FUNERAL DIRECTORS

Funeral Directors

Funeral Directors

Introduction

A funeral is a ceremony that is held to bid farewell to a deceased person. The nature and composition of the funeral rites depend on the age, culture, social status of the deceased and the religious beliefs of society. The different funeral rites are basically the embalming , the burial or cremation . For important national figures are usually offered a state funeral . Funeral rites, practices related to death and burial of a person, specific to the human species. These practices are closely related to religious beliefs about the nature of death and the existence of life after her important functions involving psychological, sociological and symbolic to members of a community. Thus, the study of the treatment provided to the dead in every culture provides a better understanding of their vision of death and human nature. The rituals and burial customs are concerned not only with the preparation and departure of the body, but also with family satisfaction and retention of the spirit of the deceased among them.

Discussion

Funeral Directors have come a long way. In England, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they were known commonly as carrion hunters, death hunters, and cold cooks. (The funeral home then was a cold cookshop) (Cathles, Harrington & Krynski, 2010). Even “undertaker” is something of a euphemism; “taker-under” would be more precise. As a general term for someone who takes on some job, challenge, or enterprise, “undertaker” has been applied in a wide variety of fields; book publishers, for instance, were once known as “Funeral Directors”. The first funeral “undertaker” to be recorded in The Oxford English Dictionary comes from 1698. The different ways of dismissing the body vary according to religious beliefs, climate, geography and social status. The burial is associated with ancestor worship or belief in the afterlife.

Funeral directors play a multilateral role in which they not only serve as administrators for an event but also hold the capacity to serve as comforters for the bereaving friends, family and relatives of the deceased. Their presence allows the family the time they need to mentally accustom their perceptions to the absence of the deceased instead of giving them a reason to facilitate denial by worrying about elements such as transportation, burial, and the like. The Funeral director also plays a major role in ensuring that the bereaving party has a helping hand to guide them through any paper work that needs to be attended to as a result of the death. As a result, it is common for Funeral director to spend extensive time with the bereaving family members. This gives the Funeral director the time needed to listen to the grieving friends and family members (Bailey, 2010). The training involved in becoming a formal Funeral director allows the Funeral directors to answer questions that the grieving family and friends may not be in the position to respond to. This also allows Funeral directors to identify cases where further professional help is needed in the form of therapy ...