Why do families have open casket

[Anonymous]

I think they're going out of favor.

[Anonymous]

My dad’s services were closed casket and people asked about it and what he looked like at the end. We planned on closed casket for my grandma but honestly the funeral home did a really beautiful job embalming her and we changed course and decided to keep it open. She looked much younger and more peaceful.

[Anonymous]

My 85 yr old mom wants an open casket. I can’t imagine anything worse but then again I want to be cremated.

[Anonymous]

In the midwest this is routine--that's why people refer to the service the day before the actual service as the "viewing" in those parts (Lutherans don't call it a wake). All the time I was growing up people took photos of the person in the casket. When my dad died suddenly (heart attack) my mom struggled with what to do, she ended up doing a casket for the service because everyone would want to see how he looked. She told us we could go ahead and just cremate her and we asked if she wanted us to tell the neighbors she looked really good or if she looked terrible and it was a blessing(yes, she laughed).

Fading now, though, and cremation is a lot more common.

[Anonymous]

There is a culture somewhere ( Malaysia or Indonesia? ) where once a year they bring out all the dead relatives to hang out with for a few days. They put plates of food in front of them, then put them back (I don't recall where the bodies spend the rest of the time).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a culture somewhere ( Malaysia or Indonesia? ) where once a year they bring out all the dead relatives to hang out with for a few days. They put plates of food in front of them, then put them back (I don't recall where the bodies spend the rest of the time).

I think I also saw this doc

[Anonymous]

To show they are really dead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was invented as a ploy for funeral homes to make more money.

Don't fall for it. It's not a tradition in any way, shape or form.

I'm 20:36. For family only, we were able to see the body in the casket without embalming. I believe there was a prep fee, but it wasn't as expensive as embalming and I'm not sure what "extra" was done vs. just leaving the casket closed or if it cost more than that would have anyway, other than giving us a time to show up and a nice parlor room.

Obviously the whole casket/vault/plot, etc. is more expensive than cremation, but this was not a person who wished to be cremated in any case, so that was already being paid.

NP. The prep fee in this circumstance is to sew the mouth shut so it's not hanging open.

We had a similar viewing without embalming when my FIL died unexpectedly under tragic circumstances and it brought a lot of closure to my husband to see his dad one last time.

[Anonymous]

My mom says she needs the "closure." Whatever that means. 🙄

[Anonymous]

The father in the old Six Feet Under series said something about making the decedent look nice so his family and friends could say goodbye. I think that’s a big motivator. My mother’s casket was open at the viewing. My father said open for immediate family, closed after, so that’s what we did. People were disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Didn't people used to lay out the body for viewing in their homes before burial, before there were funeral homes, etc.? And there would be a wake at that time or visitors to the family. It may be a vestige of practices like this. Parents took photos of their dead children in memory of them. I heard that about great-grandparents, a story about two children who had died and were laid out in the living room. I assumed it meant for visitation before burial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Viewings? It’s so macabre

Mrs. Kennedy said let the world see what they have done. But this was about her blood-stained dress. They did have a closed casket.

My sister tried to put a letter into my dad’s casket until my mother screamed at her. I’m 99% sure my sister went back and added the letter.

AFAIK, dead bodies can’t read letters. People are weird, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Viewings? It’s so macabre

We do it so that closed minded bigots who think their culture is the superior one can gloat on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are all so culturally and historically ignorant. Try reading up on social and religious practices before posting your ignorance here.

Who died and made you the boss?

People are asking.

When my parent died it made me the boss of their funeral.

[Anonymous]

OP, why do you care how other families choose to honor, remember, or say good bye to their loved ones? If something helps people while they are grieving, why should it matter to others?