Funeral Wake Tips

Simple Funeral Wake Tips

A Funeral Wake, according to the Collins English Dictionary is:

"V. rouse from sleep, stir up. -n. vigil, watch beside corpse, annual holiday in parts of N England."

Today a funeral wake usually takes place in a funeral home and is also known as a viewing.

This is the moment that friends and family gather together to pay their respects to the deceased and offer their support and condolences to the family before the ceremony of the funeral service, burial or cremation takes place.

In Northern England, as in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, the wake takes place after the funeral services in the form of a celebration in honor of the deceased.

Traditionally, the watching of the corpse was the hopeful moment that life might return.

Specific Funeral Customs

Here some quick links in alphabetical order for more information on different funeral customs:

Buddhist Funeral
Catholic Funeral
Chinese Funeral
Christian Funeral
Friend Funeral
Irish Funeral
Japanese Funerals
Jewish Funeral Customs

Personalizing a Funeral

Irregardless of the funeral preparations you're directing, there's an important topic that I want to cover which is the personalization of the funeral wake. All of the funeral preparations have been or will be made in honor of someone special.

This doesn't mean that this part of the process will bring your average funeral cost through the roof. On the contrary the only funeral cost associated is your time and effort.

Here are some funeral ideas and a funeral picture that will inspire you and make anyone truly proud to be that special person honored.

Questions to help get you started:

1 - What did the person do as a profession?

2 - What there a favorite hobby?

3 - Were they a sports enthusiast?

Was the person spiritual?

Sometimes coping with a funeral can complicate things and you may find yourself lacking ideas. Try calling a family member or a friend, you'd be amazed at how touched a person will be when their help is called upon in planning a funeral for a friend.

The next step in this process is to make a list of all of the personal belongings that can form a display beside the funeral casket or funeral urn during the wake.

You can include a funeral flower arrangement of the persons favorite funeral flower or a funeral wreath with a ribbon across it displaying a funeral message or a funeral quote.

Funeral Picture

The next step is to gather all of the personal belongings and bring them to the funeral home. The funeral director will be more than grateful to help you put together the display for the funeral wake.

Most funeral directors will in fact take on task and complete the display themselves to alleviate the burden.

For a young school teacher whose life was all about the children, put a collage of all of his/her professional accomplishments, the children can make pictures with one of their best funeral poems and recite them during the wake as a special homage.

If you want to take it a step further, personalize the funeral procession. Make arrangements for the school band or choir play a funeral march or recite some funeral hymns during the funeral wake or the procession.

I was walking by the cemetery one day when I witnessed a funeral procession that sent shivers up and down my spine it was so touching.

The funeral was for the director of a heating oil transportation company. The family had arranged to have all of the oil trucks form a line behind the funeral hearse when proceeding to the cemetery for the burial ceremony.

At the time they were lowering the funeral casket in the grave, all of the trucks simultaneously blew their horns. It still brings tears to my eyes when I think of it.

On another occasion, this person was a wine enthusiast. He made his own wine and collected wine in his personal wine cellar. Once a month he would receive friends over dinner and serve up a fine wine that would be enjoyed by all.

During the wake, a small wine rack with different bottles of wine and grapes formed a beautiful display of his favorite pastime. During the reception, friends and family gathered together for a sit-down meal and served up with his most favorite wine.

Visit the Wine Tasting Cellar if you need help demystifing the world of wine, get some great ideas for wine accessories and tips on what type of wine to serve with different dishes to help make your funeral wake reception a raving success.

All of these popular funeral ideas can be applied to all funeral services be it irish funerals, military funeral, police funeral even baby funerals.

One other fact that I do know for our military persons that pass on. All military do receive an American flag on their casket and handed to the family afterwards.

Families need only to provide military papers as proof. All military can have, if available, TAPS played at their grave site. Funeral directors know all about this, but most families aren't aware of the information.

If you have any questions, Contact Us, it's our pleasure to help.

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