Funeral - No mourning or flowers.

[Mart 'n' Al]

Bizarrely, having started this thread, saying I'd never come across the 'No mourning' concept,then just a few hours later, researching a totally different family, for a friend, I came across the same thing.

Liverpool Echo - Thursday 12 January 1939, page 7, Machray.

Only this time it was long before the war started.  So, how do you 'not mourn' at a funeral.

Martin

[juliebeg]

I thought that it was common for black arm bands to be worn over ordinary clothes ….

[Pennines]

Ideally I don't want an actual funeral service, flowers, people dressed in black or any other colour. I just want to be carted off (not necessarily in a cart) -- to the local Crem - with no fuss at all.

I'm not sure if 'no funeral service' is allowed though.

[arthurk]

So, how do you 'not mourn' at a funeral.

No-one's asking people not to mourn. As others have pointed out, and as the OED definition shows, 'mourning' in this context is a noun referring to the manner of dress. It presumably means that people are welcome to come to the funeral without worrying about whether they have the black clothes that have often been expected.

Here are some online dictionary entries, though not as full than the OED:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mourning

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mourning

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/mourning

https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=mourning&title=21st

[Mart 'n' Al]

Thanks Arthur, I'd never heard of that until 1995.  I thought it was a modern trendy thing.  Thanks.

Martin

[nanny jan]

Ideally I don't want an actual funeral service, flowers, people dressed in black or any other colour. I just want to be carted off (not necessarily in a cart) -- to the local Crem - with no fuss at all.

I'm not sure if 'no funeral service' is allowed though.

My friend's husband requested no service, flowers etc. She said she waved him off in the undertakers' vehicle and he returned home in an urn.....she calls it a sweetie jar. She wants the same when it is her time.
It can be done.

[Pennines]

Nanny Jan -- thank you SO much for this information. That is really good to know and I appreciate you responding.

Thank you again.

[jaybelnz]

A lot of people choose not to have funerals these days!  I would like to have my "funeral" before I die, when I can hear all the wonderful things my family and friends are going to say about me! 😜😜 Then we can all sit around, have a few wines, tell our stories and say our goodbyes!

Seriously though, I will be having a private family and friends only funeral, I have everything all organised, Funeral Insurance, the Church readings, some photo's, the music, the invitations, what I want to wear, (which is my all time favourite dress), and a few personal things I want to take with me in my coffin!  I will be cremated! My ashes are to be scattered in a river which actually flows through all the places I have lived and loved since I was a child! I will end up in a harbour where I used to swim and waterski! 

Oops - I forgot to add  - flowers for both events! 

[Pennines]

jaybeinz -- that is wonderful and I do congratulate you on having it all sorted.

I have discussed this with my husband, but he won't do it (yet) -- I just think it makes sense and it takes all the pressure off family members having to make decisions about everything after the death.

 I think it's important --- my husband is a 'lapsed' Roman Catholic from an Irish family and if he leaves this mortal world before me I genuinley won't know what to do about funeral arrangements.

Well done you for overcoming all the hurdles.