A funeral is a family (or a State) service held in honour of a deceased person. It involves a set of rites and rituals that change in accordance with the deceased's religion and culture.
Usually at the Christian funerals, the ceremonies can be categorized under three broad heads - visitation, funeral and lastly, the burial. The first two parts, which are the most essential ones as far as ritualistic aspects are concerned, are discussed below.
The first part is the visitation, when the deceased is placed in a casket for public viewing by friends and relatives. The body is usually adorned with the best clothes and jewels belonging to the dead person. Some cultures need embalming the body for the visitation, while others don't.
Visitation mostly includes a display of photos of the dead person by the family or a display of items that were valued by the departed during his lifetime. Some people even play a video recording or do a slideshow in memory of the dead.
The visitation ceremony is followed by the next service, the memorial service, also called funeral, and it is conducted in a church. The casket with the dead body in it is carried in a vehicle to the church, accompanied by a funeral procession of mourners. The casket is placed inside the church with an elaborate floral decoration on it.
This involves offering of prayers by the attendees and reciting lines from the Bible or Holy Scriptures by the clergy. Devotional songs are also sung by the mourners in chorus. This is followed by a speech by the pastor presiding over the proceedings of the funeral and tributes by the family and friends, who then share their personal thoughts about the deceased's life. Though this is not a mandatory custom, but in some cultures, people are allowed a final glimpse of the body before leaving the church for burial. Church bells are also sometimes rung after the service.
The completion of second part, which is the funeral, marks the commencement of the burial, which is the final stage of the proceedings, and the deceased's body is carried through a funeral procession.
Discover more about the best company that provides high quality casket and best Christian funeral.
Related posts:
- What You Need To Know Before Choosing Cremation Cremation is often misunderstood. The "ashes" of a cremated body...
- Christian Rehabilitation Centers: What You Need To Comprehend Do you have an addiction? It may possibly be drug...
- What Can A Digital Photo Frame Do For Me? One of the hottest things to come out of the...
Comments on this entry are closed.