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Your Funeral
Namada
Veteran
What Kind of Funeral or Memorial Service Do You Want?
(This Picture is from a viking funeral)
1
Comments
Honestly? I really don't care. Once I'm gone, I just want to leave it to others to dispose of me as they want. I don't even care if they put me in a haulage skip.
None, really. But I know it's a tradition that can help family move on. So we have started a savings account just for this. We will be creamated, and then we want our kids to take us on adventures around the world (and who knows, maybe to mars or something one day) and scatter us all over. The account will help to pay for their travel expenses. No funeral service, just a picnic style BBQ type thing at a lakeside location. We'll each have a short list of places we'd like bits of us to go, my favorite hiking overlook, my husband's family's farm, etc. But otherwise, the kids and their families (hopefully we live long enough for that, they are pretty young yet) can bring us on whatever adventures they see fit.
But, of course there is a chance that will change. Just our thoughts now.
My dad wants us to cremate him, no service no nothing, bring him to the top of his favorite mountain in the Rockies, and throw him off the top. He hopes that a bird will eat some of his ashes and poop them out on someone's windshield, thus completing the cycle of life, heh.
Let the dead bury their dead. As Jesus is supposed to have said.
I want the viking funeral! Not even joking. All of my immediate family and best friends are aware of my wishes, as i have stressed this to them several times. Heh. I have given them the right to cremate me first and put my ashes into a tinier boat, but i really want them to shoot flaming arrows at it. (Logistically, getting my full dead body onto a large enough boat seems excessive and would likely be illegal heee in the US---> i don't want anyone getting in trouble over a silly dead man's wishes.) I also want them to make a game out of it: who can light the blaze first? Then i want them to have a party where they dance to reggae music and tell stories about me. Even the bad ones. Here's to hoping!
My will actually stipulates a sky burial, if possible.
If not, then a 'completely natural' one (willow-basket casket, pure linen shroud), there are companies in the UK which specialise in this.
Otherwise, one of these 'container funerals which can grow a tree after you die' things sounds nice.... But as I said earlier, tbh, I really don't care....
I would like one too, but I'm sure there is a council bye-law against it.
Bloody vikings!
![](https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M0192f3f39cca015e3fa05e156d3ec9d0o0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=332&h=134"")
I could do you a cheap deal on a black wheelie bin burial, a service at the local land-fill site is an optional extra ( seagulls thrown in at no extra cost ).
A nice service would be ok for my loved ones but I'm hoping my body isn't found.
I'd rather rot and be fed upon surrounded by trees than burned or buried in a box.
DONE!! (And I probably have been!)
I'm all for a sky burial as well, but that is probably illegal or at least impractical in most places. So the next best option is the mushroom death suit
I like @federica 's idea. It reinforces the notion that the body is truly meaningless, and that the soul is what is really important. If I am to be reborn anyway, then what does my previous body mean, anyway?
Nutrition for the soil.
Something unobtrusive that does not ignore those who wish not to be ignored.
Everything is in the preparation?
http://opcoa.st/PwGd7
I rather like the idea of getting into one of our compost bins but I would prefer to turn into a rainbow ... however that is rare.
http://opcoa.st/PwGJG
Maybe just cooked and served with butter ...
I ain't gonna die, I can't afford a fun eral
I want one where nobody is sad about it, but I don't think that will ever happen unfortunately...:(
Chopin's funeral March should play in the background. Yes, I am a weird guy.
I would like to be left out in the long grass under the sky, and to host a big party for the community of maggots and bugs. Failing this, I might consider donating my mortal remains to medical science - that seems to be one of the more economical and potentially beneficial options.
Memorial services are for the living - let them worry about it. I shall leave instructions that I do not wish any services, but I will hardly be able to forbid them.
I hadn't given any thought as to the music - in which case, I'd wish for them to play Danse Macabre - a song I used to drive my mother crazy with when I'd practice it over and over on the piano in our living room, ha ha!
Btw, I like our idea, @Fosdick.
