Another thread in GQ asks a question related to open casket funerals. I’m from the UK and have never been to an open casket funderal and have never heard of one in the UK. They seem to be relatively common in the US, although I don’t know if that varies by region or religion.
So, the question is: in which countries are open casket funerals common and is it associated with religious beliefs?
Open caskets are for people to have one last chance to say goodbye kinda thing. I dont think most religions condone it but try to avoid it. I’m also pretty sure they’re really only practiced in the Americas.
Open-casket funerals are fairly common here in the southern U.S. (Well, actually, funerals aren’t usually open-casket, but funeral-home visitation often is.) It isn’t so much a religious thing as cultural and historical.
[slight hijack]
Quick! Name the play wherein a lady touches a corpse in an open casket and proclaims, “Waxy.”
[/slight hijack]
RR
The norm for funerals in Ireland is for the body to be ‘waked’ - ie placed in an open coffin for a period of time, when those attending the funeral (friends and neigbours of the deceased and of the deceased’s family) can view the body, pray and sympatise with the immediate family. This can vary in format from a period of a few hours in a funeral parlour, to an ‘all-night’ wake in the deceased’s house where there will be refreshments and (believe it or not, if the deceased lived to a ripe old age) on occasion chat and entertainment… The later is nowadays much less common(often only in rural areas)… The coffin is sealed before being taken from the place where the wake was, to the church. I have never seen an open coffin at the church stage of the funeral.
Kerriensis
Australian with Catholic background checking in: I’ve never been to an open casket funeral here. However, when my brother died the funeral director offered a “viewing” at the funeral home. His widow accepted as did my sister. My other brother and I both declined.
I recall also that a viewing was offered when a friend died a number of years ago.
In both these instances, the death had been the result of a sudden accident.
I don’t recall whether there was a viewing when my grandmother died. If there was I didn’t attend.
In NZ my family had a viewing for my grandfather but no funeral (my grandmother was worried ‘people would look at her’. Umm OK).
When my son died, it was totally up to us whether the casket was open or closed. He was at home for a couple of days and he was in a bassinet. When we took him to the service, he was in a closed casket made by my SO. There was no pressure from anyone and no religion involved. Just whatever we wanted to do.
They’re virtually, but not entirely, unknown in the UK.
The classic comparison of practices in the US and Britain, and the suggested reasons for the differences, is Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death from 1963. This Brit was mildly shocked by it.
Puerto Rico – been at 2 of them in the last year.
We do have also a tradition of prolonged pre-funeral wake-viewings (velorios) which can be at the funeral chapel or at home and may get pretty darned prolonged if you try to insist that the entire extended family right down to the nephew stationed in Okinawa make it for the service.
“Waxy”…
racks mind furiously I have seen that scene, I swear…
As far as I know, every funeral in my family (Catholics of Sicilian and Calabrian descent) has been open-casket.
The casket is open during the praying of the rosary at the funeral home, stays open in the church, and is only closed when it’s hefted into the hearse for the trip to the cemetary.
I’m not sure if this is a southern Italian thing, or a southern US thing. My family’s been in Texas since the early part of this century, so I suppose that’s enough time for a southern propensity for open caskets to influence customs.
I live in Boston, and I’ve never been to an open casket FUNERAL. However, virtually every time someone I’ve known has died, they’ve had a wake at the funeral home for the day or two prior to the funeral. There, the casket is almost always open (unless there’s been some horrible damage to the body, in the case of a car accident or something) and visitors stream in and out to pay their last respects.
The funeral usually takes place in a (Catholic, for most, being in Boston) church, where the casket is closed.
Traditional Jewish funerals don’t have open caskets. Usually, the casket isn’t even in the room during the eulogizing, but kept nearby, with a ‘guard’ (the body’s never left alone until burial).
My father-in-law’s Shinto-style funeral in Japan was open casket. Part of the ceremony was for each person to go up and place a flower inside the casket with him. There was no (or at least very little) embalming, either.
According to my boss, Buddhist funerals in Japan often use a casket with a window so that the deceased’s face can be seen.
I’m suprised by Motog’s post. I don’t doubt it, I’m just surprised.
I’ve never even heard of the viewing practice here.
It is done exactly in the same way in France. And similarily, the real “wake” becomes rarer…and yes…when it happens, there are chat, and food, etc…
Just to finish off the question posed earlier:
“Waxy” = “Greater Tuna”
RR
I’m guessing it’s a Catholic thing, and also an Eastern Orthodox thing. The only open casket event I’ve evenr attended on purpose was a Cuban Catholic wake. However, I once accidentally walked into a funeral at a Russian monastery, not knowing the liturgy well enough to know that it wa a funeral that was going on. The body was laid out on a large wooden board, not even a casket, and surrounded by flowers and candles.
I didn’t stick around to find out once I realized my faux pas, but I’d guess they put the body into the casket after the church service.
Exactly…it’s another type of family reunion. And not just praying, but joking and chatting with other relatives. And greeting those that the last thing they knew about me was that I was born.
But then…up until I opened this thread, I thought they were pretty common, unless the death was result of some horrible accident or illness. You mean you don’t watch your dead?
I always thought it was a Catholic thing. The only bodies on view I have seen have been Catholics.
Nope - never seen a dead body in my 44 years of life.
What country are you from?
Same as JRD’s… 