Each to their own
Darius, a king of ancient Persia, was intrigued by the variety of cultures he met in his travels. He had found, for example, that the Callatians, who lived in India, ate the bodies of their dead fathers. The Greeks, of course, did not do that – the Greeks practised cremation and regarded the funeral pyre […]
Think globally, act locally
All other things being equal, the manner of the death and the age of a dead person determine the response. Diana, sudden, young = vast outpouring of grief. Mandela, protracted, old = vast outpouring of celebration. They said when it was all over that a factor in the lamentation for Diana was unresolved grief — […]
Why live music is best at funerals
Posted by Richard Rawlinson A follow up to Charles’s lyrical piece about the inadequacy of music at funerals. With recorded music at funerals, people tend to sit down, listen, tap a foot, perhaps, and, if it’s really working its magic, meaningfully relate the music to the memory of the dead person. Whether pop lyrics or piano […]
Let’s face the music and yawn
Poor Ed Miliband. Challenged on Desert Island Discs to name the record he’d take, if he could only take one, he abjectly nominated Robbie Williams’ Angels. Derision was universal and prompted David Cameron to make that quip about ‘loving Engels instead’. It prompted Janice Turner to observe in The Times: Music is rather overrated in my view, […]
Santa’s final ride
We are pleased to host a series of posts, in monthly instalments, recounting the adventures of Vintage Lorry Funerals. Here’s the second. Vintage Lorry Funerals took Santa Claus on his final journey in Bristol who was buried in his red uniform and black boots. It wasn’t Santa Claus, but a man who had played him in […]
Richard Mark Sage
Devotees of the above will be delighted to learn that he remains free and very much at large in all senses of the word. His trial was due to start at Blackfriars Crown Court yesterday, but he phoned in sick. Case postponed until June. There are times when the law looks like a sick joke. […]
When eulogies go too far
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Mafia funerals in churches intrigue. Any congregation inevitably includes an eclectic mix of faces in the pews, but the mobsters and molls at a gangster funeral turn the nave into something else. They’re totally welcome, of course, and are likely to be behaving with perfect decorum, but you still can’t help projecting […]
What would a regulated funeral industry look like?
When people discover that you need a licence to open a cattery in this country, but not a funeral home, they are astounded. You’re kidding; surely they’re all qualified? Er, nope. Actually, some undertakers do sit an exam set by the undertakers’ trade associations, but it’s not compulsory. No, you can do a long sentence […]
Spot the coffin
After last year’s annus horribilis, when the whiff of anything funereal on the telly had undertakers diving behind the sofa, it’s nice to see things return to normal. Soaps are always a good source of funerals as are, of course, dead celebs. For the anoraks of Funeralworld, it’s fun to sit back and play spot-the-hearse. […]
Apocalypse? What apocalypse?
There’s a wide and growing measure of agreement that the next big scandal to hit the funeral industry is going to centre on pre-need funeral plans. On the one hand, there is intensifying anxiety concerning the robustness of trust funds. There are dark and disturbing rumours flying around about plans coming in underfunded. On the […]
