Are you dreading planning a funeral or memorial service because you believe that it will be a gloomy and depressing affair?
The good news is that an end-of-life ceremony can, in fact, be a beautiful experience for everybody who attends.
An experienced funeral celebrant can help you plan a unique ceremony that captures the individuality of your loved one and honor's him or her in a befitting manner, with lots of opportunities to share fond memories and favorite stories.
What is a Funeral Celebrant?
Funeral celebrants are ceremony specialists who create and officiate personalized ceremonies. They collaborate closely with families and loved ones to ensure the ceremony truly reflects the personality of the individual being honored.
Funeral celebrants are sensitive and responsive to client requests to make sure the ceremony is respectful of their preferences and beliefs.
They are often chosen by families who prefer a non-religious or non-denominational ceremony, as they do not impose a faith-based agenda within their ceremony work.
How is the Funeral Celebrant Ceremony Different?
Most importantly, it is how the ceremony feels that is different. Funeral celebrants place careful attention to the personalization of the ceremony experience through words, poems, readings, music and ritual.
Each ceremony is created to reflect the individuality of the person being honoured and will embody the richness of memories of their lifetime; it will stay clear of the emptiness of generic platitudes.
Another difference is how the ceremony is created. Funeral Celebrants collaborate closely with family members.
A funeral celebrant will spend two to three hours facilitating an initial family session to learn about the person being honoured. This time can be helpful for the family as they share stories and consider options for the ceremony.
As the ceremony outline emerges, family members realize how they might contribute something to the ceremony or even participate during the ceremony.
The funeral celebrant will get to know the deceased through your words, as well as the experiences and anecdotes that you share.
Acting a bit like a curator, the funeral celebrant sifts through the information that is shared by the family, to create the ceremony. As the ceremony develops, the funeral celebrant interacts with the family to polish the content and to ensure the details and the nuances are correct.
With a funeral celebrant ceremony, the family will have a sense of control over the content and will know in advance, how the ceremony will unfold.
