Question about a funeral?

Question

Ok, Im writing this screenplay, and do not have much experience at actual burials. My question is this. At a burial, is there any standard prayer, or phrase, that would be used by the priest at the close (or as the casket is about to be placed in the ground)?
Also, when the service is over, is it customary for the family and friends to approach the casket and say any final words? Is the casket actually placed in the ground and covered during the burial or is that done once the mourning guests have left? Its a fictional story if that cheers anyone up :)

Answer 1

The priest ends with what is called the committal. Generally, people do not stay for the lowering of the casket or the filling in of the grave, but some families want to stay for the whole thing, but not usually. Also, the families usually do not approach the casket again or say anything further, the just go to their cars and head off to the luncheon. Hope this helps, good luck with your screenplay!

Answer 2

well in my country funeral is really a real ceremony. I dont know if there is anything particular that the priest says but after the placing of the casket on the ground the family often comes over the casket and each one of them throws a small stone over the casket... also they have this custom of breaking a table when the men carrying the casket start putting it in the hole. The casket is covered during the ceremony and after this the family often has something like a lunch with all the members of the wider family... If that's any helpfull

Answer 3

Each funeral is different and as your a writer you can do whatever you think your characters would do. Normally at the actual burial site they will have a family member throw one shovel full of dirt on the casket and a women in the family will throw in a flower. And then everyone leaves and the maintenance men will complete the burial with out family around.
Most people say good byes at the funeral parlour, open or closed casket. Hope that helps

Answer 4

Depends on the religion. Since you said priest I'm assuming Catholic. There are several different phrases they use at burials. There are plenty of catholic websites that could help. No one approached my fathers casket and said any last words nor at any other burials I've been to. No at the burials I have been to they do not put the casket into the ground and cover it until the service has concluded and everyone has left.

Answer 5

[edit] Ceremony by the Graveside
After the absolution, the body is carried to the grave. The tomb or burial plot is then blessed, if it has not been blessed previously. A grave newly dug in an already consecrated cemetery is considered blessed, and requires no further consecration. However, a mausoleum erected above ground or even a brick chamber beneath the surface is regarded as needing blessing when used for the first time. This blessing is short and consists only of a single prayer after which the body is again sprinkled with holy water and incensed. Apart from this, the service at the graveside is very brief.

The priest intones the antiphon "I am the Resurrection and the Life", after which the coffin is lowered into the grave and the Canticle Benedictus is recited or sung. Then the antiphon is repeated again, the Lord's Prayer is said silently, while the coffin is again sprinkled with holy water. Finally, after one or two brief responses, the following ancient prayer is said:

Grant this mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to Thy servant departed, that he may not receive in punishment the requital of his deeds who in desire did keep Thy will, and as the true faith here united him to the company of the faithful, so may Thy mercy unite him above to the choirs of angels. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The final petition made by the priest is "May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace." At that point, the graveside ceremony and the burial is complete.


this is a catholic burial...the one i was at did not lower the casket into the ground...at the end of the burial ceremony the priest said this concludes the ceremony and the family has invited friends and family to a nearby restaurant for lunch etc etc...I would throw a "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" line in your play...always authentic heh.....for dramatic purposes you can lower a casket ..more effective...gl...

Answer 6

in a burial, the family (immediate) is typically involved, and stands under a tent, and each gets to say their last goodbye in a line, and touch the casket, remove a flower from the casket bouquet and toss it in the hole after the casket is lowered into the ground. The priests usually say a few final words, and say something along the lines of being raised into heaven and spending eternal life watching over us, (name) is in god's hands and has reached the gates of heaven. Something like that, and then everyone says their last goodbyes and watches the casket lowered.

Answer 7

At the funerals I have been to, they left the casket on the stand above the grave until the family had left. If there is a prayer said at grave side it is Jesus Christ's prayer from the Sermon on the mount: "Our father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil for
thine is the kingdom, and the power
and the glory forever.
Amen.
Matthew 6:9-13

Answer 8

ashes to ashes dust to dust alot of funerals the family places a flower on the coffin and it depends on the faith of deceased if the coffin is put in the ground while people are still there but usually it's done after the people leave I was at a catholic burial where the casket was lowered and the mother jumped in the hole pretty strange

Answer 9

Usually, the final goodbye is said right before the closing of the casket. The closing can be at a church, if there's going to be a memorial, or at the funeral home if it's going right to the cemetary afterwards. There is no standard prayer.

Answer 10

Since you have watched dozens of movies, you should know there is a chiche' of hearing the same old thing each time to conclude a funeral. What was in Nightmare on Elm Street 4 is the same thing you might hear in a Hollywood Blockbuster: even though there isn't a true passage to use (except if a specific religion such as the Catholic answer someone mentioned).

If you'd like to try something new, take a peek in a Gideons Bible. You can find one in a motel room, hospital, or even the Goodwill or similar thrift shop. It has a reference area for different topics for which to find comfort. You might like one of those.

Something also said is from John 6.35


Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.'



Hope it helps a little.