September 2002
The Director - Features
Funeral and Memorial Practices in a New Era
In the face of deeply entrenched values, beliefs and emotions, funeral directors do not dare change the rites that they believe are necessary to fulfill their responsibilities to God and the deceased, but that help them and their society heal. So, when funeral rites do change extensively and/or quickly, as they are in the contemporary United States, it reflects dramatic material, behavioral and/or ideological changes in the broader society.
ChrisTina Leimer’s article, Funeral and Memorial Practices in a New Era, covers some of the common threads running through some of the changes in traditional funeral rites as well as the new rites. She compares and contrasts the funeral rites of today to those of the past and what to expect at funerals today. Leimer holds a master’s degree in sociology and explored in her master’s thesis why many Americans opted for cremation instead of the centuries-old tradition of earth burial.
