Traditional Funerals Versus Celebration of Life Ceremonies
When most people imagine a funeral ceremony, they tend to think of the traditional funeral service where you will find people mourning the loss of a loved one. However, there is a new trend on the rise in the funeral industry, and this new trend is called a life celebration. These celebration of life ceremonies could easily change the face of the traditional funeral service. In today’s world many families are starting to free themselves of all the formalities and customs involved in the traditional funeral service, and they are instead opting for a more personalized approach to saying goodbye to their loved ones. These new celebrations are usually specifically tailored to your loved one and focus on a more unique approach to honoring the life of your loved one.
You may think that celebration of life ceremonies are just the new trend that will fizzle out with time and people will simply go back to using the more traditional funeral service to honor their loved one. However, this is most likely one trend that will be sticking around permanently. I know there may be many doubters out there, but when you consider all of the data, it seems to suggest that this trend will not be going away. Here are just a few statistics you should consider prior to writing off life celebrations:
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In a recent study, 49% of the people polled considered personalization in a funeral to be important. This personalization could include things like food, location. music, and the service.
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On a different note, there were only 17% of the people polled that stated they would want to have a traditional funeral service as their final plans.
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54% of the people in the study stated that they would love for their funeral service to be a celebration of their life instead of the same old traditional funeral service.
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48% of the people in the study also stated that they would love to incorporate personal things from their life such as their favorite hobby, color, music, or even their favorite sports teams.
This data strongly suggests that if you are not offering celebration of life ceremonies in your funeral home, your community is probably missing out on something they want. If you would like for your funeral home to be successful, help your clients heal, and give them the services that they truly want, then you should look into offering celebration of life ceremonies along with the more traditional funeral services. It is definitely something you will want to look into for you and your community. You certainly do not want your clients to feel as if they have missed out on what they wanted for this once in a lifetime event.
These celebration services are valuable to the family and friends of the deceased. They are really the best of both worlds. You can have your traditional funeral service but more personalized to your loved one and with a little extra added to it. It may feel more cathartic to some to add the personality of their loved one to the service to help celebrate who they were instead of only focusing on mourning their loss. By combining both elements of these services, you get to say goodbye and celebrate the life of a loved one. It is the perfect way for many to remember and honor the life of the one we loved, which is why so many are opting for this celebration of life.
By now you are probably wondering, how can I bring in some of these celebration of life elements into a traditional funeral service? Here are just a few tips on how you can do this:
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Personalize the celebration of life service to the person you are honoring. You can make this personalization a small part or a big part of the service. You may want to decorate with their favorite flowers or their favorite color, and you could play their favorite music and songs. You may want to be subtle, or you could be over the top with this personalization. It all really depends on what the friends and family prefer.
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Use pictures and videos to honor the person’s life. Pictures and videos are a great and easy way to help friends and family remember all the good times they once had with their loved one. You can use a computer to edit the pictures and videos brought to you by friends and family to help everyone share their most memorable moments with others during the service.
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Remember to listen to your clients. Your clients know their loved one better than you and can tell you exactly what they would have liked to be featured in their service. Their insight can help you make it a special event tailored specifically to the deceased and everyone involved. Your clients will most likely be the perfect source for the best ideas for you to use to help them celebrate the life of their loved one.
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Do not be afraid to look outside the box. The friends and family will want a funeral service that they can treasure and cherish forever. You do not want to let them down simply because you are stuck on doing the same type of funeral service over and over. You can make your clients happy and give them something they can hold on to forever simply by taking that extra leap.