Ceremonies
Alternative Ceremonies
This section is designed to offer ideas and suggestions on how to make a funeral or memorial service more creative, personal, and contemporary. It can be difficult to prepare a meaningful tribute even if your friend or loved one was prepared with burial insurance. A funeral service, whether you’re hosting or attending one, is a way of processing grief and dealing with the transition of a loved one from life to death. Commiserating with others is one of the first steps of grief. Sharing stories and offering condolence gifts such as funeral baskets is a way for people to show that they care and love. Some find solace in custom, but traditional choices are not for everyone. Rituals work for others, but it’s important to realize that those rituals can be updated or translated in ways that make sense in today’s terms. Still others may be forced into remembrance ceremonies they either don’t relate to or feel are inappropriate. Yet, funeral alternatives for memorializing a person when he or she dies are few and far between.
| Buddist | Green Funeral | Japanese Odon | Pagan Rites | |||
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| Private Funeral | Surfers Funeral | The Home Funeral | Your Traditonal | |||
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If you were to select a gift for a friend to celebrate a special occasion, it’s likely you’d want to give him something you know he’d like. If you threw him a birthday party, you would definitely include details that would reflect his preferences or particular style. A funeral should be no different: The goal is to create a celebration of life tailored specifically for the deceased. Keep in mind that although the focus is on the deceased, the purpose of a memorial service is for the living.
Are you ever worried about what might happen to your properties and your investments after your funeral? If you are not, then you should be. We always think that dying is something that we do not need to worry about. That we will have plenty of time before that moment arrives that we are no longer there to manage our own affairs. The truth is that anything can… Continue reading
Ideas For Funeral Arrangements
The Traditional Service Done Your Way
When making funeral arrangements I have often been asked how funerals are normally held or what the right way is to go about having a memorial service. After a few years I finally figured out the answer: There are no rules to follow. There is no norm. You can host a funeral any… Continue reading
A pagan service is a casual affair. Paganism involves the non-religious worshipping of people and the earth. The elements of fire, water, earth and air are associated with pagan rites. To represent fire, light candles or make a fire pit; for earth, have a small mound of dirt or sand available; fill a bowl of water from a creek or pool; for air, ask guests to be mindful of the… Continue reading
Buddhist Ceremony
Legend has it that when a man went to the Buddha professing his grief over the loss of a friend, the Buddha gave him particularly sage advice: throw a party. Tōrō Nagashi is a Japanese Buddhist ceremony in which souls are sent to the next life aboard small paper boats. Chinese attitudes include the belief that life, without death… Continue reading
A ceremony that is gaining popularity in the United States has its origins in Buddhism but is evolving into something much more universal. The Japanese Obon festival has been held annually for about 500 years in Japan and within the past few decades has reached America. The largest of these festivals typically take place in Hawaii
Are you going green? There are many ways you can create a green funeral service with care and concern to the environment.
Did you know that in the year 2007 American funerals were responsible for burying…
- 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid
- 104,272 tons of steel
A once long held tradition in America was having an in home funeral. For more than a century people cared for their own dead as a way of life. The death that occurred at home was laid out usually in the unheated front parlor and the visitation and services occurred right there. Late 19th century traditions changed, arrangements became more complicated for families and the profession of Undertakers
One of the hardest parts of becoming a surfing senior citizen, or as is more often used as a more apt description within the surf community, a geezer, is that more and more people you know keep passing away. It gets to be a drag getting the news that somebody that you know, who more often than not is even younger than you has moved on to the big perfect… Continue reading
