Humanist Funerals Explained: Meaningful Non-Religious Services and What to Expect

When someone you love dies, decisions show up before your heart is ready. If the person wasn’t religious—or your family simply wants language that matches the way they lived—a humanist funeral can offer a warm, grounded goodbye. A humanist service focuses on the person’s life, values, and relationships, with space for tears and laughter, but without religious rites that don’t fit.

Practical questions often arrive at the same time: Do we choose cremation? Where will the ashes go? What will be present at the service? Those choices can feel heavy, but they’re also how a family creates steadiness. Below, you’ll find what a humanist service usually includes, who can officiate, and how options like cremation urns, keepsake urns, and cremation jewelry can support a secular farewell.

Why non-religious funerals are more common now

A non religious funeral is often simply a reflection of real life. According to Pew Research Center, the religiously unaffiliated share of U.S. adults has remained in the high-20% range in surveys since 2020. For many families, a secular funeral service feels like the kindest option because it doesn’t ask anyone to translate the ceremony into something their loved one wouldn’t recognize.

Disposition choices have shifted, too. The National Funeral Directors Association projects a 63.4% U.S. cremation rate in 2025 and 82.3% by 2045. The Cremation Association of North America reports a 61.8% U.S. cremation rate in 2024. When cremation is part of the plan, families naturally start thinking about urns, keepsakes, and what happens to ashes after the service.

What to expect at a humanist funeral

If you’re searching what happens at humanist funeral, you’re usually hoping the day won’t feel awkward or empty. Most humanist ceremonies feel familiar because they meet the same needs as any funeral: gather people, tell the story, and help everyone leave with a clearer sense of what happened and what mattered.

Humanist groups describe these ceremonies as personal and nonreligious. For example, Humanists UK explains that a humanist funeral is led by a celebrant and shaped around the individual. In practice, the celebrant interviews the family, listens for details that feel true, and writes a ceremony that sounds like your loved one—clear, accurate, and emotionally honest.

Most services open with a welcome and a few words that name why everyone is gathered. Music often sets the tone early. Then come tributes: a eulogy, a few short speakers, or a guided narrative told by the celebrant using family memories. Many families include secular funeral readings—poetry, brief prose, or personal letters—because readings give guests language when their own words are hard to find. The service usually closes with a final reflection and a gentle send-off.

Choosing who leads matters. A trained humanist officiant (often called a celebrant) provides structure without making the service feel scripted. In the U.S., organizations like The Humanist Society and the American Humanist Association describe celebrants as professionals who lead nonreligious ceremonies, including memorials. If you’re working with a funeral home, ask whether they can recommend a celebrant who regularly leads humanist or secular services.

Cremation, urns, and keepsakes in a secular plan

Humanist ceremonies work with burial or cremation, but cremation adds timing choices. Some families hold the service first and cremate afterward. Others choose direct cremation and gather later for a humanist memorial service. Either way, you can decide whether an urn will be present, and you don’t have to finalize every detail before the ceremony.

When you’re ready to choose, start with the big picture: Where will the ashes live day to day, and will anyone need a portion? Funeral.com’s collection of cremation urns for ashes is a practical place to compare styles in one view: cremation urns for ashes. If you want guidance without jargon, the Journal guide on how to choose a cremation urn can help you narrow choices based on closures, materials, and how the urn will be used.

Sharing can make planning gentler. Many families choose one primary urn and add keepsake urns so siblings or close friends can each hold a symbolic portion. You can browse keepsake cremation urns and small cremation urns for partial holds here: small cremation urns for ashes. If capacity is your sticking point, Funeral.com’s guide to what size cremation urn to buy can reduce second-guessing.

For a portable, private memorial, many people choose cremation necklaces or other cremation jewelry alongside an urn. Cremation Jewelry 101 explains how memorial jewelry works, and you can explore options in the cremation jewelry collection or narrow straight to cremation necklaces.

And if your family is also grieving a companion animal, it can help to name that love without apology. Funeral.com offers pet urns, pet urns for ashes, and pet cremation urns in many styles. Some families prefer tribute designs like pet figurine cremation urns, and others choose pet keepsake cremation urns so multiple people can hold a small portion. For practical guidance, Funeral.com’s Journal has a complete guide to pet urns for ashes.

Keeping ashes at home, scattering, and water burial

For many families, keeping ashes at home is a pause that provides breathing room. It can be part of funeral planning when relatives need time to travel, when you’re waiting for a meaningful date, or when you simply aren’t ready to decide on final placement. Funeral.com’s guide to keeping ashes at home offers reassurance and practical tips for setting up a respectful space.

If you’re unsure what to do with ashes, it helps to think in stages: what feels right now, what might feel right later, and what’s allowed where you live. Funeral.com’s gentle overview brings the options together—urns, keepsakes, scattering, and more—here: what to do with ashes. If you want to compare urns designed for the water, Funeral.com’s guide to biodegradable water urns for ashes explains how different designs float, sink, and dissolve. If your plan includes a water burial or burial at sea in U.S. ocean waters, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that placement must be at least three nautical miles from shore under the general permit. Funeral.com’s guide to water burial and burial at sea explains what that distance means in real terms for families planning a ceremony.

Costs and planning without pressure

Even when a family wants a simple service, money is part of the reality. If you’re asking how much does cremation cost, start with a trustworthy baseline and then adjust for your area and choices. The NFDA statistics page reports a national median cost of $6,280 for a funeral with viewing and cremation in 2023, compared with $8,300 for a funeral with viewing and burial. Direct cremation can be lower, and costs vary by region and by which services you choose.

For a practical breakdown of common fees and ways families keep costs manageable, Funeral.com’s 2025 guide on how much cremation costs can help you plan with fewer surprises. The goal isn’t to find the “perfect” plan. It’s to make decisions you can stand by when things get quiet again.

A final note for families choosing a secular goodbye

When you plan a humanist service, you’re not trying to “replace” religion—you’re trying to say goodbye in a voice that fits. Let the ceremony be honest, let the practical choices be manageable, and let remembrance take the shape it needs over time.

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