– From a headstone in Ireland
Where families can go for answers.
Print and share this planning guide with family, friends and your funeral director as you finalize your plans.
Why Have a Funeral?
When we experience the death of someone we love, a funeral service fills several important needs. First, it provides for the dignified and respectful care of the person and special tribute to their life. Among its purposes, it makes us acknowledge the death, remember the life and activate support during this naturally difficult time.
Equally important, the funeral service helps survivors face the reality of death, which is the first big step toward taking grief from the inside and allowing us to express it on the outside through mourning. Together, close friends and relatives can lend support and consolation when they’re needed most.
A funeral gives friends and relatives an opportunity to express the love and respect they feel for someone who was important to them. Often, just seeing how much others care can be a tremendous help to a family in adjusting to their loss.
Since the beginning of time
For thousands of years, funerals have been a means of expressing our beliefs, thoughts and feelings about the death of someone we love.
The funeral ceremony:
- helps us acknowledge that someone we love has died
- allows us to say goodbye
- provides a support system for us, friends, family members and our community
- allows us to reflect on the meaning of life and death
- offers continuity and hope for the living
Importance of Mourning
While your grief journey will be unique, all mourners have certain needs that must be met if they are to heal. Though these reconciliations needs of mourning are numbered one through six below, they are not intended to serve as orderly steps on the road to healing. Instead, you will find yourself bouncing back and forth from one to the other, and maybe even working on one or two simultaneously.
The Purpose of FuneralsImportance and Reasons for Rituals
Rituals are symbolic experiences that help us, together with our families and friends, express our deepest thoughts and feelings about life’s most important events. For example, birthday parties honor the passing of another year in life. Weddings publicly affirm the private love shared by two people.
What do rituals have in common? First, they are typically public events. Families, friends, church members, villages, even nations – any group with strong emotional or philosophical ties – may create and enact a ritual, providing a support system for common beliefs and values. Rituals unite us.
Second, most rituals follow an established, cultural-specific procedure. The details will change, but the general pattern remains recognizable. The predictability of rituals helps participants feel at ease.
Finally, and perhaps most important, rituals are symbolic. Wedding rings, christening gowns and gold watches all symbolize important life transitions and commitments. Not just the objects, but the very acts of ritual are symbolic as well. The symbol of ritual provides a means to express our beliefs and feelings when language alone will not do those beliefs and feelings justice.
The funeral ritual, too, is a public, traditional and symbolic means of expressing our beliefs, thoughts and feelings about the death of someone loved.
