Posts Tagged ‘funerals’

Clues to Funeral Traditions Found in Obituaries

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Private Louis J. Freudenberg obituaryIf you’re seeking clues to funeral traditions, you might look at obituaries. Current obituaries often are found online. Older obituaries, such as the one shown at left, can be found at genealogical sites and through newspaper archive sites. Look for a specific fraternity, religion or ethnic leaning when you conduct your searches, and you might be rewarded with some information on whether tradition is important, or if it is eschewed for more modern rites.

Below is a sampling of some current obituaries. They represent a vast array of custom, tradition and modern ritual. Names in the first obituary have been changed or omitted to protect privacy:

Irish Obituary: (Cathal Brugha Street, Cashel, Co. Tipperary) June 7, 2009, (peacefully), at South Tipperary General Hospital, Meredith, beloved husband of the late Mary; deeply regretted by his loving sons, sister, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. May he rest in peace. Reposing at Devitt’s Funeral Parlour tomorrow (Wednesday) evening from 5.30 o’c. with Removal at 7.30 o’c. to St. John the Baptist Church, Cashel. Requiem Mass on Thursday at 10.30 o’c., followed by Burial in the adjoining cemetery.

NOTE: Notice how the man died (peacefully), a point that is rarely made in American obituaries. The funeral includes a viewing at a funeral home and ceremony at a Catholic church with a requiem mass along with burial in the church cemetery (sanctified ground).

Soviet-American Jewish Obituary: Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, May 18, for Soviet Jewry and human rights activist Si Frumkin at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive. Frumkin died Friday at the age of 78, with cancer as the cause of death.

Born in Kaunus (Kovno), Lithuania, Frumkin survived ghetto life under the Nazis and inhuman forced labor at Dachau as a 14-year old, before his liberation. As founder of the Southern Council for Soviet Jews in 1968, Frumkin was responsible, as much as any one person, for moving the issue of emigration for Soviet Jews from the political fringes to the mainstream. Later, he fought for such causes as Ethiopian Jewry, insurance payments for descendants of Holocaust victims, Israel’s security and against neo-Nazism.

LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who will deliver the eulogy at the services, described his close friend as a “one-man rapid response team for Jews in trouble.”

NOTE: Unless the person is known,  the cause of death rarely is included in current American obituaries. Frumkin was buried in a Jewish cemetery, and a eulogy was delivered at the service. Note that there is no way to tell if Frumkin is survived by family in this obituary. Further research into the cemetery shows that this memorial park is connected to the Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and it is the largest Jewish cemetery and mortuary in the western U.S.

Swiss-American Fire Chief Obituary: Even his harshest critics acknowledged that former Milwaukee Fire Chief William Stamm was a man of integrity, someone who cared about protecting the public…Stamm died Friday of complications of heart disease and pneumonia. He was 92..”I’m 100 percent Swiss,” declared the chief, who was involved in ethnic events…He also served as president of the Wisconsin Society for Brain Injured Children. He became involved after attending classes with his granddaughter, Becky, who was born with Down syndrome…Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Schmidt & Bartelt Funeral Home, 10121 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa. Services will be at 7 p.m. Memorials are suggested to the Shriners Hospitals for Children and Masonic Health Care Center.

NOTE: I only included a portion of this lengthy obituary, but you can read the rest of the story, along with photographs. What I wanted to note with the above is that the man’s declaration of his Swiss heritage and his connections to benevolent charities. But, did these associations have anything to do with his funeral service and burial? The funeral home, which has seven locations, seems to cater to many different individuals, and they also specialize in cremation. Whether or not Stamm observed any tradition is unknown from his obituary. But, Stamm was a fraternal brother, as noted by the memorial to the Masonic Health Care Center, and he also may have been a Shriner. These memberships were confirmed with another search for Stamm. Also, a search for Swiss funeral traditions shows that cremation is common. But, as in any other country, the choice of religion in Switzerland often dictates customs and traditions.

Image: This obituary appeared in the Hudson Observer, Friday, November 22, 1918. If you click on the image, you’ll learn more about this obituary at Wikipedia.

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Cremation Urn Basics

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Have you opted for cremation after death? If so, you may enjoy picking out your urn now. Even if death makes you feel squeamish, you can be entertained by the options available – anything you can imagine may be available or possibly created just for you or your loved ones.

With that said, cremation urns are permanent memorials, so choosing a suitable urn is an important decision. There are several options for urn placement, so you might consider the following before you make a choice:

  1. The cremated remains are placed in a cremation urn and are buried in a plot or niche in a cemetery or mausoleum.
  2. The cremated remains are placed in a temporary receptacle or urn that opens for scattering ashes.
  3. A decorative urn is chosen to display the cremated remains at a home or other significant sanctuary.
  4. The cremated remains can be divided and placed in small keepsake urns for family members.

