High school students at the German town of Schleiden hosted a funeral for a very special friend — a skeleton who had finally passed on.
The skeleton — who was affectionately known as Anh Bian — was laid to rest in a Protestant cemetery on Wednesday.
Anh Bian is Vietnamese for “mysterious peace” and had been in the school’s biology department since 1952.
The skeleton was used for educational purposes for several generations of learners over the decades.
The funeral was a grave affair, with over 80 students, teachers and town officials taking part in the ceremony.
“We are indeed laying to rest a member of the school community to their grave,” said Pastor Oliver Joswig, according to the Associated Press.
The bones belonged to an unarmed woman and was buried in a tiny coffin that was adorned with symbols of several world religions.
Students have petitioned for the remains to be buried for years, however, the pandemic halted their plans, German news agency dpa reported.
Once DNA samples from the skeleton have been analyzed and returned, the school hopes to study them to leaner more about the skeleton’s origins.
A plastic figure is now being used for biology lessons in the school.