By Melissa Johnson Williams
While browsing for other books about funerals, I happened upon this. I love the description of it from Amazon. All reviewers give it 5 stars.
“A funeral is a ceremony marking a person’s death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. These customs vary widely between cultures, and between religious affiliations within cultures. In some cultures the dead are venerated; this is commonly called ancestor worship. The word funeral comes from the Latin funus, which had a variety of meanings, including the corpse and the funerary rites themselves.”
In a time when many people want to move away from the word “funeral” – this simple definition really is important to remember. We can celebrate any life during a funeral. I question if those who are so quick to remove the word “funeral” from our vocabulary, are the ones who really are denying death.
The Morte Girls 