Just a bear right? Well it's actually a bit more then that. The picture above is of what is being called a huggable urn. Basically, when a person is cremated, these urns can be bought to place their ashes in.
The ashes are put in the bag (as seen in the picture above) and then placed in the bear and zipped up. It can then be treated, basically, as a normal bear. When I first saw this on tv I was really freaked out. But apparently people are buying these (whether they use them or not I'm really not sure) and I think that's why it interests me. It's radically different then what's been done in the past. It also gives us a somewhat different look at death and how the living deal with and "honour" the dead. To some these bears could be seen as very disrespectful to the dead and on top of that, really weird. Some may even wonder why any one ever created these. In a way it's a form of defamiliarization (mixing teddy bears with death), which does make huggable urns an art form. Though some find it weird, there are others that think this is a great way to keep loved ones with them forever. It just shows you, it's all in the eyes of the beholder.
Image 1: http://www.ship-of-fools.com/gadgets/death/177_1.html