I have my t-shirt and am ready ...
I think I'd like to be the subject of some Buddhist corpse meditation, if possible, with eventual cremation of the rest of the remains and planting a tree in the ashes. Seems like a good compromise of all possible options.
Unfortunately over here there are laws here about the disposal of dead human remains, there is a stipulation that the body can remain in the care of a funeral home for no more than six days I think, then it has to be cremated or buried.
That is a drawback with my black wheelie-bin burial scheme, here the black bins are only emptied once every two weeks.
We might also consider some insight from Monty Python ...
I have been to a few funerals, read books about it, seen some while working on a graveyard. So I've had plenty of time and reasons to think and the more I think the more I don't care as long as my rotting corpse really gets properly erased from this world. I see no point in turning a dead body into a diamond or a bullet or something expensive.
It's unlikely that I will have friends or family close enough to take care of my earthly remains or do any kind of rituals for their own sake or mine. So I would be cremated and the ashes would be sprinkled somewhere on a graveyard and that's it. Nothing glorious.
...well this was cheerful.
Being 27 it's not something I really think about. Perhaps lots of people and fancy service would be preferable but really as long as they don't just toss me in the ground like I've got the plague I don't really give a shit lol
Old people and death are looked upon as somewhat of a plague in some cultures.
Those darn golden years aren't so golden after all. Absolutely shocking.
I may steal the idea of getting my best friend to dress up as the Grim Reaper and just stand quietly in the corner of the service.
Perhaps get him to toss a little funeral wreath at the end to see if someone catches it like a bridal bouquet.
Just goes to show how shortsighted many people are... If you treat your old people badly, just think of what might happen to you when you are old! Especially nowadays when folks have many fewer kids.
My grandmother has 5 children, 2 sons and 3 daughters. They had 8 children, so grandma has 8 grandchildren. That's 13 adults who all do a bit to care for her now that she's in a care home and no longer entirely sound of mind. I have zero children, which does make me wonder what my old age will look like.
@David Touche! I think I need to watch the Lion King again.
I know I won't be there. Funerals are for the living unless one does a pre mortem ceremony.
another funeral option! I love mushrooms but I think I like the tree idea more.
https://www.facebook.com/TechInsiderScience/videos/1097127953728185/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
There should be burritos...
If the FB link doesn't work for those who don't use it, here is an article about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/business/mushroom-suits-biodegradable-urns-and-deaths-green-frontier.html
Not a bad idea! Get it out of the way, so to speak.
Once I suggested that meditation could be looked upon as preparation for death,
and a lay leader at my church burst out in public with what may be considered a
politically correct expletive in the vernacular.
Even though officially sanctioned "christian" meditation sessions are offered twice
weekly by another lay leader.
Indeed, where I live, the Chinese in particular are averse to any mention of death
and dying, look aghast, and change the subject abruptly.
But I see that change is coming with people turning up to public forums on the
subject, and at least two were reportedly held within the last year or two in the
cosmopolitan federal capital.
Perhaps having a trained and experienced psychologist (with a PhD) lead the
discussion must have helped a lot.
When an editor of a popular newspaper asked for suggestions for issues to explore,
I thought they might consider setting up an online forum on death and dying on their
web site.
With a bit of luck something along the lines of Death Cafe - the nearest one being in
Singapore - might even materialize.
After all at least one Cat Cafe has started in this relatively conservative country that
aims to attain the status of a developed nation by 2020.
Like Ben Franklin, I look forward to death and reincarnation as I've had experiences
that suggest that consciousness is eternal, even as I remain unable to offer any
admissible evidence in a court of law.
PS, my request for pop songs from the 50s snd 60s to be played at my funeral were
frowned upon, nothing but set pieces for me then.
Meet you all on that distant shore, what?
Something like a gathering of a friend or family member or two, arguing with my ashes blown in their faces....like Donny's...
That was a scream.... I adore Jeff Bridges.... unfortunately, he adores his wife..... :lol