The Baby Boomers and their impact on funeral service

Sociology

The Impact of Baby Boomers on the Funeral Service

Funeral services have changed considerably over the years, each generation bringing its own sensibilities. Death rites once occupied a considerable amount of time and expense. Mourners wore black for a year or more, and funeral services were long and highly ritualized. Such practices suited the rhythms of life of an earlier generation. Yet, the baby boomers changed nearly everything about their society. Tradition became something to be challenged, even assaulted. Not one aspect of customary life was left unchanged, and funeral services were no exception. Traditional funeral services were modified to suit individual tastes and preferences. The new funerals reflected the deceased as they were in life, as well as the needs of those left behind. Cremations began to compete with burials as many baby boomers showed their concern for the environment. Personal orations replaced long prayers. Graveside services, or simple ceremonies beside an urn, took the place of more formal arrangements. Words were made up for the occasion. Poems might be composed and read. Often, a ceremony might be tailored to represent some interest of the deceased. As well, Baby Boomers became increasingly concerned with issues of fairness and consumer rights. Many recognized that death had become a business, and that was now necessary to safeguard the rights of the decedent and the bereaved. Activism came as much to the fore in this area as in other fields of society.

The popularity of cremation reflects the range of these concerns. For many, cremation seems to solve the problem of too much land being taken up by cemeteries, while at the same time being less expensive than traditional burials. (Kopp & Kemp, 2007) in its most extreme forms, cremation offers a chance to "re-build" a dying environment. It represents a symbolic rebirth of the individual as part of the landscape or seascape i.e. The incorporation of urns into undersea reefs. (Kopp & Kemp, 2007) Such practices also reflect a greater concern with linking death to life. The Twentieth Century witnessed an increasing separation between the processes of death and everyday life. Few boomers were exposed to death up close as children. Many did not even experience the loss of a grandparent prior to adolescence or later. (Hayslip & Peveto, 2005, p. 59) Modern death rites can frequently be seen as attempts on the part of those unfamiliar with death to cope with sudden and painful loss. Studies have shown that death, or thoughts of death, occupy a greater place in the minds of many at the turn of the new millennium. A study of college students in the 1990s - most the children of baby boomers - asked the same question as those asked in a 1935 study. The results were astounding - a society obsessed with death and dying. In particular, participants in the recent study were consumed with thoughts of the process of death, and by images of violent death and death from disease. (Hayslip & Peveto, 2005, pp 61-62) Contemporary funerals help to allay these fears and concerns.

As the above study shows, Baby Boomers have created a world that is much more concerned with the here-and-now. By focusing on the possibly gruesome methods of exiting this life, the boomers have increased relative levels of anxiety over death and dying. The celebration of the loves and achievements of this life serves the function of linking life and death. Traditional Twentieth Century funeral services focused heavily on heavenly rewards and made little of the earthly grief of survivors. (Bregman, 2001, p. 331) it was as if life was nothing but a long and complicated prelude to death. Numerous individuals; however, have challenged this approach, preferring instead to recognize that human life is something of value. The deceased is someone to be remembered for their unique contributions to the lives of those around them. "To celebrate the uniqueness of an individual life at a funeral is more true to the character of God as creator of nature and persons, than to disallow particularities and focus exclusively on a universal, theocentric but excessively abstract message." (Bregman, 2001, p. 331) by humanizing the experience of death, baby boomers try to make sense out of an essentially incomprehensible process. Traditional religion appears alien to many baby boomers, their own human achievements are what is tangible. Real world achievements link them to the earth as a living planet, and bind them to a vaster human society that is represented in microcosm by the world of their families, friends, job, and so forth. Personal achievements became personal contributions to a world that lives on beyond them. Modern funerals attempt to place the individual within this context; to lay claim to a piece of eternity. The personal speeches, poems, songs, and other presentations, that have become such a feature of contemporary funeral services, reveal each person as a kind of god in miniature. Divinity works through us all, and together we all form parts of a cosmic whole - or so run the beliefs of many baby boomers. Each individual's contributions are but pieces of a larger plan. The story of the individual's life is a form of liturgy.