DeathCare (.com)

Death is not a topic that is avoided within Druidry.

Filed under: Alternatives, Death Practices, History of Funerals on May 17th, 2010 | No Comments »

Adaptation is key in developing funeral “traditions” for modern Americans.

Filed under: Alternatives, Cremation, Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals on May 3rd, 2010 | No Comments »

Learn how Ms. Post viewed mourning, how she dispelled the “sitting up” tradition, and how she viewed servants who would not help during a time of need.

Filed under: Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals on November 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

Perhaps by adding the Shanidar plants listed above to your next funeral arrangement, you can alter history – or, at least encourage debate among future scholars.

Filed under: Funeral Arrangements, Funeral Flowers, History of Funerals, Traditions on October 20th, 2009 | No Comments »

In the first blog entry about Bahamian burials, you may have learned that there was a distinction among social classes and between races in life as well as in death in the Bahamas. In the second article, you may have witnessed how both Europeans and Africans influenced each other in the types of memorials reserved for the dead and the designation of a burial as permanent or transient. This article, the last in the series, shows how class defined the Bahamian burial; however, cultural influences also shaped the Bahamian burial scene.

Filed under: About Tombstones, Cemeteries, Death Care News, Graveyard Etiquette, History of Funerals, Traditions on October 17th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Bahamian vault graves on San Salvador Island

Are you appalled by the idea that a family or community might re-use grave sites as mentioned in the previous Bahamian burial article? Or, perhaps the condition of the Bahamian cemeteries and grave sites might disturb you. If so, pick up the book, In Small Things Forgotten, by James Deetz to learn more about earlier American burials.

Filed under: About Tombstones, Cemeteries, Death & Dying, History of Funerals, Traditions on October 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

At the beginning of month-long graduate school archaeological dig in the Bahamas, one student asked what the class would do if a body were found during the digs. One professor responded, “Call the authorities, because that body would not be an antiquity.”

Filed under: About Tombstones, Cemeteries, Graveyard Etiquette, History of Funerals on October 16th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

…She began to tell me about how my great grandmother’s casket was draped with roses, and about the black lace dress that she wore to her grave.

Filed under: Death & Dying, Death Practices, Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals, Plan Your Own, Traditions on October 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

Unless you work for a funeral home, or unless you have an obsession about death and dying practices, you may wonder if there is a difference between a funeral director and a mortician or a mortician and an undertaker. For all intents and purposes today, there is no difference – especially if the funeral home is a small family operation. But, in larger funeral home operations, you might see a slight difference in what each job traditionally entails.

Filed under: Funeral Arrangements, Funeral Basics, Funeral Homes, History of Funerals on September 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »

Deathcare.com already offered a short article on American-German funeral traditions, which have become assimilated – for the most part – in American traditions based upon religious beliefs. But, in Germany, burial traditions often are different than those in other parts of the world, and have been so for generations. But, changes are in the works, and some of the following traditions also contain explanations of changes when known.

Filed under: Cemeteries, Cremation, Funeral Arrangements, Funeral Law, History of Funerals on September 13th, 2009 | No Comments »