Human grief is often one of the first things we are trained to recognize after the loss of a loved one. Funeral homes and funeral planning experts have countless resources on hand to help direct people toward bereavement services, medical professionals, and counselors who can help people cope with their emotions.
One area that is receiving increased attention in recent years is the role animals play—both in the bereavement process and as beings capable of mourning. If you are an animal lover, you may find that one of the best ways to cope is to find solace with your four-legged friends.
For thousands of years, people have been working hard to capture the memory of the loved ones they have lost. As early as the ancient Egyptian culture, death practices and funeral planning efforts have included a burial mask, or an impression made of the face of the deceased shortly after he or she passes. This was done for a variety of reasons, including religious and cultural rites.
It is also an art form in which the death mask becomes a memento or figure to be used in portraits or other memorials. Although the earliest cultures used clay or other soils to make the impressions of the face, death mask artistry evolved over the years to include plaster, wax, and even metal molds.
No matter what your intentions are or how highly you regard a loved one, there are times when it is impossible to attend a funeral. Although most employers are understanding when it comes to the last minute nature of funeral planning, it can be hard to take the time away from your job, especially if the service is being held out of town. From travel impediments and cost restrictions to former engagements, there are a number of reasons why you might have to send your condolences in place of yourself.
Unless you are a very close friend or family member of the deceased, this is probably okay. It might not be ideal for you to be absent during this difficult time, there are alternate ways to send your regards.
Choosing a cemetery is an important part of the funeral planning process. Unlike a casket or funeral clothes, which remain underground and eventually decay, the gravestone and cemetery are the visible and lasting reminders of the deceased’s legacy. Throughout history, humans have placed great importance on the final place of rest, even going so far as to construct elaborate structures for the purpose.
Although today’s cemeteries and gravestones tend to be more understated than what was expected just a hundred years ago, they still carry great importance to the family members and descendants left behind. Here’s a quick look through American history and our shared focus on this most important of burial rites.
When funeral planning takes place after a sudden loss, it’s not uncommon for decisions to be made hastily or in the best interest of getting the burial arrangements made and completed with as little fuss as possible. This is especially true if no advance funeral plans were made; you often have several people with opinions and overwhelming feelings, and not everything that is agreed upon is the ideal outcome.
Although it is rare that these decisions stray so far, there are instances in which the deceased is buried in a cemetery plot that you don’t wish to keep. There are many reasons for this. In some cases, a beloved relative might be buried out of state, and you wish to move them closer to your own burial plot. Perhaps the deceased is buried next to a relative he or she doesn’t belong next to, or the cemetery is too crowded to admit the rest of the family (at a future date). Whatever the reason, you may be considering exhuming the deceased and re-burying his or her body in another location.
One way in which families are saving on costs during the funeral planning process is to consider direct cremation. This process, which entails cremating the deceased without a funeral service, embalming, or body viewing, is the most streamlined option currently offered by the funeral industry. Although there is a lack of ceremony about it that puts many people off, direct cremation is ideal in situations in which no funeral pre-plans were made or the deceased wished for little fanfare.
When it comes to funeral planning, just about every culture and every family has their own list of traditions. Whether the traditions are as lighthearted as everyone wearing the color red in honor of the deceased’s favorite color or as somber as observing a strict period of mourning, most traditions, taboos, and superstitions have their roots in time-honored cultural practices.
Here are a few funeral superstitions that have been part of the Western culture for centuries:
• Pall bearers traditionally wear gloves when they carry a casket. This practice stems from a fear that directly touching the casket could allow the spirit of the deceased to enter the body.
One of the more difficult aspects of funeral planning—whether you’re doing it in the stages leading up to death or after the fact—is orienting children toward the proper methods of grief. Like adults, children grieve in different ways from one another, especially when you take into consideration different ages and the relationship each child had with the deceased.
Also similar to adults, children grieve through a series of steps, each one building on the last as they process their emotions and the sudden change in their world. Although the following is meant to be a guideline for these stages, please note that the advice offered here is never a substitute for professional therapy. When it comes to our kids, it can be very beneficial to seek guidance so that they not only mourn their loss properly, but also learn how to cope with future losses in their lives.
One of the most common questions we get here on our blog is “when is the best time to start funeral planning?” By now, almost all of us have heard about the options in funeral pre-plans, which range from setting aside funding via a trust or funeral insurance policy to actually planning the details and paying for caskets and burial plots in advance.
What most of us don’t consider is exactly when planning a funeral is best. Is it when you’re in your 40s? 50s? Facing retirement?
There is no single answer to this question, and only you and your loved ones can decide for sure when to start funeral planning. One thing, however, that is almost always universal is the benefit of funeral planning in the final stages of a disease or terminal illness.
The loss of a beloved pet is never an easy thing. In our society, we are all expected to mourn and grieve over the death of a human relative or friend, and there are countless services available for the funeral planning process when this occurs. However, when it comes to our pets, there is a bit of a bias against formal burial arrangements. After all, it was just a dog or cat. Shouldn’t you get over it or simply buy a new pet?
Those of us who have adopted a four-legged friend as part of the family know that things are never that simple. Some of these pets have been with us for decades, and many of them have faithfully seen us through the best and worst times of our lives. Saying goodbye to them isn’t easy, and the lack of formal funeral options often makes this difficult task even harder.
Fortunately, the market has seen a need for pet memorial services, and most cities have organizations that can help you plan a funeral for a pet. If you go through animal control or city services, you can either have the body picked up or you can drop it off to be incinerated in a communal process. However, if you want a more formal ceremony, you can also opt for formal pet cremation or even burial.
Human grief is often one of the first things we are trained to recognize after the loss of a loved one. Funeral homes and funeral planning experts have countless resources on hand to help direct people toward bereavement services, medical professionals, and counselors who can help people cope with their emotions.
