Often Catholics prefer an open casket to allow loved ones to see the person who's died a final time before burial. If the family cannot display the body for any reason, they will choose a closed casket.
In both Buddhism and Hinduism, open caskets are permissible with some specific prescriptions of custom and aesthetic.
You can expect the body of the deceased to be visible in an open coffin in the house or the funeral home. Usually, the body is dressed in their best clothes, but covered with a shroud from the chest down. The head and hands will be visible.
In an open casket funeral, the casket remains ajar allowing those in mourning to view the body. Some people feel that an open casket funeral allows them to stay more physically connected to their loved one. Others have said that an open casket funeral gives them more closure.
It is well-known in the funeral industry that half-couch caskets allow for better lighting at a funeral or viewing, and give loved ones a better opportunity to see the body. It is much easier to light the upper half of a body in a comforting way, rather than an entire body.
The body is usually present and the casket is frequently left open for visitors to see the dead person and (sometimes) give a goodbye kiss. For this reason, the vigil is sometimes called the viewing. A priest often attends the vigil to offer care and support to the family, and to lead them in prayer if they choose.
While some people find comfort in seeing their loved ones as they remember them, it may also be uncomfortable to others. If they have an open casket viewing, make sure you follow proper funeral etiquette: DON'T touch the body under any circumstances. Sometimes the casket has a glass to prevent this from happening.
You can check with the funeral director before finding out what is appropriate. There also may be cultural values around whether it is open or closed, and some religions may not approve of one or the other. We recommend checking with your place of worship if you have any questions.
So, do open caskets smell? Bodies at formal open casket funerals will not smell bad due to having been embalmed shortly after death. However, smells such as perfumes or flowers may be common at an open casket funeral. Bodies with unavoidable smells will typically not be offered an open casket funeral.
A closed casket provides more privacy. There may even be religious reasons for a closed casket service. A closed casket service may have been the preference of the deceased, so people would tend to remember them “as they were”. Afamily may just feel uneasy or uncomfortable having an open casket service.
Unless for a cultural or religious reason or at the specific request of the family, most services in Australia are conducted this way. If the family does wish to see their loved one, it's more common for a separate viewing to be organised before a funeral service.
Christian Orthodox
Funeral service will be held at a funeral home or church, generally with an open casket.
Based on personal preferences (of the deceased or their family), the casket can be either open or closed. While Protestants expect family to stay throughout the viewing, friends don't have to. The time and duration of viewings vary, but they're generally held the afternoon/evening before the funeral.
While many Catholics are buried, cremation is also permitted, though typically requiring the cremated remains to be interred in a casket or within an urn in a mausoleum or columbarium. Catholics typically do not scatter ashes or keep them at home.
Traditionally, the wake is a Catholic ceremony based in part on the Celtic traditions of Ireland. Those traditions dictated that family and close friends should stay awake through the night with the deceased in order to offer protection from evil spirits.
They are places of prayer and deep respect for the deceased. Statues, memorials and chapels distinguish Catholic cemeteries, and they also remind us of our faith in the final resurrection of our bodies, promised and made possible by Christ's life, death and resurrection.
One of the wildest innovations is “living funerals.” You can attend a dry run of your own funeral, complete with casket, mourners, funeral procession, etc. You can witness the lavish proceedings without having an “out-of-body” experience, just an “out-of-disposable-income” experience.
What's really returned to you is the person's skeleton. Once you burn off all the water, soft tissue, organs, skin, hair, cremation container/casket, etc., what you're left with is bone. When complete, the bones are allowed to cool to a temperature that they can be handled and are placed into a processing machine.
Over time, coffins underground will decompose and eventually collapse. Covering the face before closing the casket adds an extra layer of protection and dignity for the deceased's face and can act as a symbolic final goodbye.
Regardless of the reason, if you (or the deceased) want to hold an open-casket funeral and don't plan on embalming the body, the funeral should be held within three days of a person's passing.
In death customs, a viewing (sometimes referred to as reviewal, calling hours, funeral visitation in the United States and Canada) is the time that family and friends come to see the deceased before the funeral, once the body has been prepared by a funeral home.
It's absolutely possible to spend time visiting someone or have an open coffin at the funeral when the person hasn't been embalmed. We've done this many times and the person will be just as well cared for and should look peaceful.
In parts of Germany and in Belgium, it was long customary to cover mirrors with a white cloth because it was thought that if a person saw his or her image in a mirror after a death in the household, that person would die shortly.
Unless a casket is made of metal and sealed with a material that won't degrade, bugs will eventually get inside.
Eventually these too will disintegrate, and after 80 years in that coffin, your bones will crack as the soft collagen inside them deteriorates, leaving nothing but the brittle mineral frame behind. But even that shell won't last forever. A century in, the last of your bones will have collapsed into dust.