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.

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...

Writing a Simple Memorial Welcome: A Short Script That Works

Writing a Simple Memorial Welcome: A Short Script That Works

If you are searching for a memorial welcome script, you are probably not trying to “write something perfect.” You are trying to start a room gently. You want to honor...

What to Do When a Loved One Wanted “No Funeral”: Meaningful Options

What to Do When a Loved One Wanted “No Funeral”: Meaningful Options

Hearing “no funeral” can land like a closed door at the exact moment you most need a place to stand. For many families, it also brings a second wave of...

Water Ceremony Script: A Gentle Order of Service

Water Ceremony Script: A Gentle Order of Service

Water has a way of holding grief without demanding anything from you. It moves, it carries, it makes room. For many families, that is exactly what they want when they...

Chevra Kadisha: The Jewish Burial Society’s Protocols and Why They Matter

Chevra Kadisha: The Jewish Burial Society’s Protocols and Why They Matter

A chevra kadisha is not a club or merely an organizational title; it is a sacred volunteer burial society that stands at the heart of Jewish funeral traditions, carrying out...

Tahara: Jewish Ritual Washing—What Happens, Who Performs It, and Its Meaning

Tahara: Jewish Ritual Washing—What Happens, Who Performs It, and Its Meaning

In the first hours after a death, families are often asked to make decisions while they are still trying to understand what just happened. A funeral home may be ready...

Spiritual Crisis in Grief: Anger at God, Loss of Faith, and How to Find Support

Spiritual Crisis in Grief: Anger at God, Loss of Faith, and How to Find Support

There are losses that hurt so sharply they don’t just break your heart; they shake your whole inner framework. One day you might have had a sense of how the...

Catholic Grief and Purgatory Anxiety: When Loss Triggers Guilt, Fear, or Scrupulosity

Catholic Grief and Purgatory Anxiety: When Loss Triggers Guilt, Fear, or Scrupulosity

In the first days after a death, many Catholics find that grief doesn’t only feel sad. It can feel urgent. Your mind may replay the last conversation, the last hospital...

Jewish Grief and Sitting Shiva: How Ritual Structure Supports Mourning and Community Care

Jewish Grief and Sitting Shiva: How Ritual Structure Supports Mourning and Community Care

In the hours after a Jewish funeral, many families return home feeling both full and hollow at the same time. The house is familiar, but the world inside it has...

Black Armbands in Mourning: Where the Symbol Came From and How It’s Used Today

Black Armbands in Mourning: Where the Symbol Came From and How It’s Used Today

There are moments in grief when words feel too sharp for what you’re carrying. You may not want to explain anything, and you may not want attention, but you also...

Judaism and Cremation: What Different Traditions Teach and What Families Can Do

Judaism and Cremation: What Different Traditions Teach and What Families Can Do

When a family is facing loss, decisions can move faster than the heart can keep up. Sometimes cremation is chosen because it feels simpler, because it was requested years ago,...

Cardinal Bird Symbolism After Death: Songs, Stories, and Sympathy Quotes

Cardinal Bird Symbolism After Death: Songs, Stories, and Sympathy Quotes

Northern cardinals are hard to miss. The red is vivid, the silhouette is familiar, and the song is one many people can recognize without even looking up. That combination—visibility, sound,...

Immediate Family Funeral Etiquette and Bereavement Leave: Who’s Included and What to Do

Immediate Family Funeral Etiquette and Bereavement Leave: Who’s Included and What to Do

When someone close dies, “immediate family” can suddenly feel like two different things at once. At the funeral, it can mean you’re the people guests look to for cues—where to...

Funeral Etiquette for Immediate Family: Roles, Receiving Line Order, and What to Expect

Funeral Etiquette for Immediate Family: Roles, Receiving Line Order, and What to Expect

Being immediate family at a funeral is a strange combination of honor and pressure. You’re grieving, but you’re also the people everyone looks to for cues: where to sit, whether...

Funeral Procession Etiquette: Meaning, Traditions, and What Drivers Should Do

Funeral Procession Etiquette: Meaning, Traditions, and What Drivers Should Do

A funeral procession is one of the most visible public expressions of grief. It is also one of the most misunderstood. If you have ever wondered what is a funeral...