Should There Be A Funeral Or Memorial Service?

When you have lost someone close, it is difficult to deal with the numerous decisions that need to be made. Everything may appear to be confusing, and a lot of things do not make any sense. 

One of many confusing questions is deciding to hold a funeral or memorial service for the loved one that has passed. It may seem like they mean the same thing. In a sense, they are both ways to say goodbye to someone important in your life. 

But they are also different. Funeral service honours the deceased with the body present while a memorial service memorialises the deceased without the body. There is also a growing preference for a cremation service. 

Planning a Funeral Service

A funeral is often conducted right before the burial or cremation of the deceased. Similar to a memorial service, a funeral can be held at a funeral home or a church. Often, there is music, a eulogy, readings, and acts of commemoration like funeral favours or a memorial guest book. 

Planning a Memorial Service Program

A memorial service is when the memory and the life of someone, who had passed on, is celebrated and remembered. This service can be conducted at any time after death. Many memorial services have been held several months after someone has died. Each situation is unique and should be respected.  Such a service can be held at any preferred location such as the home of the deceased or a local funeral venue, somewhere that has significance to the deceased, a church or temple, or any other location that brings comfort and meaning, is appropriate for the mourners and their accessibility. 

Cremation

There are a growing number of people who prefer to say their goodbyes through a cremation service. Cremation is an option for the disposition of a loved one’s remains by burning the remains to ashes. The service can be made part of the funeral service or held as a separate service altogether. 

When you lose someone, it is important for you and others left behind to be able to say goodbye. It honours that significant change in everyone’s lives as well as providing a moment to begin the journey into grieving. 

However, the type of service will depend on other factors like finances or funeral cost, preferences of other family members, and the wishes of the deceased (if they were made known before their death). 

Irrespective of your choice to bid the final adieu for the departed, it makes sense to hire professional service providers such a funeral director and funeral celebrant.

They can assist you in many aspects of appropriate funeral plans as well as advising on the best suppliers for funeral services such as how to live stream funeral, funeral flowers, funeral booklets and keepsakes.  There may also be many aspects of the arrangements where they can share their advice and experience in the funeral industry.  Particularly when it comes to things like scattering ashes ceremony or graveside ceremony, a natural burial or ashes into fireworks.