Funerals and memorial services can be a helpful way to get closure after your loved one passes on. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the ongoing pandemic make it difficult to do so in a manner that makes everyone feel safe.
However, it’s not impossible to have a memorial service during a pandemic. There are many ways you can hold a ceremony to honor the memory of your loved ones while still maintaining proper safety standards to keep you and your guests healthy and safe. We’ll discuss everything you need to know about holding a COVID-19 memorial service in a safe and responsible manner.
How COVID-19 Affects Memorial Services
Memorial services are often a time of close hugs, tears, and used tissues. But due to COVID-19, that all changed. The highly-contagious and harmful nature of the virus means friends and family can’t always gather in good conscience; the risk of getting others severely ill while grieving is just too much to bear.
The following are some ways the virus itself, and the aftermath of its discovery, has impacted the way we do funerals and memorial services:
COVID’s Effect on the Elderly
Older adults who are unvaccinated are much more likely to become hospitalized with COVID-19 if they catch it. This is troublesome, considering many attendants at your memorial service or funeral may be in that older age range.
Stay-at-Home Orders
While not as prevalent today, the beginning of the pandemic saw many states and cities enacting stay-at-home orders, requiring people to only leave when absolutely necessary. This limits people from being able to attend the service entirely.
Social Distancing Guidelines
Social distancing guidelines started as a way to limit the spread of the virus—keeping at least six feet away from people can reduce the possibility of contracting the infection.
These guidelines make it difficult to gather, as social distancing limits the number of people that can be in an enclosed space as well as how we interact with each other when we are together. And if social distancing is breached, you risk turning your service into a hotspot for the virus.
5 Ways to Safely Hold Memorial Services During COVID-19
People are highly adaptable. We’ve come up with ways to live our lives with caution towards the virus and respect towards those around us.
Here are five methods you may use as funeral service guidelines to ensure your service is safe for everyone involved:
1. Hold an Outdoor Ceremony
An outdoor funeral guarantees good airflow and plenty of space to keep your distance from others. Of course, these ceremonies depend on the weather forecast—while a rainy day may accurately reflect your feelings, it may not be what you want to experience. Check the forecast ahead of time and plan accordingly.
2. Maintain Social Distancing
If you can’t manage to hold an outdoor ceremony, try your best to maintain social distancing (six to ten feet of space) at your indoor venue.
To achieve social distancing, there are a few things you may try:
- Invite fewer people: The simplest solution, inviting fewer people means there are fewer individuals to stay six feet apart from.
- Find a larger venue: If you find you just can’t cut anyone from the guest list, consider getting a bigger venue that could accommodate the larger number of people.
- Switch to a visitation: The difference between a visitation vs a funeral is that visitations help stagger your guests throughout the service. Instead of everyone being there all at once, visitations let a couple of families come at a time to share their condolences before the next group is scheduled to come.
3. Wear Masks
Face masks have shown to be incredibly effective at limiting the spread of COVID-19. Asking your guests to wear masks at the gathering can significantly reduce the possibility of catching the virus from someone who is unknowingly contagious.
In case your guests forget masks, you may want to add a couple of boxes of disposable masks to your funeral planning checklist. Having masks on hand will ensure everyone who wants to can attend, meaning you won’t have to turn people away in their grief.
4. Ask Those Who Feel Ill to Stay at Home
While this may be hard for some to come to terms with, no guest should come to the service if they feel under the weather. If they absolutely must be there, ask them to wear a mask the entire time and sit away from vulnerable attendants.
5. Go Virtual
If you really want to guarantee no one will get sick from COVID-19, the memorial service could go completely virtual. This can take a couple of forms:
- Livestream: You can livestream the service, having only a handful of people actually in attendance while the rest of the guest list watches from their homes. This helps ensure funeral etiquette is maintained and not interrupted by a relative who can’t figure out their computer setup.
- Zoom call: If you want a more social atmosphere, you could have a Zoom call where everyone on the guest list can chime in and share a message or memory about the dearly departed.
A Note on Vaccines
Since several effective vaccines for COVID-19 have been released to the public, families and funeral planners can relax a little bit about maintaining strict guidelines; these vaccines make it so large gatherings can occur once more.
However, not everyone is vaccinated. It is not enough to assume your large gathering for a memorial service will be safe because the vaccine is widely distributed—many of your guests may have yet to get the vaccine.
You may require your guests to show proof of vaccination. Or, even if the majority of your guests are vaccinated, you can still ask them to mask up and maintain social distancing when possible.
Plan Your Loved One’s Service Responsibly
At this point in the pandemic, the virus shouldn’t hamper how soon you can have the funeral.
Whether you’re planning a funeral in the next couple of weeks or holding a scattering ceremony with cremated remains, you can do so safely and worry-free.
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