Why We Have Funerals

Have you wondered why we have funerals at funeral homes in Dayton, OH? Funerals are full of traditions and rituals and symbols that give the opportunity for the memory of your loved one to be honored. Funerals are the vehicles that let friends and family say goodbye to a loved one. And funerals are designed to offer comfort, support, and empathy for your family after the death of your loved one. It is also recommended that you put in mind the events and activities in preplanning your funeral.

One of the rituals of a funeral is the visitation or viewing. This ritual often occurs just before the actual funeral service. It is an allotted period of time (usually two hours) for mourners to visit with your family and, if you’re having a viewing for your loved one, to pay their respects to them.

Funerals typically have a more somber tone to them than celebrations of life, so the visitation and/or viewing is a very calm and quiet event where people will stop briefly to talk with you and your family to express their condolences, offer their support, and then sit down to wait for the funeral service to begin.

The funeral service itself can be customized in any way you wish for your deceased loved one, but a typical funeral service structure includes readings, eulogies, a short sermon (if the person was religious), music, and a prayer.

The readings may be poems or parts of books that were important to the deceased. Readings are designed give new insights into who your loved one was, what mattered to them, and how they thought about and lived life.

Readings encompass the entirety of your loved one, and they show sides of them to mourners who may have only known them in a limited or specific context, such as at work or in a social or business association.

Eulogies are sometimes given by family members, but, because this is such an emotional time for most family members, eulogies are usually given by one or two of your loved one’s closest friends.

Eulogies, in general, will highlight the character of your loved one. Eulogies are intended to draw a portrait of your loved one through the telling of stories that point to what made the your loved one’s life important, how they impacted the people, and what kind of relationships they developed throughout their lives.

If a sermon is given, it will be short. Unless your loved one’s pastor knows beforehand what spiritual insights or message your loved one would have wanted conveyed, the sermon will primarily be about comfort, hope, and empathy. The pastor will use scriptures to encourage the family and the mourners that their loved one is okay and that they will all see each other again.

Music, like the readings, will be a mirror of the sentiments and tastes of your loved one. You can choose from any type of music you want to honor the memory of your loved one, but you should always bear in mind that the music should help the other mourners as well. It’s best to choose music that is tasteful (if the song has an explicit warning on it, then it’s not appropriate for a funeral service) and evokes good memories of your loved one.

The final part of the funeral service itself is a short prayer for your family, for the other mourners, and for the future.

After the prayer, the funeral director will make any announcements regarding other services. The graveside service may be held directly after the funeral service or it may be held the next day. The funeral director will provide instructions for the graveside services, as well as the name of the cemetery where burial will take place and what time the services will begin.

If you’d like more information about funerals at funeral homes in Dayton, OH, and funeral planning, our compassionate and experienced staff at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service can help.