Offices of the Butterworth & Sons mortuary in Seattle, Washington, 1900.

A former funeral home in Seattle (2007)

A funeral home in Seattle (2007)

A funeral home, or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. A funeral is a Ceremony marking a person's Death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of Beliefs and practices used by a Culture to remember These services may include a prepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral. A wake is a Ceremony associated with death Traditionally a wake takes place in the house of the deceased with the body present however modern wakes are often performed at A chapel is a holy place or area of Worship for Christians, which may be attached to an institution such as a large church, a College, a

Services

Funeral homes arrange services in accordance with the wishes of families and the deceased. The funeral home often takes care of the necessary paperwork, permits, and other details, such as making arrangements with the cemetery, and providing obituaries to the news media. A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. An obituary is an attempt to give an account of the texture and significance of the life of someone who has recently died

There are a few common types of services in the United States of America. A traditional funeral service consists of a viewing (sometimes referred to as a wake), a funeral service at the church of the deceased (or at the mortuary chapel), and a graveside committal service. Direct cremation consists of the mortuary receiving the remains of the deceased, filing the necessary paperwork (according to state laws), and completing the cremation process. Direct/immediate Burial is when the family of the deceased forgoes a funeral ceremony and solely wishes their loved one to be buried in a timely manner. Forwarding or receiving of remains to or from another mortuary consists of preparing the body for shipment in a casket strapped into an airtray or a combination unit. This is used when the cemetery in which the deceased is to be buried lies in another state or country.

When the deceased are brought to the funeral home, they are sometimes embalmed to delay decomposition. Embalming, in most modern Cultures is the Art and Science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall Decomposition The typical embalming procedure involves replacement of the blood of the decedent with a mixture of preservative chemicals and dyes, aspiration of the internal organs, and the setting of the person's features. The use of makeup to make a person look more lifelike is often employed. If the deceased was disfigured from an accident or illness, the embalmer can sometimes utilize restorative techniques to make the corpse presentable for an open casket service. If the embalmer is unable to do so, or if the family requests otherwise, the funeral home can perform a closed casket service.

The funeral home often sets aside one or more large areas for families to gather at a visitation. This area may contain a space to display the deceased in their casket for visitors to pay their respects. Funeral services and memorial services may also take place at the funeral home. Many funeral homes also offer prearrangement services for those who wish to prepare their own funeral services before death.

Because of the increasing popularity of cremation, there are more funeral homes with crematoriums. Cremation is the act of reducing a Corpse by burning, generally in a crematorium furnace or crematory fire Cremation is the act of reducing a Corpse by burning, generally in a crematorium furnace or crematory fire Funeral homes without facilities on-site often contract the work out to other firms.

Some funeral homes are family owned and operated. Others are part of larger corporations; however, unlike those in other industries, these corporations often act anonymously to appear as if they are family owned. ^[1] One of the largest corporations is Service Corporation International. For other uses of the acronym SCI see SCI Service Corporation International ( is North America’s largest provider of end-of-life arrangements

Funeral homes in popular culture

• The television series Six Feet Under portrayed a fictional funeral home. Six Feet Under is an American Television Drama created by Alan Ball that was originally broadcast from 2001 to 2005
• The television series Family Plots showed the operations of an actual Californian funeral home. Family Plots was a Reality television show that followed the ongoing events and the eccentric employees that work at the family-run Poway Bernardo Mortuary The show lasted for two seasons before it was canceled.
• In the movie My Girl Harry Sultenfuss (Dan Aykroyd) ran a mortuary from his home. My Girl is a 1991 Coming-of-age dramatic comedy starring Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky
• In the Lifetime tv movie Wisegal, Frank Russo, the mafia captain, owns a Funeral Home as a front

See also

• Death industry
• Funeral Consumers Alliance

References