funeral?

over the past couple of weeks, a local taxi company had had figurines of a phoenix placed on top of it. i had initially thought it was something else but i managed to grab a closer look at it when one drove passed me over the weekend. it was indeed a phoenix and it was used as an advertisement for sentosa's newest attractions - wings of times.

i felt a little uneasy about it. perhaps it was just me, too old fashion and haven't moved with time. but having a phoenix on top of a vehicle just reminded me so much of a traditional taoist funeral hearse of a female deceased. accordingly, for taoists, when a male passes away, the top of his funeral hearse would be decorated with a lion. a phoenix would be used in place of a lion if the deceased was female. that was what my family had for my grandparents when they passed away years ago. i thought this advertisement was done in very bad taste, and of cos, rather insensitive and disrespectful to the taoist religion.