Once you have made a decision about how to dispose of cremated remains, then you can choose the urn. That decision can be based upon hobbies and interests and type of urn material. You can choose among any number of woods, metals and even biodegradable materials. You also can have the urn personalized.

Purchasing an urn today is easy. Many funeral homes and Web sites offer urns for sale, even at discounted prices. When you visit a funeral home for your options, remember that the Federal Trade Commission Funeral Rule requires the funeral director to show a general price list (GPL) of merchandise that the company sells, along with descriptions and prices before showing the urn.

Other laws may apply to your urn purchase and disposition. There are many options, and laws vary from state to state for disposition of cremated remains, or “cremains.” However, an urn is not required by law, and if you cannot make a decision about an urn, the cremated remains can be placed in any container that is firmly sealed (such as a plastic or cardboard container). If you have questions about containers and disposition laws, contact a cremation service provider in your area to learn more.

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Bagpipes and Funerals

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

Have you ever wondered why bagpipes often are played at police and firefighter funerals? This practice in the United States dates back before the Civil War and after the Great Potato Famine when Irish landed on these shores in unprecedented numbers. Although many arrived with just rags on their backs, they also brought a beautiful and haunting tradition with them.

Before the Irish Potato Famine, many Irishmen were farmers, but they were classified as some of the poorest people in the Western World. They were so poor that they subsisted entirely on potatoes, and they often rented farmland or worked for a place to live and for a small plot to grow potatoes. While they were poor, they were healthy, as a person can be sustained on potatoes. Still, jobs were few and the Irish farmers were many. Although they may have been healthy, they were at a loss for what most Englishmen would have considered a “modern and industrial life.”

The French sociologist, Gustave de Beaumont, visited Ireland in 1835 and wrote: “I have seen the Indian in his forests, and the Negro in his chains, and thought, as I contemplated their pitiable condition, that I saw the very extreme of human wretchedness; but I did not then know the condition of unfortunate Ireland…In all countries, more or less, paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupers is what was never seen until it was shown in Ireland.

When the potato famine struck in 1845, this loss of crop meant that the only item of sustenance had disappeared from the Irish diet. The famine lasted for six years, and in that time over one million men, women and children died and another million were forced to leave the country and shipped to Canada or to the U.S. U.S. Immigration records indicate that by 1850, the Irish made up 43 percent of the foreign-born population. Up to ninety percent of the Irish arriving in America remained in cities. New York now had more Irish-born citizens than Dublin. Those who did not stay in New York or Boston traveled to places such as Albany, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and out west to Butte, Montana, and San Francisco.

Everywhere the Irish went, they were unwelcome. First, they were Catholic in a largely Protestant country. Additionally, they were poor, which many people thought caused a strain on this country financially. Finally, they were different – they did not try to assimilate, instead keeping a clannish mentality that helped them to retain some of their former Irish identity. They were provided with little to no assistance, and they took the jobs with the lowest pay and the most danger. Even after they proved themselves in battle during the Civil War, they competed against free slaves for the lowest paying jobs around.

Since police and firefighters’ jobs were so dangerous, a disproportionate number of immigrant Irish filled these jobs. And, when one of their own died, they used bagpipes to mourn their loss.

But, you might ask why Scottish bagpipes are used rather than Irish uillean pipes…while both pipes may have been used in funerals during the nineteenth century, the Scottish bagpipes won out for their most universal acceptance. Plus, they’re louder.

If you ever wondered where the individuals are found to play at police and firefighter funerals, you need look no further than the The National Conference of Law Enforcement Emerald Societies (NCLEES). This national society was founded in 1995, and you’ll find chapters of this society in just about every major U.S. city. Membership is extended to any bona fide Law Enforcement or public safety Emerald Society with at least fifty (50) members. Although this nonprofit group conducts activities concerning education, fundraising and recruitment – they also teach their members how to play the pipes and drums and to perform what is now known as the “Memorial March” for their fallen comrades.

So, from a rather sad and sordid beginning, the Irish brought a tradition to this country that honors the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect their neighborhoods.

For more about the Irish Potato Famine, visit The History Place and Ireland’s Great Famine 1845-1849.

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Uneasy About Embalming

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Embalming, as an art and a practice, began in ancient Egypt as mummification, and has grown throughout the centuries to become a necessity at times, a blasphemy to some and a horror to others. Embalming, in most modern cultures, is the art and science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall decomposition and to make them suitable for display at a funeral. According to Wikipedia:

“Contemporary embalming methods advanced markedly during the American Civil War, which once again involved many servicemen dying far from home, and their family wishing them returned for local burial. Dr. Thomas Holmes received a commission from the Army Medical Corps to embalm the corpses of dead Union officers to return to their families. Military authorities also permitted private embalmers to work in military-controlled areas.”

