Celebration of Life Services in Maryland
In recent years, families have begun to turn away from traditional burial services
and instead hold alternative services. A celebration of life service is an emerging service that more and more families are now choosing, to honor their loved one and say goodbye. With less people having strong religious ties or beliefs, a celebration of life allows the deceased’s family to include more joyous and personalized elements in the service. Much like a funeral service, this type of a service is used to honor the deceased and allow friends and loved ones to say goodbye.
We hope that this page gives you a better understanding of what a celebration of life is, and provides you with some unique celebration of life ideas. If you have any questions, or would like to begin planning a celebration of life today, please do not hesitate to contact us today.
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Call Us Today: (410) 665-2000What Is A Celebration of Life?
A celebration of life service celebrates the accomplishments and positive memories of the deceased. Guests are invited to celebrate a life well lived and share stories and positive experiences they have shared with the deceased. Freedom to be creative is one of the biggest factors that have helped the popularity of celebrations of life grow recently. Things like choice of music, decorations and more are all ways that families are able to celebrate their loved one’s personality, values and passions.
Not only does a celebration of life provide your family with the opportunity to be more creative than a traditional funeral, it also allows you more time to plan the event. With most funerals, there is a small window of time to care for the remains and gathers guests to say goodbye. A celebration of life service eliminates the stress of rushing to plan an event as they can be held days, weeks or even months after the remains have been cared for. This means you can take your time to make sure your family celebrates the life of your loved one and gives them the goodbye they deserve.
Funerals vs. Celebrations of Life
It's interesting; funerals
and celebrations of life
have much in common, yet they often appear very different. Each is a ceremony; a gathering of people who share a common loss. It's just that one is more rooted in tradition, while the other is the result of recent changes in social values. But both serve to do three things:
- Help the bereaved family, and their community, publicly acknowledge the death of one of their own
- Support the grieving family by surrounding them with caring friends, co-workers, and neighbors
- Move the deceased from one social status to another
Yet they achieve those things in very different ways. First, let's take a closer look at what most of us commonly see as very traditional funerals.
The Funeral
It's not surprising funerals have been around for a very long time. Composed of three activities, the visitation, the funeral service, and the committal service, performed at the graveside; this funeral is the one we'd easily recognize from contemporary literature and film.
- The Visitation. Held prior to the funeral, often the night before but sometimes on the same day, the visitation (or viewing) is a time when people come to support the family and, more importantly, pay their respects to the deceased. This often involves stepping up to the casket to view the body; either in the company of a member of the surviving family or on your own.
- The Funeral Service. Commonly held in the funeral home or church, the traditional funeral service is led by an officiant of one kind or another; most commonly a pastor or the funeral director. This individual follows a very predictable funeral order of service which includes the singing of hymns; and invocations, Bible recitations, Scripture readings, and prayers led by the officiant.
- The Committal Service. This takes place at the cemetery, after a slow and respectful automobile procession from the place where the funeral was held. The committal service ends when the casketed remains are lowered into the ground, and final prayers are said.
If you'd like to know more about the history of funerals in the United States, you may like to visit the website of the National Museum of Funeral History. But for now, it's enough to know that a funeral service traditionally has these three distinct components. Now let's look at a celebration of life service.
Celebrations of Life
Author Barbara Kingsolver, in her book The Poisonwood Bible, wrote “To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.” We think this reflection is at the heart of a celebration of life. While a funeral, as we've described it above, has more to do with the orderly and often spiritually-defined, a celebration-of-life is more concerned with telling the story of the deceased. Celebrations of life are just that: a time people come together more to celebrate the unique personality and achievements of the deceased than to merely witness or mark the change in their social status.
Celebrations of life are similar to memorial services, which can be described as a hybrid event: combining the flexibility of a celebration of life with many of the activities of a traditional funeral order-of-service.
There's more room for creativity in a celebration of life than a funeral.
Since celebrations of life are commonly held after the individual's physical remains have been cared for through burial or cremation, there is much more time available to plan the event. And without doubt, this allows you to make better decisions about how you'd like to celebrate the life of someone you dearly loved.
Celebration Of Life Ideas
Just as each person is unique, each celebration of life service is personal and unique as well. As you explore ideas for a celebration of life service, consider what the deceased would enjoy, but also what the attendees will enjoy and what will meet their emotional and spiritual needs.
We have provided a few celebration of life ideas, but this list is by no means completed. Use these ideas as a starting point to plan the perfect service to suit your unique needs:
Ask attendees to bring along a story or memory of your loved one to share. Guests comfort levels will vary – you may want to provide time for those who would like to publicly share their memory, but also note cards for those who prefer to write down their memory to privately be shared with the family.
Enjoy songs, bands or the genre of music that were favorites. Music is an integral part of life for many people, and a celebration of life service is the perfect event in which to showcase the meaningful music of your loved one's life.
Learn More About Celebration of Life Planning
Are You Undecided? Turn to Us.
We've got years of experience listening, brainstorming, and advising families how they can best pay tribute to a beloved family member. That means we're the perfect people to help you decide between a funeral and a celebration of life. We'll explore your funeral service options with you in detail, taking all the time you need.
In the book Chocolat, by Joanne Harris, you'll find this fundamental truth: “Life is what you celebrate. All of it. Even its end.” As funeral professionals we help families express reverence for life. Let us do that for your family. Call our funeral home to speak with a member of our staff.
Sources:
- Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
- Joanne Harris, Chocolat
