The Changing face of Funerals in Australia
Written by  © Sally Cant 14th May 2008

With the ageing population and the increasing age of the baby boomers there are a number of issues being raised on the future of funerals within Australia and the wider population.

Those of us familiar with the awareness of the impact ceremony can have within the community, see the value of ceremony in a very deep and meaningful way.

We acknowledge the role ceremony has to play and insist on the authenticity of each ceremony held within our circle of family, friends and indeed the wider community.

Funerals play a very important role in our lives and many a funeral has been a disaster due to a number of reasons.

Families have in the past found a sense of obligation to hold a funeral in a location that they look back on with distaste and might clearly make a different decision if it were being made today.  No longer is there an obligation to feel somewhat hypocritical and hold a funeral within the boundaries of the church if the deceased is not religious. There is also no need for families to feel that they are bound to have the funeral within the walls of a funeral home or chapel.

People are beginning to understand their rights and insist on the ceremony of their choice, designed specifically around the wishes of the deceased and their family members. There is an added expectation that it will also be created and presented in a very professional caring manner.

I believe that the entire funeral ceremony will, over the next ten years, be transformed into something grander then we might have imagined. Clearly the statistics show us that we can expect a huge increase in deaths and along with this growing market comes the awareness and demand for a more personalised celebration.   

What this means for celebrants and those who are called upon to conduct a celebration of a life, is to be incredibly well researched, well skilled and be flexible enough to accommodate individual requirements.

Clearly we have a standard to uphold whilst always protecting our credibility and integrity, but I feel there is a need for Celebrants to be able to step outside their comfort zone and plan and present an authentic, personalised ceremony to please the guests. The guests are then able to walk away from a funeral ceremony feeling as though they have had a time to share, a time for joy, sadness, mourning, celebration and healing.

The general public are learning very quickly that a well presented and research funeral ceremony can have a profound effect on every guest. We all attend a funeral ceremony for many varied reasons. Each of us at certain times in our lives will expect something quite different from each and every funeral we attend. Along with that comes the fact that depending on your own life stage each ceremony will affect us differently.

If we lose a friend and attend a funeral it will generally bring back memories of other funerals or indeed the pending loss of a love one.
We cannot expect to cater for every person’s individual needs over that one ceremony, but we can do everything in our power to ensure the experience is not exacerbated by being unskilled, ignorant or uncaring.

As we move forward into this changing world our expectations of the life celebration will change also. Who would have thought ten years ago that the funeral industry would follow the wedding industry in civil ceremonies. Now as we move further into the twenty first century our role continues to change along with the needs and demands of our clients.

Let us consider a funeral ceremony held at the home of an 85 year old, surrounded by his entire family and community of friends. The body might be presented in an eco-coffin which during the ceremony is painted and decorated by his 32 grand and great grand children. We will have real-time video streamed to three continents as family members spread around the world share in this occasion.   The celebrant is there to present a very personalised ceremony accompanied by three of his children and two of his grand children will sing and play for us. For a few moments we will put our lives on hold and we will laugh, we will sing, and we will share in this rich vibrant moment to celebrate a life that was lived.

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