While the Wikipedia entry marks the American Civil War as a time of great advancement in embalming, this practice still had a long way to go. Arsenic often was used as embalming fluid, which was later found to contaminate groundwater. And, it wasn’t until 1867, two years after the end of that war, that the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann discovered formaldehyde, whose preservative properties were soon discovered and which became the foundation for modern methods of embalming.

In fact, embalmers often had a nasty reputation among northerners and southerners during the American Civil War. The following account is from the book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War,” by Drew Gilpin Faust:

The U.S. Army was deluged with anguished protests from families of dead soldiers who believed they had been cheated by embalmers operating near the battlefront. An officer at City Point, Virginia, protested to Inspector James A. Hardie in 1864 that “scarcely a week passes that I do not receive complaints against one or another of these embalmers…[They] are regarded by the medical department of the army generally as an unmitigated nuisance…the whole systems as practiced here is one of pretension, swindling, and extortion.” In 1863, a case was lodged against Hutton & Williams, “EMBALMERS OF THE DEAD” in Washington. Hutton was imprisoned and the company’s records were seized. The suit alleged that the pair regularly recovered and embalmed soldiers without permission and then demanded payment from grieving families, threatening to disinter or refuse to return the bodies of their conditions were not met.

In the fall of 1864 Timothy Dwight of New York pursued a grievance with secretary of war Stanton against Dr. Richard Burr, a prominent Washington embalmer, claiming that Burr was guilty of extortion for preying upon him in his distress after “the loss of a most excellent Boy.” Burr defended his fee of one hundred dollars to the provost marshal, saying his employees has risked their lives recovering the body from near the picket line and then carrying it several hundred yards under fire. He had then disinfected the body “by means of my embalming fluid and charcoal” and enclosed it in a zinc coffin, sealed it, and shipped it – clearly warranting, he insisted, his charges. On January 9, 1865, General Ulysses Grant responded to the chorus of grievances by withdrawing all embalmers’ permits and ordering them beyond the lines. The distances separating the dead and their loved ones nevertheless continued to encourage embalming, in spite of great uneasiness about the practice and widespread hostility toward its practitioners.

If you feel uneasy about embalming, remember this: Regardless of whether embalming is performed, the type of burial or entombment, and the materials used – such as wood or metal caskets and vaults – the body of the deceased eventually decomposes. Modern embalming is done to delay decomposition so that funeral services may take place or for the purpose of shipping the remains to a distant place for disposition. Many states do not require embalming to take place if the body is not traveling a long distance, but the body must be buried within a certain time frame if you decide to bypass this process.

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Posted in Death & Dying, Funeral Arrangements, History of Funerals, Traditions | 2 Comments »

Downsizing the Traditional Funeral

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

People expect the liquor industry, films and other forms of ‘entertainment’ to do well during a recession. These businesses offer individuals a way to escape reality, even if it’s for just an hour or two. But, who knew that the funeral industry would receive attention during this economic turmoil? A brief look through recent news articles brings some interesting perspectives to this death care field.

Some articles listed below point to the fact that funeral homes are feeling the pinch as much as anyone during this recession. So, the focus seems to be about people choosing cremation over traditional burials, as cremation seems to be the less expensive option for funerals. But, as with any commodity, will the law of supply and demand begin to affect cremation costs?

The answer might lie in location (some places are more expensive than others to conduct funeral services) and in funeral options (will you bury the ashes or take them home?). Also, funeral homes need to make a profit, too, so if more people are turning to cremations, expect more options to be available to help that funeral bill escalate. On the other hand, look for some funeral homes to provide sales and incentives to bring business in during this recession.

The following articles all deal with recent economic woes and the funeral industry. The articles are arranged in alphabetical order to show that we do not favor one article over another:

