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.

Is It Okay to Wear a Deceased Loved One’s Clothes? Comfort, Boundaries, and When to Pause

Is It Okay to Wear a Deceased Loved One’s Clothes? Comfort, Boundaries, and When to Pause

There is a moment that happens quietly in many homes after a death: you open a closet, you slide a hanger aside, and your hand lands on something familiar. A...

Why People Wash Hands After a Jewish Funeral: The Tradition, Meaning, and How It’s Done

Why People Wash Hands After a Jewish Funeral: The Tradition, Meaning, and How It’s Done

You step back into the driveway after the cemetery, and before anyone says much of anything, you notice what’s waiting near the front door: a simple pitcher of water and...

Sitting, Standing, and Kneeling at Services: How to Follow Along Without Stress

Sitting, Standing, and Kneeling at Services: How to Follow Along Without Stress

If you’re unsure when to sit, stand, or kneel at a funeral or religious service, you’re not alone. In a room where grief already makes everything feel heavy, the fear...

Mosque Etiquette at a Funeral Prayer: When to Remove Shoes and What to Expect

Mosque Etiquette at a Funeral Prayer: When to Remove Shoes and What to Expect

Most people don’t walk into a mosque for a funeral prayer thinking about their shoes. They’re thinking about the person who died, the family left behind, and the quiet weight...

What to Wear to a Summer Funeral: Staying Cool While Looking Respectful

What to Wear to a Summer Funeral: Staying Cool While Looking Respectful

Summer heat can make grief feel heavier. If you are standing in front of your closet wondering about summer funeral attire, you are not being vain or dramatic. You are...

Celebration of Life Attire: Are Colors OK? What to Wear When It’s Not a Traditional Funeral

Celebration of Life Attire: Are Colors OK? What to Wear When It’s Not a Traditional Funeral

If you’ve found yourself searching what to wear to a Hindu funeral, it usually means you’re trying to do something very human: show up with respect, without accidentally standing out....

White for Mourning: Why Many Asian Traditions Use White (and What Guests Should Wear)

White for Mourning: Why Many Asian Traditions Use White (and What Guests Should Wear)

If you grew up in the U.S., you were probably taught a simple rule: funerals mean black. Then you receive an invitation from a Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, or other East...

Dressing the Body for a Home Vigil: Practical Tips for Rigor Mortis, Clothing, and Dignity

Dressing the Body for a Home Vigil: Practical Tips for Rigor Mortis, Clothing, and Dignity

Updated: January 17, 2026 There is a particular kind of intimacy that happens in the hours after a death. The home may be quiet, or filled with people moving softly...

Washing the Body After Death: A Step-by-Step Guide for Families (Home Funeral Care)

Washing the Body After Death: A Step-by-Step Guide for Families (Home Funeral Care)

There is a moment after a death when the house feels changed in a way you can’t explain. The air is the same, the light through the window is the...

Funeral Potatoes: The Mormon Comfort Food Tradition and Why It Shows Up at So Many Meals

Funeral Potatoes: The Mormon Comfort Food Tradition and Why It Shows Up at So Many Meals

There are foods that arrive with fanfare—perfectly plated, served at the “right” temperature, introduced like they’ve been rehearsing for the moment. And then there are foods that arrive quietly, wrapped...

Wake Cake in Irish Tradition: Food, Hospitality, and What Was Served at a Wake

Wake Cake in Irish Tradition: Food, Hospitality, and What Was Served at a Wake

There are some grief rituals that live in the body as much as they live in the mind. You remember the hush in a room, the sound of chairs shifting...

Halva in Mourning Traditions: A Middle Eastern Comfort Sweet and When It’s Served

Halva in Mourning Traditions: A Middle Eastern Comfort Sweet and When It’s Served

In many households across the Middle East and neighboring regions, grief doesn’t arrive alone. It arrives with footsteps at the door, with neighbors who come even when they don’t know...

Funeral Biscuits in the 1800s: What They Were, Why They Were Served, and How to Make Them Today

Funeral Biscuits in the 1800s: What They Were, Why They Were Served, and How to Make Them Today

Imagine arriving at a house in mourning in the mid-1800s. The rooms are crowded. The air is heavy with candle smoke, damp wool, and the quiet logistics of grief—travel, waiting,...

State Funeral Traditions: Caissons, Caparisoned Horses, and What They Symbolize

State Funeral Traditions: Caissons, Caparisoned Horses, and What They Symbolize

There are moments in national life when ordinary time seems to slow. A procession moves down a familiar street, and even people who never met the person being honored feel...

The Missing Man Table: POW/MIA Symbolism and the Meaning Behind Each Item

The Missing Man Table: POW/MIA Symbolism and the Meaning Behind Each Item

At a military dinner or veterans’ banquet, there is often a moment when conversation softens and the room changes. It might happen during a formal toast, during opening remarks, or...

Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins (Abebuu Adekai): Meaning, Craftsmanship, and Cultural Context

Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins (Abebuu Adekai): Meaning, Craftsmanship, and Cultural Context

In a coastal neighborhood near Accra, the workshop air can smell like fresh-cut wood and paint. A coffin might be taking the shape of a bright fish, a cocoa pod,...