How to Plan a Funeral According to Custom

Video Transcript

"Our topic for today is how to plan a funeral according to customs . According to customs there are a number of customs in our society today that equate to how the funeral service is planned. Many families have religious preferences such as the Catholic service or the Jewish service, that have certain customs that accompany that funeral service. In the case of the Catholic family there will always be a priest. And usually the funeral service itself would be held in the church or the cathedral. In the case of the Jewish family the Rabbi would be involved and many times the service would be held at the Jewish Synagogue. In the case of the Jewish family there may be a situation that there would be embalming or may not be embalming. Some religious preferences require one versus the other. Some religious preferences in the Jewish faith require that the casket be totally made of wood with no metal objects, nails, screws or any hinges or any thing of that nature that would be involved in making the casket. So those are two customs that you would deal with when arranging a funeral for a Jewish or a Catholic family. But there are other customs. One custom would be some areas of the country have one or two or three nights visitation with most funerals. Some areas of the country just have a few hours visitation and then the funeral the next day. Some areas of the country have most of their funerals in the night time hours like six, seven or eight o 'clock at night versus in middle Tennessee most of our funerals are during the day. Some areas of the country it's custom that they do things like the memorialization of mother for flowers or religious affects that deal with the funeral themselves. Some bring in things like if he was a deer hunter the lining of the casket could be camouflaged. Or maybe he was a golfer and they bring in his golf clubs and shoes. All of those type things fit into the custom or the traditions of each family and what they prefer."