Arranging a funeral

Funeral preparations

The religious ceremony led by a pastor is only a part of a funeral.  Relatives of the dead person or others who make arrangements have many things to remember.

The body must be transported from place to place.  A death certificate issued by medical authorities is needed, and sometimes also an autopsy.  A body to be buried needs a grave, or if the body is cremated, arrangements must be made for that.  (In Vantaa, nearly sixty percent of the dead are cremated, and in Helsinki the figure is even higher.  A place to deposit ashes in a cemetery costs much less than a place to bury a body.)  Relatives and friends (in greater or lesser numbers) must be informed and, after the time and place of the funeral are fixed, they can be invited.  A funeral may take place in more than one location:  the religious ceremony in one, the burial in another and a meal or some other kind of gathering in still another place, although sometimes these are all in one place.  Reservations must be made.  Photos and flowers are a part of funeral traditions.  Some things like the tombstone and the dividing of the inheritance can be arranged after the funeral.

If you are the one who arranges the funeral, don't panic.  Everything doesn't have to happen in a day, and you are not alone.  In many countries and cultures funerals take place within hours or few days of death, but in Finland a funeral is seldom arranged within a week.  Usually there are two or three weeks between the day of death and the funeral, sometimes even four weeks.  During this interval the body is stored in a cold place so it won't decay quickly.  Also, you can find professional help for funeral arrangements.

In Vantaa there are many private undertakers (morticians, hautaustoimisto in Finnish, meaning ”burial office”) that provide expert services for funerals, although they do not act as funeral directors in the same sense as in some other countries.  Their services cost money, however, and you don't have to leave everything to them.  It is a good idea to visit a parish office personally and make reservations there instead of leaving that to the undertaker.  (Contact information for parish offices can be found on this website on the page of each congregation.)

An undertaker's services are necessary in some arrangements.  Finnish law is strict about the transportation of human bodies, so that undertakers have practically gained a monopoly in that.  The body needs to be brought to the place of the funeral ceremony, and if burial or cremation takes place somewhere else, transportation is also needed there.  Also, unless the coffin has been made at home, an undertaker's office is the place to buy one.  (A coffin is necessary even if the body is cremated, because religious rites take place before cremation unless ashes are brought to Finland from another country.)  Undertakers are often florists, but there are also other shops where you can buy flower arrangements.  (Plastic flowers are not customary in Finland.)

In any case it is good that the relatives preparing for a funeral meet the pastor beforehand.  You can make plans together, get to know each other and talk about life and death.  If you have special wishes for music it is also good to contact a church musician.  If you are unable to meet personally, it is good at least to talk on the phone or exchange e-mail.

You can contact a parish office and ask a Lutheran congregation for a funeral ceremony even if the person whose funeral you arrange was not a member of the Lutheran church.  In fact, 97 % of the people who died in Finland during the year 2006 were buried with rites of the Lutheran church.  A religious funeral, however, is not conducted if it is known that the person in question objected to such ceremonies while still alive.

In arranging and conducting a funeral, the services of pastors and church musicians and secretaries do not cost you anything.  If the deceased one was a church member, reserving and using church facilities (including parish halls and their kitchens and dishes) usually does not cost anything, either.  Cremation or the digging of a grave, however, costs money, and so does the gravesite itself.  It is also possible to pay the owner of the cemetery to plant flowers and garden the gravesite in the summer season.