World’s Strangest Addictions: Funerals

Many people are repelled by funerals; most of us do everything we can to ward off the very thought of death in our day to day lives. Of course, when a loved one or good friend passes, we honor them by holding a funeral or at the very least a memorial service to deal with the reality, remember them – hopefully fondly – and ultimately move on. However, there are not many of us that would seek out funerals to attend. But there are a select few that do so compulsively.

My research has not yet revealed a clinical term for this strange addiction, but I have been able to retrieve at least one example of an individual “suffering” with this condition. Brazilian man Luis Squarisi, aged 42, from Batatais is said to have attended every single funeral that has occurred in his town for the last twenty years. He even quit his job in order to devote all of his time to this pursuit.

He told a Brazilian television station, "The first thing I do every morning is to turn on the radio to find out if anyone has died, if I don't hear it on the radio I call the hospitals and the local funeral home."

One would think that this behavior would be utterly disturbing to his fellow townsfolk. Interestingly, the opposite is true. Sao Vicente, a representative for the local funeral home said, "We don’t want him to go to therapy, everyone expects to see him at the funerals. If he stopped coming he would be missed and lots of people would be disappointed. He is famous already."