Funeral Planner & Arrangements For Funerals

For thousands of years, it has been a common practice to bury the dead in different ways. The Egyptians used to mummify the dead, while the Romans burned the deceased. However, burial has become the traditional practice in later years. Regardless of the method followed in the funeral service, what is common is that at this time, friends and family come together to pay last respect to one who had touched the lives of his/ her loved ones in some way or the other. When a death occurs in the family, all the surviving members of the bereaved family usually pick a coffin or a casket from the funeral home for the deceased to be buried in. A coffin is the funerary box that is used in the containment and display of the deceased for burial.

Practices of using coffins in funerals

Coffins are also known as caskets. However, in North America, there is a distinction between ‘coffins’ and ‘caskets’. By a coffin, they refer to a tapered octagonal or hexagonal box, used for the burial, while casket refers to a burial box that is rectangular in shape and has a split lid for viewing the deceased. The coffin can be buried directly in the ground, placed inside a burial vault, or cremated.

Types of coffins used in funeral services

There are mainly two types of coffins that are offered to customers – those made of wood and those made of metal.

* The kind of wood that is used in coffins might be pecan, pine, oak, maple, mahogany, cherry, mahogany, ash, and walnut. There are coffins that also come in various finishes that imparts a beautiful look to the coffin.
* Coffins that are made of metal are generally produced from four materials, which are steel, copper, stainless steel, and bronze. Often such metal coffins have come with a protective or non-protective finish against water and air. In case of steel coffins, one of the distinguishing features is that they usually have a memorial tube or an identifying kit which makes it convenient to identify the body if there is any need of it being exhumed or even transferred somewhere else.

It should be mentioned that the price of the coffin depends very much on the kind of material that it is being used. As well as this, one may also choose the type of lining to be used inside the coffin.

Coffins are an integral part of the funeral service. One may choose from a wide range of coffins that are available according to the budget and requirements.

Death is a part of life and so are funeral services. But did you know how much damage we do to the earth even after we have stopped living? Did you know that 60 million trees are axed every year to build coffins? Gases released during cremation account for 16 percent of the mercury emissions in U.K. Construction of vaults for burials lead to the introduction of about 1.6 million tons of concrete in the soil. The number of people who die each year is about 56 million now and this figure is expected to increase twofold by 2040, so things will only get worse.

We don’t really stop to think of the materials that are used to manufacture items like caskets that are used in traditional funeral services. According to recent research, the quantity of metal used to make the caskets used in North America is equal to the amount of metal used to manufacture the Golden Gate Bridge. Some funeral service rituals sometimes require embalming. Since these embalming fluids are supposed to retard the process of decomposition of the body by inhibiting the growth of bacteria, they also inhibit the growth of bacteria and other important enzymes in the soil.

To prevent all this damage to the environment, we can now choose to opt for greener funeral services.

Green burial tips

One way of ensuring that a funeral is environmentally friendly is to use a biodegradable casket. If you use a coffin made of used paper, buried in a place where there are trees and shrubs, the body will slowly become a part of the environment.

Another method is to cremate the body before it needs to be embalmed. If the body is embalmed, cremating it leads to air pollution because of the toxic gases released during the cremation.

Headstones also lead to pollution because they obstruct the growth of trees. Thus you may choose to have a living memorial for yourself or your loved one in the form of a tree. If this becomes a practice then it will be easier for the survivors of the decedent to cope with the loss because they will have a living substitute for the person who is no more and also lead to the planting of millions of trees. There are more than two hundred environment-friendly burial sites in England, so you can choose the one that is close to your home.

Another novel environment-friendly option is to get your ashes mixed with reef material. This material is then placed in an ocean. Eventually it becomes a new reef. This promotes the growth of organisms that grow on reefs and restores the ecological balance of the planet.

With so many options, it is now much easier to plan a funeral service and burial that will not harm the environment.

The epitaph or the final chapter to a well lived life is a funeral. Planning funerals can prove to be extremely overwhelming especially during an emotional crisis. Often it can become really difficult to take care of all the small details when grieving for the loss of a loved one. It is at this time when the family and friends of the bereaved family take control of the situation and plan the funeral service. The various practical and ceremonial tasks are delegated and distributed among the close friends and family members. The usual task list includes the following activities:

•    Answering the telephone and providing information on the funeral to friends and mourners.
•    Writing letters or emails to the distant relatives and acquaintances of the deceased, informing them about the death. A funeral or memorial program can also be drafted and sent along with the letter.
•    Setting up and managing a phone chain in order to notify people of the death. A phone chain is extremely useful in getting the notice out without having to assign one particular person to make all the phone calls.
•    Keeping a track of the senders of donations and funeral flowers in order to send out ‘thank you’ notes later.
•    Making arrangements for funeral flowers and other decorations at the church, the funeral home, or any other funeral location.
•    Choosing the coffin.
•    Helping to arrange for a charity for the purpose of receiving donations in lieu of flowers if required.
•    Finding a venue for the memorial service and also handling all the arrangements.
•    Getting the funeral order of service printed for the distribution at the service.
•    Arranging for food and other necessities to be delivered to the mourning family during the week before the funeral service as well as the week after it.
•    Writing the obituary in the memory of the deceased.
•    Providing the pastor with favourite poems, scriptures, anecdotal stories, etc. for describing the deceased.
•    Setting up a memory display table or photographs.
•    Babysitting if required.
•    Handling the logistics of services such as podium and microphone, chairs, police chaperone, musicians, parking, transportation, accommodation arrangement for out station guests and relatives, and honoraria and fees to the musicians and officiant.

Special tasks

Apart from these regular tasks, there are certain special tasks as well. Pallbearers are required to carry the coffin from the funeral vehicle into the service. Ushers are needed to help seat guests and speakers are required for short readings, verses, and poems.

By distributing all the tasks among the family members and close friends, planning and executing the funeral arrangements isn’t such an ordeal. It is an obvious fact for the bereaved family to be emotionally drained out if they have to carry it alone. Family and friends therefore play the most important role in the planning of a funeral service.