A committal service is one that succeeds a funeral. It is usually a short ritual that involves prayers held at the graveside of a dearly beloved. As the coffin is lowered to the ground, people say their final goodbyes. Regardless of the type of funeral that has pr0ceded, whether it was just a quick cremation ceremony or a traditional one that lasted for hours, a committal service is important because it gives people the opportunity to eulogize the deceased.
The common attendees at a committal service are the immediate family members and closest friends and relatives. At a committal rite, the life of the beloved who passed away is given light. By means of stories, poetry, and songs, a person’s years are commemorated. Some people prefer to incorporate the sharing of thoughts during a church or funeral service with all family and friends around. However, many families also want to have a private event with immediate family and a funeral service and committal service are both performed.
What Happens At A Committal Service?
Just like all rituals for honoring the dead are different, what takes place at a committal is also dependent on the family’s cultural affiliations. What the group practices are what and how the ceremony should proceed. Typically, the brief rite involves opening sentences, prayers, and benediction acts. With a reference to religious customs, the most important individuals to the deceased are given enough time to present something for everybody else to remember. It may be in the form of a spoken testimonial or an announcement of a legacy. Either way, the life of the dead is commemorated without the distraction of the larger crowd at a funeral service.
If you’re planning a committal service, you must remember to keep it brief. Although it depends on you and your family’s preference on how you wish to bid your goodbyes, everybody expects that the committal service will be short. This is because most people also have a funeral service, which is much longer and gives friends and family the opportunity to eulogize the deceased. The point of an internment is for the closest family to gather and have a private service to pay their final respects to loved one.
At the committal service members of the immediate family and sometimes the closest friends of the deceased gather as the closed casket is lowered into the ground. Often a family member will shovel the first dirt onto the casket. Family members and close friends may throw flowers into the grave as it is lowered into the ground.
