What to Wear to Your Funeral
When attending funerals at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, you may be surprised to see the deceased not wearing a suit and tie or a nice dress. Funeral attire for those who die before us has changed in the last couple of decades, and now people are being buried in clothes that people are used to seeing them in.
Attire for the deceased has become much less formal. The reasoning behind this is actually pretty straightforward. If people never dressed up much in real life, and the goal of a viewing is to have the deceased person look in death as they looked in life, as much as is possible, then why would they dress up in something they would have never worn when they were alive?
It is now common for men who have died to be buried in sports coats and slacks, with a polo shirt, a team jersey, or even their favorite denim or plaid shirt. Women who have died are now more commonly being buried in pantsuits and skirts, blouses, and blazers. Some women, before they died, expressed a desire to be buried in their wedding gowns, and that is now a growing fashion trend for the deceased.
However, while the funeral home has no restrictions on what a deceased person can be dressed in for the viewing and burial, there are external restrictions that may dictate what kind of clothing the deceased can be dressed in.
For example, when Buddhists died, one of the restrictions on the clothes that the deceased person is wearing is that all buttons and zippers must have been removed. Buddhists believe that the soul of the deceased can escape through buttons and zippers, and to make sure the soul stays with the body, these items are removed from the deceased’s clothing.
In Jewish funeral tradition, deceased people are dress in a plain white linen or muslin shroud. This is considered to be a person’s purist state.
However, if there no cultural or religious restrictions on what the deceased person should be dressed in, the best way to choose their final attire is to dress them in something that is familiar to other people or that will remind people of something special about them.
Some families choose small items of clothing, such as a favorite hat or flip-flops or a college or professional sports team jersey, as part of the attire that their deceased loved one wears. They may also place items that compliment the attire in the casket with their loved one. It’s not unusual to see someone who loved to fish to be buried with their favorite fishing hat and one of their fishing rods or someone who loved to golf buried in clothes that they’d wear to the golf course and one of their golf clubs.
It is becoming more common for funerals to be themed. This means that not only does the deceased get dressed in a certain way, but so do the mourners who attend their funeral. Sports is probably the most commonly-used theme at modern funerals. The deceased will be dressed with a sports jersey and mourners will be asked to wear something to the funeral service that has that team’s logo on it.
If you want to know more about funeral attire at funeral homes in Tallahassee, FL, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations can help. You can come by our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can contact us today at (850) 627-1111.
