As many more families turn to cremation services in Hamilton, NJ, you may wonder how they manage to derive meaning from their loved one’s final rites. Cremation doesn’t exempt traditional funerals. However, if you choose not to have a typical funeral before cremation, you can still have aspects of it, such as a wake or visitation.

Here are some reasons a family might consider holding a wake, viewing, or visitation before having their loved one cremated.

The primary purpose of a service before a loved one is cremated is to say goodbye. When you have a viewing or visitation, it allows everyone who cared about your loved one to say their goodbyes. A viewing or visitation gives family and friends the chance to share in one another’s grief naturally. This adds an extra layer of meaning to the final rites, thus making it a little easier for mourners to cope with such substantial loss.

Viewing is a prominent part of the funeral culture for religious and non-religious purposes. A viewing held in religious contexts is called a wake. In addition to saying their goodbyes, the wake historically is an opportunity to ensure that there were witnesses to confirm that death had occurred. In modern times, families still choose to hold a wake to show respect out of tradition or personal preference. Conversely, some opt not to have an open-casket viewing (or any viewing at all) for reasons such as religious beliefs or privacy.

A family can arrange to have a visitation before cremating their departed. This is essentially the same as a wake, except it is not necessarily religious, and a viewing of the body is not involved. As opposed to the case of a wake where the focus splits between the deceased and their loved ones, community members visit with the family solely to support them.

Family members, friends, and acquaintances of the deceased reminisce about their lives together and share stories about them. Seeing their happy memories rehashed helps those who grieve feel validated in their pain. Likewise, having a wake or viewing the body before a cremation gives a sense of closure to some. For others, it’s the only way they will realize the reality of what has occurred.

Ultimately, a visitation service, whether with the body present or not, is a bereaved family’s way to solicit strength to get through the funeral from their community. As you may expect, opening the door to support brings much-needed comfort to those mourning.

Visitation or viewing before cremation presents these meaningful takeaways and more without as much planning or cost as a full funeral service.

Funeral rituals are very personal in nature, and thus decisions on what to do are often subjective. The grieving process is lifelong, but nothing quite compares to having the support of others to help get through the initial days. When you factor that with the fact that cremation is irreversible, you want to make the moments leading up to it as meaningful as possible for everyone involved.

Call us today for more information on how we can help you make the most of your or your loved one’s funeral and cremation services in Hamilton, NJ.