Religion out as funerals get new lease of life

SCOTs are dropping traditional mourning and religious funerals and instead celebrating their loved ones' lives with favourite pop songs, football teams and hobbies.

Half of today's funerals are a "celebration of life" and more than one in ten does not include any religious elements, according to research at 850 funeral homes across Scotland and the UK, and in a public poll.

The survey has found high profile funerals for celebrities including Diana, Princess of Wales, and Jade Goody have encouraged a trend of personal services instead of those organised mainly by church officials or funeral providers. The most popular tune requested was the classic, My Way.

The poll found more than half of the population, 54 per cent, would prefer a celebration at their own send off, while nearly half wanted a service that reflected their favourite hobby, colour, football team or music.

Funeral historian Dr Julian Litten said celebrity funerals "have opened people's eyes to the array of choices available from cars to coffins, pop songs to white doves. Most importantly, today's funerals are increasingly a celebration of life rather than mourning a loss".

The Co-operative Funeralcare, which commissioned the survey, said directors have fielded requests for pink Cadillacs, milk floats, motorbikes and a tandem bicycle, and witnessed firework displays and balloon releases.

Mourners have opted to wear bright colours or to co-ordinate their outfits with a favourite colour theme.

At Morton Hall, a crematorium run by Edinburgh City Council, 800 out of 2,800 cremations last year were non-religious, said Victor Spence, general secretary of the Edinburgh Interfaith Association.

People are running funerals as they do their lives, he said, independent of institutions and earlier generations.

"They want choices, and are used to making choices," he said. "While minority faiths in Scotland, such as Islam or Hinduism, hold on to traditional funerals, practices, the Christian church has changed more.

"People should be encouraged to celebrate the lives of those who have passed away."

Three out of ten funerals included personalised flowers, to "Mum" or "Dad", or floral tributes including a pint of Guinness, a cricket bat and a pigeon, the survey reported. Just 36 per cent of funerals used purely religious music.

Requests for off-beat coffins included models of a Lancaster bomber, a Tardis and a yacht. At two-thirds of funerals the deceased was dressed in clothes that reflected their life, job or hobby.

Live webcasts of funeral ceremonies for distant families and friends were also growing in popularity.The Reverend Mitchell Bunting, of the United Reformed Church in Scotland, a minister for 25 years, said: "The majority of funerals in recent years have all tended towards a celebration of life in the context of Christian worship." People have always included their own music or material, but it is increasingly common for people to do a reading or get involved.

"Traditionally you would think the minister would go up and give a sermon, but very often now I would be sharing words given by the family, as well as the Christian element.

"The normal pattern would be to sing a couple of Christian hymns; where the personal touch comes in is the music at the beginning or the end. It's as likely to be rock music, or country and western, as classical.

"What I need to see in a Christian service is an element of expression of Gospel hope, the triumph of life over death. That can be expressed in contemporary ways or traditional ways."