Ideas and inspiration
Humanist celebrants craft memorable and meaningful funeral ceremonies, intertwining personal memories with timeless human values. These are their stories.
What is a Humanist Funeral? A Guide to Personal, Non-Religious Ceremonies
Planning a funeral is one of life’s most challenging moments, often undertaken in the midst of shock, grief, and uncertainty. When arranging a farewell for someone who lived without religion,...
Finding Comfort: Uplifting Funeral Poems for a Humanist Ceremony
Losing someone is incredibly hard, and navigating grief while planning a farewell can feel overwhelming. Finding the right words during this difficult time can bring immense comfort. Uplifting funeral poems,...
Ideas for including uplifting moments in a funeral
When someone dies, amid the grief and loss felt by the people close to them, there is often a desire to celebrate the life they lived and to share happy...
6 Tips for How to Create a Personal Celebration of Life Ceremony
Planning a funeral can be one of life’s most emotional challenges, but it’s also an opportunity to celebrate a life in a way that reflects the individual’s unique personality, values,...
Margaret, Steve’s partner of 60 years, explains how a humanist celebrant helped her remember and celebrate Steve’s life with his friends and family on the farm that he loved, as...
Scattering ashes in space: Humanist Ceremonies talk to Aura Flights
More and more people are choosing unattended cremations (sometimes called direct cremations), and many families decide to have a ceremony afterwards – in a hall or hotel meeting room, or...
How to Support Your Mental Health While Planning a Funeral
Planning a funeral can be one of life’s most emotionally challenging tasks. Whether you’re organising the funeral of a loved one or helping someone else through the process, it’s important...
What is a direct cremation and can I still have a ceremony?
Maybe you’ve heard about direct cremations – which are unattended and don’t involve any kind of funeral ceremony – and are wondering if this is the right choice for you...
Remembering a loved one: the Humanist Funeral Tribute Archive
The Humanist Funeral Tribute Archive has been relaunched. This remarkable and valuable resource allows the life stories of ordinary people to be preserved online for posterity, and is the only...
I planned my own humanist funeral so that I could get on with living life to the fullest
Suzy is in her 70s, healthy, with a full and active life that she loves. So what made her decide to plan her own funeral? And how has a humanist...
Thinking ahead: how to start organising and planning for death
The subject of death and dying is still a taboo topic often shrouded in awkwardness and uncertainty. But having the difficult conversations and becoming more organised for your death in...
Our Celebrant Network: Meet Blue Ryan – Funeral Celebrant
Blue Ryan is a documentary filmmaker and a humanist funeral celebrant based in London, who believes in the power of telling stories. She tells us about what her two roles...