On the 18 Mar 2012 Tonga woke to the news of the passing of King George Tupou V in Hong Kong. A very sad day for the Kingdom of Tonga. The kids had asked previously what would happen if the King passed away as they are so used to seeing all the tradition and effort put into a normal person's funeral. It definitely impacts the entire Tongan comunity. The mourning colours to decorate the outside of your building or home are black and purple with everyone wearing black for the mourning period of 3 months. The kids and Lyndon wear black arm bands for the period. Below we have attached some photos from around town to give you just a small idea of what it is like. Initially all of the buisiness's around town shut down but opened within 10 days. Needless to say that there was a run on purple and black material at the stores which ran out pretty quickly, and all of the black clothes at the marketi doubled in price, grieving does not trump commercial gain.
Friends Cafe.
Parliment house.
New Zealand High Commission.
The Dateline Hotel.
One of the Princess' houses.
The prision market stall.
The University of the South Pacific entrance gates.
The Queen mothers residence.
The entrance gates to the royal Villa residence.
Even our local road side food marketi.
The royal tombs.
Dataline building in the center of town.
Treasury.
Westpac main branch.
An example of how much effort households went to. (We think this is actually the Prime Ministers house, but can't be sure)
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