For Rent: Crying Ladies and Gentlemen

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I had a Chinese friend you was really a dear of friend of mine. We share a lot of commonalities, from our favorite past time which is traveling, and favorite food like noodles and Chinese dumplings. His family was really good to me that they treated me like one of their own child. On special occasions, like the recently Chinese New Year, I felt that I was like a genuine Chinese. But one saddening event lately, one his relative died due to old age. That relative of him has helped a lot in the Chinese community that the bad news was quite a shock to them. First night of the wake, there were a lot of mourning people. Some of them I knew and the rest were complete strangers. But something in the wake struck my curiosity, from day one to the last day of wake I saw the same people, both men and women crying near the coffin. I asked my friend because I for one can definitely say that they are not related to the dead but they were called the crying ladies and men. In the Chinese culture, if a person dies, in order for his soul to go heaven, the more mourners the better. So the family of the dead actually hires them. This was quite odd and new to me. I wonder if there are other crying ladies and men in other culture.