ‘death midwives’ group
VANCOUVER — When a close family friend died last August, Satwinder Bains got a call asking her to help give the dead woman a bath.
“It was such an honour, such a privilege to be able to do it,” said Bains, a professor of Sikh studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C.
The Sikh tradition of joining others to pray for a deceased loved one and bathing the person entering “a new journey” is a sacred rite and has nothing to do with religion, she said.
“At the time of death, both prayer and person will be by your side,” said Bains of the simple ritual that is similar to practices in other cultures and involves dressing the deceased and combing his or her hair before cremation.