Does anybody think that open caskets are a really strange & a bit macabre custom or is it just me?

Question

I'm of the age where I'm starting go to funerals on a regular basis and seeing friends and family members" all dressed up to go away" is beginning to strike me as more than a bit strange .
Does anybody else feel the same way ?

For some teenager:
There are just certain things that you do at certains times of your life.
In your teens you go to a lot of graduations
In your twenties you go to a lot of weddings
Once you get into your mid-fifties and older (especially if you have a large family ) you start to go to a lot of funerals because the numbers game just catches up to you. Your parents are at least in their mid to late seventies as are all your aunts and uncles . Some of your friends and cousins will die young and the net result is that the dark suit will always be at the ready

Answer 1

I think it's very strange and macabre, and almost downright barbaric.
I am 25 and just went to my first funeral a few months ago. I didn't want to go to the viewing because I don't think I would gain anything except trauma from staring at my loved ones dead body.
I caught a glimpse of his body from far away and that was enough for me.
My in laws feel the same way, its in their will that there is to be no viewing and they will have a closed casket funeral.
I understand that some people need to see the person dead to have closure, and I get that, but it still weirds me out. I also think it's kind of ridiculous to spend thousads of dollars on body preparation, dressing it, and on the casket when those things are just going to be sitting underground for eternity.
I think cremation makes it easier on everyone.

Answer 2

Nope.Don't feel that way. The reason is, the family.

when you truly love someone, it doesn't matter after death, that they look strange or that you know they are gone. You still want to lay eyes on them and express your sorrow.

You sure would have had a difficult time with it, before the advent of funeral homes. ha
That's what the parlor was for, in the old days. A room in the front of the house, just for sitting. This is where the body of loved ones was left for viewing, for several days.
That's where the tradition to keep food handy, came into being. In the old days, folks traveled a long ways to come visit, when a loved one died. There were no motels, like we have today, way out on the farm. People stayed, slept and ate in that home until the funeral. Quite a crowd.

Answer 3

I think it depends on what culture you are from. Have you ever heard of an Irish Wake? They not only have an open casket, but it lasts for maybe like a whole week before they finally have the funeral - everyone files in to pay their last respects and view the body. Someone commented that this is a peculiarly "American" custom. Actually it's from a lot of European cultures, including Irish and Eastern European, and people brought that with them when they immigrated to America.

Personally I don't care for it myself - I'd just as soon remember people the way they were when they were alive and not view their dead body, but then that's just a personal quirk of mine.

Answer 4

open caskets freak me out. I've been to a few funerals and I just find it so eerie.
I would rather live with the memory of when the person was alive and not when they were dead - besides all we're looking at is an empty shell, what good is that. I suppose some people need it in order to accept the death but I am certainly not one of those people.
In fact, when I die I want to be cremated before anyone sees anything ;-)

Answer 5

For a very short while I tried selling pre-need funeral plans. Rewarding and depressing.
What really turned me off was that the Co. was owned by Funeral Parlors and a funeral Ceremony was a requirement.
In other words no one gets out cheap.
Funerals are a lot like Valentines cards.
A commodity shoved down your throat.
It's different wherever you go but I can't even get a cremation without paying for a funeral.
I'm eligible for burial at Arlington Cemetery.
Imagine what that would cost.

Answer 6

I depends. For someone who dies unexpectedly and with no warning, it is often a necessary part of the the grieving process for people to actually see the deceased. Even if they are a bit "freeked out" by it, they will get over that feeling, probably before they leave the funeral parlor. Their brain will always remember that their loved one/friend/acquaintence is gone, because they saw it first hand. Like I said, it sometimes can help having a chance to say a final goodbye. That is very, very important.

Answer 7

I grew up in a Sicilian Catholic residing house...open caskets have been purely the way it had to be with my kin. I even have been to many funerals with closed caskets and cremations. I desire an open casket because of the fact it provides me of venture to certainly see my buddy and enables furnish a sprint closure. I had a diverse cousin bypass somewhat over a 300 and sixty 5 days in the past. He replaced into cremated and that i in no way have been given of venture to be sure him after his loss of existence. I nevertheless have a complicated time accepting he's long gone and 0.5 assume him to stroll in my front door any minute. I wasnt given an possibility to look for closure together with his loss of existence and his is the only loss of existence I even have had problem coping with because of the fact of it. If there is not any trauma to the physique I say choose for the open casket. in spite of the undeniable fact that shop in mind which you cant please each physique and there'll be a minimum of one man or woman on the funeral which you will offend. Its purely the way it particularly is. If its what you and the deceased needed...who cares what every person else thinks.

Answer 8

I don't think there is anything wrong with a dead body, and I believe some people feel closure after they are able to see that yes, their loved one really is gone. The dead person isn't coming back. Viewing the body allows this fact to sink in and helps some people move on.
Still....I personally dislike open-caskets because it disturbs me how fake and unreal the bodies look. They don't seem like people anymore once a coat of makeup has been wiped all over them, and I don't want to see loved ones presented to me as a piece of decorated meat. Nope. I was traumatized a bit by my cousin's funeral, because the way they made the body look just seemed so unlike him that it really upset me and I couldn't look at it.

Answer 9

I've never liked the idea of an open casket. I mean yeah, on the one side it helps give finality and closure that they're not "just sleeping", especially since sometimes the last glimps that you had of your loved one while they were alive wasn't all that pretty (long-term illness, accident, etc).

But on the other, there's just a "dignity for the dead" thing that I don't quite feel gels well with the whole open casket process. It feels more like a peep show or something.

Answer 10

I think it does lack a bit of taste if you ask me... The last funeral I went to was my uncle's... and his corpse looked soo different than what we last remembered, we wish we would have just been able to remember him as he was prior to his death.

As for me, I want a closed casket. I want people to remember me for who I am before I die. But this is just my opinion.

*edit: I always joke with my husband, that I'd like to be buried under an old oak tree (overlooking the ocean), under some daisies. Then people can say I'm pushing up daisies. LOL! ;oP