  • A Real Kick in the Ash: This article, out of New York, provides current costs at the Green-Wood Cemetery: “A no-frills cremation will set you back about $400, or less than your economic-stimulus check…Meanwhile, a low-end crypt will typically run a family about $8,500, and a plot of land to bury two people – double-decker style – will set you back about $5,000.”
  • Another Sign Of The Recession — Cremation On The Rise: This article, which covers the funeral industry as a whole, points to gravesites as the culprit behind funeral costs, not caskets. “Sheri Richardson Stahl, who runs Island Funeral Home in Beaufort, S.C., said there are no public graveyards in the Hilton Head area, so plots at the nearest semi-private cemetery start at $2500 and ‘can easily reach $10,000.’”
  • Business is Cooking at Local Crematories. Thank the Recession: “In the St. Louis area the average burial cost ranges between $8,000 to $10,000, while the cremation fee, which includes transporting the body, the urn and a copy of the death certificate, hovers between $1,000 and $1,200.”
  • Funeral business is not immune to recession: Funeral industry profit has dropped from nine percent at the beginning of this decade to four percent, according to Peter Stefan, owner of Graham, Putnam, & Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Massechusetts. “A cremation can cost $2,500, said Stefan, while an average funeral will run $6,000, not counting cemetery rates.” On the other hand, “Bill Duckett, who manages funeral homes in Sudbury and Framingham…declined to connect the economic recession with an increased interest in cremations, which had been on the rise before the economy tanked last fall.”
  • Funeral costs not recession proof: Cremation versus traditional funerals in Spokane, Washington: “An individual cremation, you’re looking at less than $1,000, and with the average full body burial with cemetery property you’re looking at $8,000 to $9,000.”
  • Funeral industry feeling pinch of recession: If you’re looking for a woman who understands the cost of death yet who also believes in celebrating a life lived, look no further than Wiggen & Sons located in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Carol Sauers, who represents that funeral home, “knows not everyone can afford full-service plans. Occasionally, she encourages money-conscious clients to consider a home memorial,” which costs little for the family.
  • Hansen: The business of death turns to discounts: The Merle Hay Funeral Home and the Sunset Funeral Chapel on Fleur Drive in Des Moines, Iowa, is offering 50 percent discounts on all his merchandise during these trying times. “I have a lot of inventory,” owner Blair Overton says. “Taking a little off now helps the customer and it helps me.”
  • Recession-Friendly Rites: This article, also generated out of New York, quotes the Maloney Funeral Homes: “The typical bill for a burial ranges from $8,000 to $12,000…Cremation costs between $4,000 and $8,000. The actual process costs about $400, which is added to the cost of an urn, a service and possibly a niche or burial plot for the ashes.”

Although it seems that funeral homes are feeling the pinch, at Nassau Community College in New York, inquiries about their mortuary science program are up fifteen percent in recent months, and enrollment for last fall’s class was nearly double the year before. According to this article in Newsday:

At the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Education, a private program in Manhattan, enrollment has jumped to 270 students for the spring semester, compared with 200 a year ago. The school attributes the rise to the economic downturn and the addition of an online program.

Maybe these students are forward-thinking entrepreneurs who see a silver lining for traditional funerals in the future?

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Five Creative Funeral Ideas

Monday, December 29th, 2008

A trend today in funerals is to focus on the celebration of a life that passed, rather than focus on that person’s life in the “hereafter.” But, many families are stymied when it comes to that celebration, as they often aren’t prepared to unanimously agree on the funeral arrangements. This type of celebration is best planned ahead, and the best person to plan it is the person who won’t be around to enjoy it.

With that said, you can have a great time now as you plan your funeral and imagine your friends’ or family members’ faces as they encounter what you planned for your departure. Remember, however, that many people may really feel your loss, so give them room to grieve in their own way as well.

One idea would be to hold a memorial service for the heavy-duty grieving, then hold an after-party that might fit in one or more of the few ideas listed below:

  1. Momentos: Pick a vintage wine and make wine labels for the bottle. Put your photo on the label along with your date of birth and a blank for people to pen in your date of death. This is a great idea for someone who enjoys fine wine and cuisine. Other ideas include buttons with photos of the deceased printed on them or bookmarks with the deceased’s photo and birth and death dates. Be considerate about what you choose. For instance, if you’re a heavy drinker and you die of liver disease, don’t go for the wine momento.
  2. Theme funeral: Weddings often are centered on themes, so why not funerals? If you are a history buff, then you might dress the pallbearers in Civil War outfits. If you’re into the 1950s, then poodle skirts and Fonzie jackets might be right. Add theme music and decorations to fit the mood. Follow the National Funeral Directors’ outline to help build your theme.
  3. Special location: If you’re a golfer, can you have your eulogies delivered at the ninth or eighteenth holes of your favorite golf course? Participants can line up and shoot a golf ball, or meet up later to play mini-golf. If you like to swim, have a pool party.
  4. Special cultural touches: My father has had very little to do with New Orleans, and he has no ties to that area. Yet, he would love to have a jazz funeral that winds down the street to the cemetery (explained through the link). Even if your wishes seem crazy, let others know about them and help you with them. Go Native American, Hispanic or Egyptian. Whatever your connection, a cultural touch will let others know more about you (although a bit too late!).
  5. Go to your loved ones: If you have loved ones located all over the world, don’t expect them all to show up to your funeral. Instead, consider cremation and vials. You can have your ashes put into the vials and someone can mail them to your friends. They, then, can scatter your ashes in their special places, locations which may be much more imaginative than you ever dreamed.

For more ideas on how to plan an unorthodox funeral, visit Flat Rock’s Fun Funerals.

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