Understanding Funeral Terminology

Understanding Funeral Terminology is important for several possible reasons. Here are a few common explanations why different people may need to know:

1. Personal Experience: If you’ve experienced the death of a loved one, you may have encountered funeral planning and related discussions, it is important you understand the terms and what they mean.
2. Cultural Exposure: Some cultures and families openly discuss death, rituals, and funeral processes, which can make the language familiar.
3. Media and Entertainment: TV shows, movies, podcasts, or books often reference funeral terms, especially in crime dramas or family sagas.
4. Professional or Academic Interest: You might work in (or have studied) a field like healthcare, mortuary science, religious studies, law, or social work where such terminology is common.
5. Curiosity or Research: Maybe you once looked into it out of personal curiosity or for a specific project, and the terms stuck with you.

Here is a list of common funeral terminology along with their meanings:

General Terms

• Funeral: A ceremony honouring a deceased person, often with burial or cremation.
• Wake: A gathering held before the funeral, where friends and family view the deceased and offer condolences.
• Viewing (or Visitation): An event where mourners see the body of the deceased, usually in a casket, before burial or cremation.
• Memorial Service: A ceremony to honour the deceased without the body present.
• Celebration of Life: A more informal event focusing on the deceased’s life, often upbeat in tone, the term used most to describe funeral in Australia.
• NSNA: No service No Attendance, best described as Direct unattended cremation services.
• Direct Unattended Cremation: A cremation where family and friends do not attend for a service with the deceased present. The Coffin/deceased is delivered direct to crematorium.
• Prearranged: is one where you and us together record the goods and services you would like for yourself, but no payment is made, and costs are not fixed
• Prepaid Funeral: Also referred to as a Fixed Price Funeral Plan, is where the goods and services you would like in the future are established, a contract signed and paid for at today’s prices, the cost being fixed, regardless of any future price increases.

People Involved

• Deceased: The person who has passed away.
• Next of Kin: Closest living relative(s) of the deceased. Places like the coroner will have a hierarchy.
• Pallbearers:  A term used today to describe coffin bearers or individuals who carry or escort the casket. Traditionally the pall bearers only carried the pall above the coffin
• Officiant: The person who leads the funeral ceremony, often a clergy member or civil celebrant.
• Funeral Director: A professional who arranges and coordinates the funeral.
• Coroner: They investigate reportable deaths, reviewable deaths, and fires of public interest. The coroner’s role is to identify the deceased, determine the cause and manner of death, and in some cases, the circumstances surrounding the death.

Processes & Services

• Embalming: The process of preserving and hygienically preparing the body for viewing.
• Cremation: The process of burning the body to ashes.
• Burial: Placing the body in the ground or above ground mausoleum, in a cemetery.
• Interment: The actual placement of remains (body or ashes) in the ground.
• Repatriation: Transporting a body to another country.
• Transfer: The transfer movement of body from place of death back to and into the care of a funeral director
• Exhumation: The process of removing a deceased from the ground where it was buried, usually for reburial elsewhere or for further examination.

Funeral Items

• Casket: A rectangular shaped coffin used to hold the body.
• Coffin: A body shaped box used to hold the body.
• Urn: A container used to hold cremated ashes.
• Grave Marker: A stone or plaque indicating the resting place of the deceased.
• Hearse: A vehicle used to transport the casket to the cemetery.

Legal and Administrative

• Death Certificate: Official document stating the time, place, and cause of death.
• Interim Death Certificate or Certificate without Cause of Death: usually requested in coronial matters where a full certificate may be delayed. I also used for banking, Vic Roads and various other organisations that do not require Cause of Death.
• MCOCOD: Medical Certificate of Cause of Death issued by the doctor to funeral director
• Will: A legal document outlining a person’s wishes after death.
• Estate: All the property and debts left by the deceased.
• Probate: The legal process of distributing a deceased person’s estate.
• Form 1, Application for Interment Authorisation: Form required for application to inter a deceased into a grave in Victoria.
• Form 3, Application for Cremation: Form required by crematorium in Victoria for Cremation
• Form 4, Certificate of Registered medical Practitioner Authorising Cremation: Certificate completed by another doctor once they have viewed the body, read the MCOCOD (and confirmed it is not a reportable death) and read the Form 3 and confirmed all is in order
• Form 24, Order for Release of Body (Coroners Court of Victoria), Document issued by corner allowing release of body to allow funeral service

Religious & Cultural Terms

• Eulogy: A speech or written tribute praising the deceased.
• Committal: the formal and final act of saying goodbye, maybe at a grave side or the prayers or words spoken at the end of a service as the deceased is laid to rest.
• Shiva (Jewish): A week-long mourning period observed by the family.
• Janazah (Islamic): The Islamic funeral prayer and rites.
• Requiem or Funeral Mass: A Catholic mass offered for the repose of the soul.
• Trisagion: Is a brief prayer service performed by a Greek Orthodox Priest normally the night before the funeral