home funeral
Family-conducted memorial service
A home funeral is the practice of caring for a deceased person's body at home rather than through a funeral home.
Family members may wash, dress, and watch over the body themselves, sometimes keeping it on dry ice for several days before burial or cremation.
The practice, once standard, has seen revival among those seeking more intimate, less commercialized death care: We held a home funeral for my mother, keeping vigil in the living room where she'd spent her final months.
- wakePath left in water
- vigilPurposeful nighttime wakefulness
- shroudBurial cloth or covering
- casketBurial container
- mourningPeriod following loss
grief · viewing · laying out · body preparation · dry ice · cooling blankets · beloved · final goodbye · threshold · candles · flowers · preparation · washing · dressing · farewell · last respects · family · intimate
- death ritescremation, burial, natural burial, sea burial, wake
- green burialnatural burial, green burial, burial shroud, cardboard coffin, pine box