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.

Imagines in Ancient Rome: Ancestor Masks, Funeral Processions, and Family Prestige

Imagines in Ancient Rome: Ancestor Masks, Funeral Processions, and Family Prestige

In the atrium of an elite Roman home, memory could feel almost physical. Families kept portraits of their ancestors close—sometimes not as paintings, but as wax likenesses called imagines, preserved and...

Ho’oponopono Before Death: A Hawaiian Practice of Forgiveness, Repair, and Making Peace

Ho’oponopono Before Death: A Hawaiian Practice of Forgiveness, Repair, and Making Peace

Some families reach the end of a life with everything neatly said. Many do not. More often, there is love mixed with old misunderstandings, long silences, half-apologies, and the kind...

New Orleans Jazz Funerals: Second Line Traditions, Meaning, and Etiquette for Guests

New Orleans Jazz Funerals: Second Line Traditions, Meaning, and Etiquette for Guests

In New Orleans, a funeral can move through the streets the way a story moves through a neighborhood: slowly at first, carried with care, and then—when the time is right—lifted...

Banshees in Irish Folklore: Omens of Death, Family Lines, and What the Myth Really Says

Banshees in Irish Folklore: Omens of Death, Family Lines, and What the Myth Really Says

There are stories that show up when a family is already tired—when the house feels too quiet, when the phone keeps buzzing with condolences, and when your mind keeps circling...

Samhain: The Ancient Roots of Halloween and the Liminal “Thin Veil” Idea

Samhain: The Ancient Roots of Halloween and the Liminal “Thin Veil” Idea

There are nights in the calendar that feel different even if you can’t explain why. The light fades earlier, the air sharpens, and ordinary routines pick up a quiet edge....

Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day): History, Rituals, and Modern Ways Families Observe It

Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day): History, Rituals, and Modern Ways Families Observe It

In many families, grief doesn’t begin with a single day. It returns in seasons—when the light changes, when certain foods appear on the table, when a name is spoken and...

Fields of Asphodel: The ‘Middle’ Afterlife in Greek Myth (Not Heaven, Not Hell)

Fields of Asphodel: The ‘Middle’ Afterlife in Greek Myth (Not Heaven, Not Hell)

In some ancient Greek stories, the dead did not all travel to a single destination. There were places of punishment and places of reward, yes—but there was also a quieter...

Joss Paper and “Spirit Money”: Why Families Burn Offerings and What It Means

Joss Paper and “Spirit Money”: Why Families Burn Offerings and What It Means

In many Chinese and East or Southeast Asian families, grief doesn’t only ask for tears. It asks for care. It asks for action that says, in the most human way...

Parentalia: Rome’s Festival of the Dead and How Ancestors Were Honored

Parentalia: Rome’s Festival of the Dead and How Ancestors Were Honored

In ancient Rome, remembrance did not belong only to a single day. It had a season, a rhythm, and a place in the ordinary flow of family life. Each year...

Why Red Is Forbidden at Many Chinese Funerals: Color Symbolism, Superstitions, and Etiquette

Why Red Is Forbidden at Many Chinese Funerals: Color Symbolism, Superstitions, and Etiquette

You can usually tell, within seconds of arriving, whether you have dressed “right” for a funeral. Not because anyone says anything out loud, but because the room tells you. The...

Charon’s Obol: The Coin in the Mouth and Greek Beliefs About Crossing to the Dead

Charon’s Obol: The Coin in the Mouth and Greek Beliefs About Crossing to the Dead

In some ancient Greek stories, death is not just an end. It is a crossing. The living world has borders, and the underworld has its own geography—dark rivers, shadowed banks,...

Shabti (Ushabti) Dolls: The ‘Servants’ Placed in Tombs and What They Represented

Shabti (Ushabti) Dolls: The ‘Servants’ Placed in Tombs and What They Represented

There are moments in grief when the mind latches onto a single, unexpected detail—something small enough to hold in your imagination when everything else feels too large. In ancient Egypt,...

Butsudan: The Japanese Home Altar for Remembrance, Offerings, and Ongoing Connection

Butsudan: The Japanese Home Altar for Remembrance, Offerings, and Ongoing Connection

There are losses that rearrange a home without moving a single piece of furniture. A chair stays where it was, a mug still sits in the cabinet, and yet the...

Canopic Jars Explained: Why Ancient Egyptians Preserved Organs for the Afterlife

Canopic Jars Explained: Why Ancient Egyptians Preserved Organs for the Afterlife

In a quiet museum gallery, a set of four jars can stop you mid-step. They look sturdy, purposeful—made for hands that believed in a future beyond the visible world. Ancient...

Anubis: The Jackal-Headed Guide of the Dead and His Role in Egyptian Funerary Rituals

Anubis: The Jackal-Headed Guide of the Dead and His Role in Egyptian Funerary Rituals

When a family loses someone they love, the first questions are often practical: What happens next? Who do we call? What choices do we have—and how do we make them...

Kotsuage in Japan: The Bone-Picking Ceremony After Cremation (What to Expect and Why It Matters)

Kotsuage in Japan: The Bone-Picking Ceremony After Cremation (What to Expect and Why It Matters)

If you have grown up in the U.S., the U.K., or many other Western countries, cremation usually ends with a simple handoff: a temporary container, a few forms, and a...