Funerals

Volunteers have descended on Christchurch to assist with the burial process and support victims' families.

Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be buried as soon as possible, but the burials have been delayed by the scale of the identification process.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a self-described white supremacist, has been charged with murder.

Christchurch city officials issued strict guidance to the media ahead of Wednesday's funerals and requested that the families be left alone.

This is not the first time authorities have tried to get rid of the practice but it has proven resilient.

According to one theory, strippers are used to boost funeral attendance because large crowds are seen as a mark of honour for the deceased.

Another is the practice could be linked to a "worship of reproduction".

"In some local cultures, dancing with erotic elements can be used to convey the deceased's wishes of being blessed with many children," Huang Jianxing, a professor of Fujian Normal University told state-media outlet the Global Times.

These were the findings of two focus group sessions organised by the Regional Disaster Resilience in the Pacific Small Island Developing States (RESPAC) and the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) in Samoa last week where the idea of funeral expenses insurance was investigated.