Jolly rottin
On the North Island of New Zealand, Whangarei District Council has been researching natural burial for the last three years. Three years? Yes, they want to do it as it should be done. Cemetery manager Helen Cairns says: “When we do get natural burial – if we get natural burial – we want to make sure […]
The unquiet grave
Posted by Vale How pleasant is the wind tonight I feel some drops of rain I never had but one true love In greenwood he lies slain I’ll do so much for my true love As any young girl may I’ll sit and mourn all on your grave For twelve months and a day The […]
Quote of the day +
Posted by Vale Wislawa Szymborska – Nobel prize winning poet – died last week. In a piece in the Guardian she was reported as saying: “For the last few years my favourite phrase has been ‘I don’t know’. I’ve reached the age of self-knowledge, so I don’t know anything. People who claim that they […]
Now with streaming video
Posted by Vale The Lancashire Telegraph reported last week that it is planning to put a video streaming service into it’s Burnley Crematorium. The chapel proved too small on over 50 occasions last year and, with the video service, people would be able to watch the ceremony on a big screen or over (a […]
C of E raises funeral fee to £160
The Church of England’s General Synod has just announced a rise in the fee payable to a priest for officiating at a funeral to £160. The fee takes into account both admin and also the heating and lighting of the church. There’s no information available yet on whether this fee will apply also to crematorium […]
Quote
“Never leave one of the deceased in a room without a light on – it’s undignified.” Rachel Edwards, funeral arranger, here.
Modern life
hi could anyone help me I have made my second memorial and all the themes are gone there is only 3 with butterflies when I made my sisters there was loads to choose from help please Xx Appeal on a chat forum at online memorial site GoneTooSoon.
Corpse in the parlour
In the Kokomo Perspective, Don Hamilton writes: Back in the early 1940s, they had funerals in the homes. A relative would die, and their casket would be placed in the corner of some room in the house, so that visitors could come and pay their respects. Most of the visiting family members would spend the […]
Has the funeral procession hit the buffers?
Posted by Charles We’ve talked quite a lot on this blog recently about ritual. There have been times when a better and more accessible word might have been theatre. For what is a funeral if it is not theatre? The playscript for the drama we call a funeral, together with its delivery, is, for the […]
Daft, yes, and none the worse for that
People do like ritual, but I think that this goes deeper than our love of spectacle and colour. Ritual fulfils a human need. Monarchists, republicans, fascists and Communist tyrants have all understood its value. The Romanovs had their elaborate court protocol, and the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church. Stalin had his May Day […]
