When somebody dies

[Brynhild]

I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but I'm sure the powers that be will find the right home for it. :D

I'm interested in knowing, from a religious and cultural viewpoint, how you remember a loved one (friend, family etc) when they pass. Is a Requiem Mass conducted, followed by something private? A simple chapel service with a huge gathering afterwards? Are you allowed to bury your kin and conduct rituals beyond the normal laws of burial and cremation?

The last couple of funerals I attended, for example, have been for the older folk who have passed. Our family generally come from far and wide and it is a good excuse to catch up with long-lost relatives, despite - or even in spite of - the occasion. Funerals are more sombre occasions while wakes are more lighthearted, family stories - real or imagined - are told, others like to drink.

Among my Heathen folk, there has been talk in regards to being allowed to hold our own burials based on religious grounds, in the hope that legislation will change to accommodate it. Personally, I would rather that sort of thing for myself, as long as there is somewhere that my family and folk can come to in remembrance.

Your views?

[SwordoftheVistula]

My family doesn't do anything at all.


Among my Heathen folk, there has been talk in regards to being allowed to hold our own burials based on religious grounds, in the hope that legislation will change to accommodate it.

What legislation currently forbids it?

[Brynhild]

My family doesn't do anything at all.
What legislation currently forbids it?

AFAIK, you need to be of a recognised religion in order to be properly buried or cremated, something my troth is looking further into.

[SwordoftheVistula]

AFAIK, you need to be of a recognised religion in order to be properly buried or cremated, something my troth is looking further into.

What do atheists/agnostics do then?

[Murphy]

Wake > Chapel/Burial > Pub.

Regards,
Eóin.

[Loyalist]

There is nothing special or unusual about how funerals are conducted in my family. It is generally a simple service in a funeral home, with relatives giving eulogies and sharing anecdotes about the deceased, followed by a Minister saying a short sermon and prayer. Afterwards we usually gather at the home of whoever was closest to the individual. The only other thing of note is that everyone on my father's side who has passed has been cremated, while everyone on my mother's side has been buried.

[Mesrine]

I'm interested in knowing, from a religious and cultural viewpoint, how you remember a loved one (friend, family etc) when they pass. Is a Requiem Mass conducted, followed by something private? A simple chapel service with a huge gathering afterwards? Are you allowed to bury your kin and conduct rituals beyond the normal laws of burial and cremation?

Your views?

No tradition in my family. My grandfather was cremated without religious service, and his ashes are in the Père-Lachaise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Père_Lachaise_Cemetery) cemetary's colombarium (see pic below), while my grandmother was buried after a religious ceremony (most boring thing ever).

I think I'll be even more radical than my grandfather. Cremation, no ceremony, and dispersion of the ashes. Let's get rid of that shit. I don't even want something with my name on it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Paris_Columbarium_du_Père-Lachaise01.jpg

[Óttar]

I've never experienced it in my family (I was only three when my grandfather died), but I will find out soon. Two times over no less. :icon_sad:

[Beorn]

I don't go to funerals. People in the West have become to attached and morose over the passing of loved ones.
You mourn privately for no more than a few days and then get on with it. They went to a different world; a place of such love, joy and happiness that if they could look back in those first few moments and see you stooping like an idiot over the thought of their eternal soul, they should laugh at the thought.

Stick my corpse in a room and guard it well with a cat for three days and then burn it. Then get on with you life.

[Equinox]

When I drive somewhere I do not believe myself to have become part of the car. The same is true with my body.