ARGENTINA: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - Some die-hard Argentinian soccer fans choose to rest in peace in Boca Juniors' coloured-clad coffins.

Record ID: 447939

  • Title: ARGENTINA: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - Some die-hard Argentinian soccer fans choose to rest in peace in Boca Juniors' coloured-clad coffins.
  • Date: 9th April 2006
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FILE) (REUTERS) CLOSE UP: OF FANS OF BOCA JUNIORS SOCCER TEAM ENTERING THEIR LA BOMBONERA THE STADIUM (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 24th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA5S5KJYLC9VFT1N6IHVHRCJRY2
  • Story Text: Many fans of Argentina's most popular soccer team, Boca Juniors, pledge eternal devotion to the club. And with new Boca caskets on sale, they can put their money where their mouths are.
    Hernan Marini is only 24 years old, but he has already visited a local funeral home to pick out his own coffin, a blue casket etched with the team's shield on its lid.
    It is the subtlest of three official Boca Juniors caskets made in a factory outside Buenos Aires and sold at the Dauria funeral home.
    Marini plans to be a die-hard fan as long as he lives, and as long as he's dead. "I think that maybe the coffin expresses my feelings, the things that have happened during my life, maybe at that moment (of my funeral) it might bring a smile to someone's face, remembering when they accompanied me to the stadium to see a match, or something. I don't want it to be a party either, but I think that it might reduce the pain a little and might even bring a nice memory to some relative, or friend's mind," said the young Boca fanatic.
    The idea is not entirely original. One of Boca's soccer chants says: "The day I die, I want my coffin, painted blue and gold, like my heart."
    Now die-hard fans can make that a reality by paying between 2,000 pesos and 2,500 pesos ($650 to $800) for a casket. That sum is a small fortune, however, for many of Boca's poor and working-class followers.
    According to the funeral home's owner Daniel Dauria, the notion of thematic coffins is one that reflects societal changes in the way death is perceived.
    "We believe that death, and the manner of dealing death, has changed culturally in recent times, and that hasn't been reflected in the coffins. So we believe that this change is extremely necessary, we see it as feasible," he said.
    The Boca Juniors coffin comes in two, flashier versions, one in a bright, solid blue and the other which is blue with a painted yellow banner "draped" on the outside -- both sporting Boca's crest.
    The coffins are all manufactured at Diegues, a factory outside the city that is the exclusive producer of Boca Juniors coffins. The idea was the brainchild of factory owner Fernando Garcia.
    "We presented this whole project, and we went with the folder, with the project, and presented it one day to Boca, and well, after exchanging a few of their and our ideas, we reached an agreement, and the official Boca coffin was born," said Garcia.
    The factory manufactures 40,000 coffins a year, of which 30 percent are thematic coffins, usually more colourful than the more popular classic versions. As well as the option of a Boca Junior coffin, prospective corpses can select one painted with a sky motive, or a highly symbolic sunset coffin.
    Boca Juniors is Argentina's most popular soccer, hailing from a working class neighbourhood by the city's old port. Legendary soccer star Diego Maradona made his name as the team's number 10 and still goes to his beloved La Bombonera stadium for matches.
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