The way we think about death and funerals

Most of us have probably attended a funeral at some point in our lives whether it was a close family member, or just someone you knew.  You tend to see some people crying and grieving the loss of their loved one.  I have always considered funerals to be a sad time and a sad day.   To take away from some of the sadness of funerals, people call funerals "A celebration of their life."  That flips the whole idea of the sadness and mourning that goes on in funerals if we are all suppose to be celebrating their life instead.  Even when we are celebrating the life of someone we lost, people were still mourning.  When someone makes the effort to call it a celebration of life to make it more happy and less sad then you would think that people would not be mourning, but celebrating this persons life.  I do not think I could ever go to a funeral and celebrate and be happy.  This is more aimed at elderly people that have lived and long and full life.  If all of us treated every funeral as a celebration of life instead of grieving and being sad for a long time that could change how we treat death.  It also feels wrong to celebrate that someone died, you may not be happy they died but happy of the impact they left.  Not every death is one that you want to celebrate the life of if something tragic happened.

Comments

  1. Deborah Adekunle-OdeleyeJanuary 19, 2019 at 4:05 AM

    I cosign your idea that funerals are a loss for the deceased loved ones and an event to give people closure. I just think human beings are complex so therefore they have varied reactions to grief. I just think that for something as personal as death we should not expect uniformity but acknowledge that every response is a valid. For example, People, who are religious, may believe in a better place and think that death is a passage to heaven.

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  2. Macey BuchananJanuary 23, 2019 at 10:40 AM

    I feel as though celebrating their life will help with the grieving process by trying to have a positive outlook on their life was. To look at it as a celebration of their life takes on a perspective that although it is sad they can not be here with us, they still made memories with them and enjoyed life. As well as looking at our death, that can help people focus on the good things that has happened to them. In which can help them cope with the idea that death is inevitable. An analogy that fits this representation that funerals can be sad or can be a time to remember all the good things that were brought to that person is if you look at situations as if the cup is half full or half empty. Meaning that you can look at life as sad viewpoint and that you can not be with them or see it as that you were happy that you had the time spent with them.

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