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Hearses, Green Street Mortuary
The Italian funeral parlor in North Beach, Green Street Mortuary features a marching brass band that helps send off the dearly-departed and traces its roots back to 1911. But in one of those cross-cultural twists unique to San Francisco the band is most popular with the nearby Chinatown community. Over 300 Chinese families a year hire the band to march with the procession through the streets of Chinatown curiously mixing the Christian hymns with traditional Buddhist ceremonies. A typical procession is led by the band playing a dirge, followed by a convertible with an oversized framed portrait of the deceased held up by family members on the rear seat back. That is followed by the hearse and family members and mourners. If you happened to be in Chinatown on a Saturday afternoon you may just be lucky enough to see the band and watch the shopkeepers come out of their stores to pay their final respects.
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