I don’t get open casket funerals. Am I the only one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and I don't get a lot of things Christians do with dead bodies. Embalming them, dressing them, viewing them, keeping them above ground for days. I might be hanging out in a hut with a giant ass lemon, but y'all are weird.

Yeah I just didn't grow up with it so it makes me really uncomfortable. But funerals/wakes/shiva etc are for the living, and it must bring some comfort to the family that chooses to do it. Shakin' my lulav right along with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and I don't get a lot of things Christians do with dead bodies. Embalming them, dressing them, viewing them, keeping them above ground for days. I might be hanging out in a hut with a giant ass lemon, but y'all are weird.

Yeah I just didn't grow up with it so it makes me really uncomfortable. But funerals/wakes/shiva etc are for the living, and it must bring some comfort to the family that chooses to do it. Shakin' my lulav right along with you.

shakin' my lulav sounds like a euphemism for twerking lol.
Chag Sameach!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard of the new eco-trend where the body is dissolved in liquids?

It’s supposed to be better for the environment. Only allowed in some states though.

Why is it only allowed in some states? Huh…

Here is an article on it from the BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/dissolving_the_dead

[Anonymous]

I was always perplexed by caskets.

[Anonymous]

My experience has been that people of a certain age are disappointed when they get to the “viewing” and only get to view a closed casket. Of course the same people also come for one visitation and then check the other rooms to see if they know anybody else who is laid out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard of the new eco-trend where the body is dissolved in liquids?

It’s supposed to be better for the environment. Only allowed in some states though.

Okay, so THAT gives me the heebie jeebies. I am fine with open caskets. I am fine with burials. I am fine with cremation. I am fine with burial at sea.

Dissolving bodies in chemicals? Not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My experience has been that people of a certain age are disappointed when they get to the “viewing” and only get to view a closed casket. Of course the same people also come for one visitation and then check the other rooms to see if they know anybody else who is laid out.

LOL. Do they happen to be Italian? Sounds like some of my relatives.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind them because I have been to a fair number of Christian/Catholic funerals with open caskets. It allows some people to say their final goodbyes if they were not present around the time of death. No one should ever be forced to view the deceased if they don’t want to.

[Anonymous]

I kind of think the Muslim and Jewish bury them right away is traumatic. Like they were alive this morning and by sundown they are in the ground.

[Anonymous]

I was made to go to my great grandmother's open casket viewing as a child and I never got over it. I was made to kneel down and pray over her dead body. If I do go to viewing like that, I stay on the other side of the room. I don't want my last memory of someone I love to be dead in a box. No thanks. I know it brings some people closure but not me.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand funerals at all. My parents are not in the plots in the ground their meat sacks were buried at great expense. Their wishes and their money.

Send my body to the farm in TN; or burn it up and spread it with my dogs ashes. My energy will be turned off like pulling the plug on a computer. I won’t know the difference.

[Anonymous]

It's not viewing the body that's weird. It's embalming that's gross. Do you know how they do that? No thanks. If I avoid chemicals in my real life I certainly don't want to be pumped full of them when I'm dead.

[Anonymous]

Im Hindu. The first funeral. Went to was my moms. It was her wish to follow the tradition. I had to dress her body with help from the funeral home staff. My brother and I had to throw flowers on her body, sprinkle holy water, etc. then push her casket into the fire… it was surreal. She had actually wanted my young kids to come, but i kept them home. It wasnt easy by any means, but the ritual did give me a clear sense that my mom was not her body— her soul was free. It was a sense of closure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The wake is open casket the funeral is always closed casket

I have definitely been to an open casket funeral... It was in Mont County about 3 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard of the new eco-trend where the body is dissolved in liquids?

It’s supposed to be better for the environment. Only allowed in some states though.

It’s not better for the environment than cremation. Cremation causes some air pollution, but the new “water cremation” process requires a good amount of waste water treatment.

Yes, open caskets are disturbing. And if you know anything at all about the embalming process (including that they stuff cotton or sew up ALL orifices, yes even those) you would never consider allowing embalming for your loved one. Given that the chemicals leach in the ground years after burial, embalming should be outlawed.