WHY WE SUPPORT HOME FUNERALS & HOME VIGILS
Before the Victorian era, both birth and death were home affairs. Death began it’s journey toward institutionalisation in the late 1800’s in the US, and a little later in Australia. This occurred partly as a result of the necessity to embalm dead soldiers in the American Civil War, as they needed to be preserved for transportation across the country in order to travel home for burial. However this historical change in death care also caused us to become removed from the death experience, and therefore we became increasingly unfamiliar with the full natural cycle of life in a way we had never in human history experienced before. As a result, our western cultures began to acquire a fear of the death experience, as humans fear the unknown, and then death anxiety really set in…
A Home Funeral is about healing and reclaiming the wisdom of the death care traditions of our ancestors.
Being with the body of your loved one in your own home provides the family with 2 powerful blessings: TIME and PRESENCE.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANCESTORS
IF we choose 3 days of our loved one at home in vigil, we are able to just be – and sit, or hold our loved one whenever we need, and this incredible window of opportunity helps us to come to terms with our loss, and we can come to accept the passing of the body and our changed relationship to the deceased.
If we choose to keep our person in the Sacred Space of The Sanctuary, at Sacred Earth Funeral Home, then we can still choose to hold the funeral ceremony at home, in our backyard or front lounge, where ever feels right. This act of ritual at home is a powerful indicator to a future healthy journey with grief and memory and a life without the physical presence of our loved one.
