Funerals can be emotionally challenging for family and friends since they’ve just lost their loved one. A funeral service can help them mourn and pay tribute to the deceased loved one. Keep reading to find out more about what is a funeral service, along with a quick review of the funeral process and relevant expenses.
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What is a Funeral Service?
A funeral is a traditional ceremony for memorializing a person who has departed. Funerals mainly take place before burial or cremation. A departed person’s family or friends hold a funeral, usually within a few days of the death. Since the dawn of human history, funerals have always been with us. This traditional ceremony helps the departed soul to move from life before death to life after death.
The funeral service is to prepare human remains for cremation, burial, or other final disposition. Funeral services also involve planning, supervising or directing the funeral ceremony.
For families and individuals, a funeral service can mean many things, despite their region. Some may prefer what is commonly called a ‘Traditional Funeral’, whereas others may find it an emotionally unfulfilling experience.
Fortunately, today, there are various ranges of funeral services to go for. And thanks to several unique social forces.
Funeral Service Management Course
Funeral Service Management Course
Why have a Funeral Service?
Ceremonies or rituals are superior experiences that help us to gather with our family, relatives and friends. Through these gatherings, we share other’s emotions and thought, as well as expose our deepest thoughts and feelings about life’s most meaningful experiences.
For example, birthday parties are for happily starting a new year of life and acknowledging the passing of another year. Just like that, weddings are to publicly declare the private love shared by two people. Finally, like all rituals, the funeral ritual is a public, traditional and symbolic means of expressing our feelings and thoughts regarding the demise of someone we love.
After knowing what is a funeral service, now let’s briefly understand what a memorial service can help you with and how.
The Purpose of a Funeral Service
When we experience the death of our loved one, a funeral service can fill several essential needs. Some of them are described below
A memorial service will help you to
Pay Tribute
Funerals enable us to reflect on the essence of life and death. A funeral service is intended to give a special tribute to a person’s life. Among its purposes, it allows us to acknowledge death, which we often seem to forget. Therefore, it helps us remember that life is temporary and initiates a support system during this difficult time.
Mourn
The funeral service helps us face the certainty of death. And, that is usually the first giant step toward taking grief from the inside and express it on the outside through mourning. We mourn the loss of our loved ones and our friends and family are there to share this experience with us, support us and help us get through this tough phase of life.
Receive Emotional Support
Funerals grant continuity and hope for the living people. In addition, a funeral allows friends and relatives to express love and respect for someone important to them. Often, just knowing how much people care about their loss can help a family emotionally. Also, funerals provide a support system for friends, family members and the community.
Express Our Feelings
Funerals help us accept the harsh truth that someone we love has left us forever. For thousands of years, funerals have been a powerful medium of stating our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Additionally, it helps us acknowledge the loss of our beloved one and allows us to say goodbye properly.
At this point of the article, you know what is a funeral service and the purpose of it, now let’s see a quick overview of it.
Funeral Service Management Course
Funeral Service Management Course
Quick Overview Of Funerals Services
A funeral is an organized and structured ceremony. It has a proper beginning, middle and end section. Each section or part intends to join the living participants in activities. Thus, these activities can be status transforming for the participants within the community. Also, it allows to provide the close friends and family with a collective grieving experience and celebrate a life lived. In addition, it is a socially pleasant way for members of a community to express and affirm their social attachments.
At some services, the casket has been already set up in the room, usually on the front side. While at other services, the pallbearers bring in the casket. During the process, people may-
- Say prayers
- Deliver eulogies
- Read passages from scripture or literature
- Sing songs
At the end of the funeral ritual, the pallbearers will remove the body to a vehicle and bring it to the mortuary for burial.
A funeral influences everyone involved, including the deceased. A deceased person’s social status changes dramatically, from an existing community contributor to one whose contributions are assigned to memory. Though, the social status of each of the descendants– most especially the immediate family– has also shifted.
In fact, a funeral service can be the start of a difficult period of mourning for family members. Therefore, marking this shift in a uniquely identifiable way is important.
Traditional funeral services typically include:
Holding a Wake or Visitation
The first part of the ceremony is often called a Viewing or Wake. In this part, guests come to pay their condolence and respects to the deceased and their family. Then, guests view their casketed body, spend time and share the sorrow with the mourning family. A visitation usually occurs at the beginning of the ritual. However, it can happen at any time prior to the funeral service.
Many funerals begin with a viewing, wake, or visitation at which the body is on display. A viewing or wake may occur at-
- A funeral place
- A religious place of worship
- Your own home
NB- If you are following any religious or cultural traditions, be aware that some religions do not include viewings, visitations, or wakes as a part of their customs.
Holding a Funeral
This event commonly takes place at the – funeral home, a church and the graveside.
It can include –
- Music
- The reading of literary or religious passages
- Praise and prayer
- The singing of hymns
In the case of interment, there is usually a short service held at the gravesite. This service is often limited to immediate family. However, some may prefer to include everyone who visited the funeral. Finally, the funeral officiant recites more prayers or readings and slowly lower the body into the ground.
Holding a Cremation
In the case of burial or cremation, the body is usually taken straight from the funeral to the crematory. However, suppose the family plans to bury the deceased. In that case, this stage of service involves-
- The vehicle procession to the cemetery
- The committal service and
- The casket placement in the grave or vault for the burial of the remains.
If desired, family members may or may not gather at the crematory to watch the cremation or say prayers.
Post-Funeral Reception
Finally, after the internment, it is common to have a reception. Deceased families can hold the reception at
- A funeral home
- A religious place of worship
- A family home
- Any other place that can accommodate all the attended guests at the funeral.
Funeral Service Management Course
Funeral Service Management Course
How Much Does a Funeral Service Cost in UK?
After knowing what is a funeral service and all the why and how, now let’s discover the cost of it.
The average expense of a funeral in the UK is more or less £4,184.
Although the average cost of a funeral seems too high, funeral costs can vary depending on the variety of services you want. On average, the price for a burial funeral is £5,033, and the average price for cremation is £3,885.
The funeral service cost will differ according to the location, type of funeral service, transport, type of coffin, funeral director fees and any extras such as flowers or catering for the wake.
The overall cost of a funeral service is usually made up of:
- Funeral director fees
- Third-party costs
- Burial costs
- Cremation costs
- Optional costs
Whilst the final cost of a funeral service will solely depend on the arrangements you choose to make, the overall quality of service can vary significantly.
However, ensure funeral costs are within your budget and manage all of the arrangements to deliver a dignified service.
NB- To save a lot of money, you can do some research and compare funeral service prices online.
Conclusion
A funeral service, whether traditional or modern, has two primary purposes:
1. To acknowledge and honour the dead, therefore, the lifetime achievements of that individual.
2. To gather mourning family members and friends in support of one another and pass through this challenging time.
Although, companies in the funeral services industry are often considered as an unpleasant light. However, the services and products they provide are necessary.
After knowing what is a funeral service, you must know that this industry is best suited to investors for those who are looking for a stable income. Death is as certain as life and is one of life’s few realities. So this industry has a steady flow of trade, despite a height of seasonality. However, it’s good to be aware that this is not one of the growing industries. Companies hold no controlling power over the death rate; as a result, leaving this industry with limited options to earn and increase revenues.
To learn more about funeral services and funeral services management, take a look at this course on Funeral Service Management Course.
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