Ideas and inspiration
Humanist celebrants craft memorable and meaningful funeral ceremonies, intertwining personal memories with timeless human values. These are their stories.
Uplifting Funeral Readings: Bringing Hope and Comfort through a Humanist Ceremony
In the midst of grief, finding moments of light and hope can be incredibly comforting. Uplifting funeral readings – whether poems, prose extracts, or quotes – can play a vital...
Crafting a Meaningful Eulogy for a Humanist Service
Delivering a funeral speech, most commonly known as a eulogy or tribute, is a profound act of love and remembrance. It’s an opportunity to honour a unique life, share cherished...
How to Write a Funeral Speech (Eulogy): A Step-by-Step Guide
Being asked to write and deliver a funeral speech, or eulogy, is a significant honour, but it can also feel like a heavy responsibility, especially when you’re grieving. But, for...
Laughter at a Funeral: Choosing Funny Poems for a Humanist Ceremony
Funerals are naturally poignant occasions, marked by sadness and reflection. However, for someone who lived life with a twinkle in their eye and liked to have a laugh, incorporating humour...
Humanist Funeral Readings: Non-religious Choices for a Personal Farewell
Choosing readings for a funeral is a way to add depth, emotion, and personalisation to the ceremony. When planning a humanist funeral, memorial, or celebration of life, non-religious (secular) readings...
Poems for Funerals: Selecting Meaningful Tributes for a Humanist Farewell
Finding the perfect poem for a funeral, memorial, or ashes ceremony can feel like searching for a key – something that unlocks emotion, expresses love, and honours a unique life....
Finding the Right Words: Funeral Poems for a Meaningful Humanist Ceremony
Choosing readings for a funeral can feel like a significant responsibility during an already emotional time. Funeral poems offer a powerful and often beautiful way to express complex feelings, pay...
Funny Poems for Funerals: Celebrating a Life with Laughter
The idea of “funny poems for funerals” might initially seem contradictory. After all, funerals are typically solemn occasions for mourning and reflection. However, for someone who embraced life with a...
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...
A guide to eco-friendly funeral options
Humanists believe in caring for the natural world and share these values with many others. This approach can be a reason why people choose a humanist celebrant to lead a...
Planning a Celebration of Life: Ideas and advice for memorial ceremonies
A Celebration of Life, or memorial ceremony, can be held after or instead of a funeral. It can take place wherever feels right to you, rather than in a religious...
In the UK, most funerals are cremations, rather than burials, with a funeral ceremony held in a crematorium. However, it is possible to hold a scattering of ashes ceremony at...
At a funeral service or ceremony, friends and family gather together to remember, pay tribute to and say goodbye to someone special to them. The person who leads this ceremony...
Throughout his life, Clive was someone who brought people together. So it was only right that his funeral did the same. Clive’s husband Angus explains how a humanist funeral helped...
Holding a memorial ceremony after a direct cremation: Five things you need to know
More and more people are opting for direct cremation. This is when a cremation is not attended – it’s not accompanied by a funeral service, and family and friends are...
How to give a eulogy at a humanist funeral
If you have experienced the death of a family member or friend and have been asked to read something at their humanist funeral service, it may feel like a daunting...
What should I say when someone is bereaved?
Death and dying can be difficult subjects to talk about. It’s natural to want to offer support to a friend or colleague who has been bereaved. However, it can be...
What is a direct cremation and is it right for us?
Thinking about a direct cremation? Read more about what it is and why people choose it, plus how you can follow it up with a meaningful memorial ceremony.
How to plan an affordable funeral
Funerals can be expensive, but with a humanist funeral service there are plenty of simple ways to make them more affordable, meaningful and personal. We share some tried-and-tested tips and...
For many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and the bereaved family and friends making the funeral plans, it is especially important that the ceremony is a fitting and...
How to deliver a eulogy – 9 tips from a celebrant
Delivering a eulogy for a loved one can be a difficult emotional challenge. Read these tips from a humanist funeral celebrant to help you prepare.
‘She lived well and she died well’: Planning a unique humanist funeral for our mum
When Sarah talks about her mum Joan’s funeral, words like “joy”, “fun” and “celebration” come up a lot. It’s hardly surprising. This was someone who, in Sarah’s words, ‘always said...
‘This is how a funeral should be’: How Bernie’s friends planned a good send-off
Maddy’s friend, Bernie, lost the ability to say more than a few words after suffering a stroke. But he was still able to enjoy life and to make his views...
A non-religious funeral ceremony for a baby
A humanist funeral ceremony for a baby recognises the depth of the loss and pain, acknowledging the unique significance of the child who has died, and all the ways their...
Simply put, a humanist funeral is a non-religious and personal funeral ceremony. A humanist funeral is a non-religious service that is both a dignified farewell and a celebration of a...
Non-religious poems for a baby’s funeral
When struggling with loss and grief, some people find comfort in poetry. When read aloud, a moving poem has the ability to bring people together in quiet contemplation and mourning....
Who to tell about the death of a loved one
Life Ledger is a free, secure, easy-to-use service that simplifies the process of death notifications.
Five ways to honour a loved one’s memory
The old adage 'Life's too short' can sometimes hit home when someone you love dies. It can make you assess your own life and clarify for you changes you want...
It’s time to talk about your funeral wishes
Newsflash: We’re all going to die. It’s inevitable. Life, sadly, is a terminal condition, and death is one of its few certainties. But the reality is that talking about our...
Thinking ahead to your funeral
'Catherine was facing a terminal diagnosis of cancer, but she was also used to planning her life, and considered planning her death and the immediate aftermath no different. She was...
Even when it’s expected, the death of someone we know and love can be shocking and painful. And when planning a funeral, there are so many decisions to be made...
Pre-planned ceremonies and prepaid funeral plans
If you've been thinking about getting your affairs in order, you may have been looking into prepaid funeral plans. But did you know that they don't include recording your wishes...
Louise Jopling has been a humanist funeral celebrant for over a decade. So, if anyone would knows what makes a 'good' funeral, it's Louise. Here, she shares her thoughts on...
Poems for funerals during lockdown
Poetry has taken on a meaningful role in lockdown funeral ceremonies. It is being used by many families to help express their thoughts during these challenging times.
Poems of love for a humanist funeral
Poetry brings comfort and, while every humanist ceremony is unique, we find there are some poems which are requested more than others at humanist funerals. Here are some suggestions for...
Uplifting and humorous poems for a humanist funeral
Uplifting funeral poems can set the tone for the whole ceremony. They can offer comfort and a way to honour the life and personality of a loved one. Humanist funeral...
Non-religious funerals in London
'As a funeral director, it's reassuring to have a Humanist Ceremonies celebrant, as they are formally trained and I can be assured of high standards,' says Hannah.
Can we hold a funeral at home?
You may be surprised to learn that (outside of lockdowns) you can have a non-religious funeral ceremony at a range of venues.
Funeral Planning | Top Ten Tips
There are many things to think about when planning a funeral. Humanist funeral celebrant Adele Chaplin has created her top ten tips for funeral planning to help you navigate the...
