Unlike a traditional funeral, a memorial service is a gathering where a casket is not present (although the urn with the cremated remains may be on display).
Whether formal or informal, each individual’s life can be honored in many ways at our facility. Music, poetry, or art can all be incorporated into tailoring a most-memorable period at our funeral home.
Additionally, clergy, family and friends can offer their participation in collaborating a special gathering.
A memorial service can be held weeks or even months after the death.
Here’s an interesting way to answer the question: a memorial service is not a funeral. Picture what you believe to be the traditional funeral, and then mentally tear up the image. Both ceremonies have structure; both are intended to bring community together in support and remembrance. But one is far more formal than the other; a memorial service is not lead by clergy, but guided by a celebrant or master-of-ceremonies. It provides all who attend the service an opportunity to participate on some level, not just to observe and reflect.
Visualize a memorial service as a mid-point on the spectrum of service format possibilities. On one end is the more formally-structured, clergy-led funeral service (often with three component parts: the visitation, funeral and a committal service held at the cemetery). At the other end is the celebration-of-life; an event where the life of the deceased–their passions, intellectual pursuits and personal accomplishments–are the focus of attention. A funeral isn’t truly celebratory, where a celebration-of-life is all about celebration. A memorial service could be said to be a gentle mix of the two; but in all honesty, each memorial service is unique.
When you sit down with a funeral director to discuss service costs, you’ll receive a copy of the firm’s General Price List which will detail all the basic professional services included in the price of your loved one’s memorial service, as well as the cost of any ancillary products or services you’ve purchased. Call us to get a better idea of what your loved one’s memorial service will do for you, as well as what it will cost.
We’ve actually written a number of pages on memorial service planning, but the short answer would include the tasks of selecting the location, date and time of the service. You’ll be asked to identify the specific readings, musical selections, food or beverages, and/or the activities you’d like to feature, as well as the people you would like to participate in the service itself.
How much would you like to be involved? Certainly, your funeral director will need you to specify certain details: the where and when, for example. Together you’ll make important decisions about other specifics, but once those decisions are made, you can “step back” and let us handle everything or have as much input as you please.
Our experience has shown us that many of today’s families want more than a traditional funeral. This can be done by bringing more of the personality and lifestyle of the deceased into the arrangements.
By displaying photographs or staging the event around a favourite pastime, a memorial service can become more personal and meaningful.
Rather than opting to do things “the same old way”, many families today want to celebrate the life of a loved one. Many funeral service professionals see this change as one of the many contributions to social change made by “Baby Boomers”.
If you too desire to make the funeral for a loved one more engaging and personally meaningful, a celebration-of-life may be the perfect concept to build on.