The Funeral.com Journal

Resources to help you create tributes as unique as the people (and pets) you love. Learn how engraving, photos, colors, and symbols add meaning; discover scattering rituals and at-home memorial ideas. We focus on the details that matter—because small choices can carry a lifetime of comfort.

Sky Burials Explained: Understanding the Tibetan Tradition and Why It’s Rare Elsewhere

Sky Burials Explained: Understanding the Tibetan Tradition and Why It’s Rare Elsewhere

The first time most people hear the phrase sky burial, it can land with a mix of curiosity and discomfort. That reaction is understandable—especially if you were raised around cemeteries,...

Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins: Meaning, Craftsmanship, and Sustainability Questions

Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins: Meaning, Craftsmanship, and Sustainability Questions

It can start with a single photo: an airplane-shaped coffin painted the bright blue of a clear sky, or a giant fish with shimmering scales, or a cocoa pod, or...

Open-Air Funeral Pyres: Where They’re Allowed, How Permits Work, and Cultural Context (2026)

Open-Air Funeral Pyres: Where They’re Allowed, How Permits Work, and Cultural Context (2026)

Sometimes a family’s questions arrive quietly, almost like they’re testing whether it’s “okay” to ask. Someone will say they’ve seen an open-air cremation in a documentary, or they’ve attended a...

Interfaith Memorial Services: Planning a Ceremony That Honors Multiple Faith Traditions

Interfaith Memorial Services: Planning a Ceremony That Honors Multiple Faith Traditions

When a family gathers after a death, the questions are rarely only logistical. Yes, you may be choosing a date, a location, and who will speak. But in an interfaith...

Multifaith Funerals: How to Blend Traditions Respectfully When Families Have Different Beliefs

Multifaith Funerals: How to Blend Traditions Respectfully When Families Have Different Beliefs

When someone dies in a family with mixed beliefs, the hardest part isn’t usually the logistics. It’s the feeling that every decision carries extra weight: if you choose a prayer,...

Traditional Funeral in the U.S.: What Happens, Typical Order of Service & Etiquette

Traditional Funeral in the U.S.: What Happens, Typical Order of Service & Etiquette

When you’re grieving, “tradition” can feel like the only solid thing in a week that suddenly has no ground under it. A traditional funeral service gives families a familiar structure:...

Custom Engraved Cremation Urns: Personalization Options and Buying Checklist

Custom Engraved Cremation Urns: Personalization Options and Buying Checklist

Personalizing an urn can look simple from the outside—add a name, add dates, choose a font—and still feel surprisingly emotional when you’re the one doing it. You may be planning...

Interfaith Funeral Etiquette: How to Attend Respectfully Outside Your Faith

Interfaith Funeral Etiquette: How to Attend Respectfully Outside Your Faith

Walking into a funeral outside your own faith can feel like stepping into a room where everyone else already knows the rhythm. You might worry about the prayers, the gestures,...

Attending a Funeral in Another Culture: Guest Etiquette, Dress, and Common Mistakes to Avoid

Attending a Funeral in Another Culture: Guest Etiquette, Dress, and Common Mistakes to Avoid

Getting an invitation to a funeral outside your own culture or faith can land with a strange mix of honor and anxiety. You want to show up. You want to...

West African Funerals: Ghanaian and Nigerian Traditions of Music, Dance, and Ancestor Honor

West African Funerals: Ghanaian and Nigerian Traditions of Music, Dance, and Ancestor Honor

In many Ghanaian and Nigerian communities, a funeral is not simply an ending. It is a gathering that carries someone from the visible world into the care of family, faith,...

Balinese Cremation Ceremony: Ngaben Rituals, Meaning, and What Guests Should Expect

Balinese Cremation Ceremony: Ngaben Rituals, Meaning, and What Guests Should Expect

You might hear a wave of gamelan music before you see anything at all—bright cymbals, deep drums, the kind of rhythm that makes your feet want to move even when...

Zoroastrian Sky Burials: Towers of Silence, Excarnation, and the Beliefs Behind the Practice

Zoroastrian Sky Burials: Towers of Silence, Excarnation, and the Beliefs Behind the Practice

In the days after a death, families often discover something they didn’t expect: the hardest part isn’t always the paperwork or the logistics. It’s the quiet moment when you realize...

Japanese Buddhist Funerals: What Happens, Why They’re Common, and Key Rituals Explained

Japanese Buddhist Funerals: What Happens, Why They’re Common, and Key Rituals Explained

Many families first learn about a japanese buddhist funeral in a moment of hurry and heartbreak: a phone call, a flight, a message from a relative saying the wake is...

Qingming Festival Explained: Chinese Tomb-Sweeping Day, Ancestor Visits, and Offerings - Funeral.com, Inc.

Qingming Festival Explained: Chinese Tomb-Sweeping Day, Ancestor Visits, and Offerings

In many families, grief doesn’t arrive only once. It returns in seasons—when the air shifts, when a familiar date approaches, when a child asks a question you didn’t expect, when...

Viking Funerals: Myths vs. Reality of Norse Farewells (Ships, Fire, and What’s Actually Known) - Funeral.com, Inc.

Viking Funerals: Myths vs. Reality of Norse Farewells (Ships, Fire, and What’s Actually Known)

The scene is familiar: a lone figure stands at the shoreline, a bow drawn tight, and a flaming arrow arcs into the twilight. The ship catches, the sea swallows it,...

Scottish Funerals and Bagpipes: Why They’re Used and What the Tradition Represents - Funeral.com, Inc.

Scottish Funerals and Bagpipes: Why They’re Used and What the Tradition Represents

The first time many people hear bagpipes in a funeral setting, it catches them off guard—not because the sound feels unfamiliar, but because it feels instantly human. A lone piper...