One of my favorite aspects of Arabic/Muslim culture is the mourning when somebody dies.

We have a 3 day wake when a person dies. The family that lost a member pick a place (usually the yard of a family member) and set it up with chairs, usually in a circle and prepare for people to come. And the whole city comes. Every family, even if you didn't really know the person, but in support of the family, half the city shows up. When they enter, their close relatives sit in the entrance and people come, offer their condolences and find a seat.

They are offered a small cup of really good and strong coffee (arabic mocca with cloves and cardamon, try it), then they are offered a date (usually Majhoul dates, soft and sweet) and then a cup of water.

Even if you do not like those, people usually accept out of respect. Then they sit for as long as they wish, talk to the people around them, about whatever they want to talk and then leave.

As you can imagine, it is very tiring for the family as it goes for 3 days for 18 hours a day (most people show up in the evening/at night). The family is invited for lunch and dinner by other large families because they know they might not have time to cook and also out of support.

I think it is a very strong and beautiful sense of community, specially in such hard times...

When my grandfather died, I was in 7th grade, it was my first family death. I was put on coffee duty with my cousin who I didn't get along so well back then.

We did it for 3 days, non-stop and we really connected. Coffee is usually prepared on an open fire, so we were sitting there hours and hours preparing coffee and talking. Of course we had to test-drink every batch and never went to sleep.

I always like this tradition, I hope you enjoyed my story :)