Brazilian Arrives at his Funeral a bit Confused

As uncommon as it is to watch your own funeral, it happened on Monday in Rio de Janeiro.

Ademir Jorge Gocalves, 59, shocked his morning family by showing up very much alive at his funeral.

Brazilian custom is to bury the deceased the very next day.

The next day is a Brazilian National Holiday called, 'Dia de Finados’ or day of the dead.

The family was unaware that Gocalves had spent the previous day consuming cachacas with his buddies at a truck stop. He did not become aware that a procession was being held in honor of his demise until Monday morning.

The mixup occured when another similar individual was in a vehicle crash and became difficult to identify.

The body that had been mistakenly identified as him because similar clothing spurred the errant ceremony.

An authority from the town of Santo Antonio da Platina told reporters that Goncalves rushed to the funeral to let family members know he was not dead.

"The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing," said the police spokesman, who talked on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the case. "People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case."

Goncalves niece Rosa Sampaio told reporters that the family initially had its doubts but the funeral went ahead as scheduled.

"My two uncles and I had doubts about the identification," Sampaio told an O Globo reporter. "But an aunt and four of his friends identified the body, so what were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral."

The correct identity of the corpse was established later Monday, the police spokesman said, and has already been interned elsewhere. Authorities refused to release the actual victim's name.