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Modern Funeral Customs

Exploding coconut 'sent fear' through crematorium staff

'Bolton Council has urged mourners to abide by crematorium rules and not "slip" items into coffins.

Donna Ball, Assistant Director of Community Services, said a "hell of an explosion can sometimes occur".

Other items of concern include mobile phones, TV remotes, e-cigarettes and bottles of alcohol.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-42920984
 
China wages war on funeral strippers:

TELEMMGLPICT000154948456_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqekHD-J-iaamSSFjuWZkTNClRCyN1NL1ZpDcSXQjRF_4.jpeg


China has launched its latest crackdown against a scourge which just won't seem to die in rural areas - funeral strippers.

The Ministry of Culture said last month that it was targeting "striptease" and other "obscene, pornographic, and vulgar performances" at funerals, weddings and traditional Chinese New Year public gatherings.

The war on strippers at funerals has been a long one for China. Authorities first began clamping down on "obscene" performances in 2006 and launched a second campaign in 2015.

Some communities in rural China reportedly believe that bigger attendances at funerals help to honour the dead and bring them good fortune.

maximus otter


 
maximus otter said:
China wages war on funeral strippers:

TELEMMGLPICT000154948456_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqekHD-J-iaamSSFjuWZkTNClRCyN1NL1ZpDcSXQjRF_4.jpeg


China has launched its latest crackdown against a scourge which just won't seem to die in rural areas - funeral strippers.

The Ministry of Culture said last month that it was targeting "striptease" and other "obscene, pornographic, and vulgar performances" at funerals, weddings and traditional Chinese New Year public gatherings.

The war on strippers at funerals has been a long one for China. Authorities first began clamping down on "obscene" performances in 2006 and launched a second campaign in 2015.

Some communities in rural China reportedly believe that bigger attendances at funerals help to honour the dead and bring them good fortune.

maximus otter
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Swifty said:
I fancy being put in a gibbet after I'm dead and hung from a big oak wood gallows for tourists to see just as they're coming into Cromer. ...
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Wouldn't it screw with visitors' heads even more to hang the gibbet at the pier and adorn it with wind chimes so they couldn't really ignore it?
 
EnolaGaia said:
Wouldn't it screw with visitors' heads even more to hang the gibbet at the pier and adorn it with wind chimes so they couldn't really ignore it?
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Love it! .. change of plan ..

edit: or even better, my skeleton should be hooked onto a cable so it can 'fly' across the ceiling every Halloween during showings of William Castle horror films inside the pier theatre to shit up movie goers.
 
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A pianist arranged for his skull to be used as Yorick a few years ago. David Tennant acted with it.

I just painstakingly copy/pasted a link and carefully-edited highlights from a Telegraph page but it all somehow disappeared so you'll have to find it yourselves! :p
 
I stumbled across this lovely Lady on Youtube, and she has videos on almost every subject concerning death, the dead, and Modern Funeral Customs, (traditional and non) than you may care to watch, as she doesn't shy away from the most taboo subjects. A very interesting, professional and informative channel. You go Girl!

Here's one that aroused my curiosity (kidding!)...


(edited to add, she is also lol funny, as well. To me, anyway)
 
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The Cromer and District Funeral service ladies looking cool as f**k at our recent Sheringham 40's bash
Mythopoeika said:
Inspiring.
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The same funeral service also did a 'thing' at our recent 1940's event .. I'm struggling to embed a picture of the women at the moment but they looked amazing ..

edit:

anorfolk.jpg
 
Swifty said:
The Cromer and District Funeral service ladies looking cool as f**k at our recent Sheringham 40's bash

The same funeral service also did a 'thing' at our recent 1940's event .. I'm struggling to embed a picture of the women at the moment but they looked amazing ..

edit:

View attachment 12041
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I'm looking at the Girls, thinking, 'Now there's some reet bonnie Lasses' (as you do),And then I clock what's behind 'em - fuck that's some undercarriage Swifty...
 
Here's a BBC article about funeral photography. Apparently it's becoming popular again.*

Nick "Ringo" Southall died aged only 44, leaving behind his wife and two young children. Rachel had photographed Nibs's father's funeral four years earlier and Nibs knew she wanted her at this one too.
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My family take photos at funerals. The local custom is to hold a boozy wake afterwards.

*I say 'again' because there certainly used to be photos taken at funerals in Victorian times, especially of upper-class ones, and some photographers would take photos of the deceased in the coffin back when that might have been the only time a family would have one done.

I saw an exhibition of such photos in Torquay in about 1989. The photographer would set up outside churches and offer the service to mourners. An opportunistic photographer did exactly the same at my first wedding in 1970s Salford otherwise we wouldn't have had a picture at all.

Posher funeral processions such as Queen Victoria's and the Kaiser's were of course filmed as soon as the technology became available.
 
Whilst clicking through various links yesterday, I chanced upon a story mentioning a drive through at a Michigan Funeral Home where those in a hurry can pay their respects to the recently deceased. Thinking this was bullshit, I decided to investigate further, only to find out it's true. The Funeral Home in question is in Saginaw, and here's a video...
 
Owner and Funeral Director Ryan Bernard of R. Bernard Funeral Services in Memphis, Tennessee offers a unique drive-thru memorial service that allows loved ones to visit the deceased, pay their respects, and celebrate life after death without ever leaving their car.


Saves time I suppose, particularly if you didn't like the recently deceased.
 
Whenever I go to a funeral I always have a very strong urge to go up and touch the coffin and say "goodbye"
I find this hard to shake off for days after, I have mentioned it to members of the deceased family and they
have said you should have done, strange really as I am of the when your dead your dead persuasion.
 
RaM said:
Whenever I go to a funeral I always have a very strong urge to go up and touch the coffin and say "goodbye"
I find this hard to shake off for days after, I have mentioned it to members of the deceased family and they
have said you should have done, strange really as I am of the when your dead your dead persuasion.
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You should do it. It's a very deep instinct, to say 'goodbye' and let go of the person.

Nowadays we Brits aren't much for paying attention to the actual coffin, which is a shame. When I watch US TV, notably The Sopranos and of course Six Feet Under, I'm struck by how totally different their funeral routine is. Seems more intimate and touchy-feely.
I sometimes think I'd like to start up a business doing it!

There's often an open coffin and people 'go up' to pay their personal respects. They see the deceased face to face - preserved and made-up, true, but still dead - and they know for sure they've gone.

It's good for the living to say a final goodbye. Patting the coffin sounds great. In fact I've done it and didn't find it strange, but it's been in private at the undertakers' rather than the actual funeral.
 
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