Thursday, October 3, 2013
Coming back full circle?
What I have been researching is general changes that have occurred since the early 1900's until present day. There has been the transition of viewing untreated bodies in the homes
(prepared by family members) in the early 1900s , to embalming and
viewing in a funeral home with burial with either a traditional 'funeral' or 'memorial' service, to cremation options and keeping
ashes of loved ones , and more recently there have been options of "green burials" without
embalming. Seems like it may be coming back full circle. More to come!
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Christina,
ReplyDeleteIn perusing your material again just now I couldn't believe that I had not sent you a response. I have even quoted you to others. Thank you, personally, for your work and well written material.
One thing that your articles have done for me is stir up some memories.
First the wake. I was always told repeatedly as a little boy that the wake originally was in Celtic neighborhoods (like Ireland) and was originally designed to ward off wild animals from eating the body before burial and gave everyone a chance to satisfy themselves that the person was really dead. (Pull up the lyrics for a song called "Finnegan's Wake"). By about 100 years ago the wake had evolved into a viewing of the body in the home (except maybe in certain ethnic niches). There were many reasons for this practice such as transportation (bad roads, no bridges, creeks up). The vehicles, the highways, and the gorgeous funeral homes we have today simply weren't there.
Today a lot of die-hards (no pun intended) like me still call what is done at the funeral home a wake but it is a "viewing". A viewing only lasts for 2-3 hours. Some families tend to have many photos and snapshots on display at the funeral home. The funeral home keeps the body. Funerals may be held at the funeral home and thence to the cemetery. Other families have the body transported to the family's church and thence to the cemetery.
Example of a wake here in Cape Girardeau.
Speaking of Wakes (viewings at home) one friend, now deceased, was a young funeral director in about the 1940's. He had been told to set the body up in the ladies home and on arrival "they" told him to put the set-up in "the Library". He found the Library in this beautiful home and was proceeding to set things up.
"No This library isn't big enough. A lot of people are coming. Put her in that library." said the person in charge. About two hours later, as I understand the story, the man in charge came back. "This room is too small for the people who are arriving.", he said. " Put her in the Big Library."
That must be some home.
Others wakes I knew of were very simple. The body stayed in the home, period. The Coroner was summoned, of course. The undertaker probably was summoned, but not always. The undertaker may have provided a casket, maybe embalming.
People brought plenty of food to the house. Drinking families would have booze, but usually it was kept under cover. Each case was different. The usual was that everyone had plenty to eat/drink before the funeral, and some came back to the house after the funeral to eat again, and some to help clean up.
You can see how a viewing for a couple of hours at the funeral home is a lot less stressful for the survivors, though the cost is tremendous as per your articles.
I, for one am getting a lot from your contributions. Please keep them coming.
Bob Hill
P.S. Let's don't forget the "Jazz Funeral"