Apr 08 2009
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“ A ‘home funeral’ is a noncommercial, family centered response to death that involves the family and its social community in the care and preparation of the body for burial or cremation, and/or in planning and carrying out related rituals or ceremonies, and/or in the burial or cremation itself. A ‘home funeral’ may occur entirely within the family home or not. It is differentiated from the ‘institutional funeral’ by its emphasis on minimal, noninvasive care and preparation of the body, on its reliance on the family’s own social networks for assistance and support, and on the relative or total absence of commercial funeral providers in its proceedings.
— From Undertaken With Love: A Home Funeral Guide for Congregations and Communities (D.I.Y. ‘til we die [and then some], right?)
