{"id":5294,"date":"2025-10-14T14:29:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/?p=5294"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:29:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:29:32","slug":"funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Funeral etiquette: This is what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Being an event that is solemn in nature, as a way to respect those closest to the deceased, there are some rules to follow for good funeral etiquette. Here are eight things to think about before attending a service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Consider your outfit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Back in the day, people would wear black to funerals. You don\u2019t have to, but if you can\u2019t pick an outfit, dark colours are a safe bet. Don\u2019t wear something so eye-catching and bold that it distracts from the reason for the event. You can also think about the culture and what they would traditionally wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Think before sitting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The front pews or seats are reserved for the family and people close to the deceased, so don\u2019t occupy those. But, don\u2019t sit ALL the way at the back, either. Fill up seats around them \u2013 you don\u2019t want the grieving family to feel isolated, and this is a silent but powerful way to show them support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Stand for the casket<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If there is a casket, it will be taken out of the venue at the end of the service to transport it to the burial ground. Sometimes, it is also brought in at the start of the funeral. In both these instances, it\u2019s polite to stand. This is a way to show your respect for the dead and their loved ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Embrace the unfamiliar<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Is the person who has passed away from a different culture than yours? Or maybe they practised a different religion? Be respectful of this and follow the protocol of the day. The same goes for the food. At 21st Century Funeral Services, we offer funeral catering services<\/a> to feed your guests.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Prepare things to say<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Only those closest to the person will possibly make speeches. You do, however, need to greet and give your condolences to those people. Before you go, prepare a few comforting and loving things you can say to the bereaved if you are worried about it being awkward when you see them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Turn off your phone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are few things worse or more disrespectful than a phone ringing or pinging in a funeral service. It is extremely distracting and disruptive, so make sure yours is turned off. It is also in very poor taste to take pictures of the deceased, family or attendants and to post them to social media. Don\u2019t do it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Brief children before<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are often children in the family of a deceased person, and they have the right to their last goodbye, too. If you are taking a child to a funeral, let them know before you go what they can expect to hear and see<\/a>. This way, they\u2019ll be less overwhelmed on the day of the end-of-life event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Follow up afterwards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the lead-up to a funeral, the family and friends are often too busy with houseguests and organising to really grieve the loss. After the funeral, people return to their normal lives, which is when the grief can often hit. Make sure you let them know you are thinking of them on an ongoing basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being an event that is solemn in nature, as a way to respect those closest to the deceased, there are some rules to follow for good funeral etiquette. Here are eight things to think about before attending a service. 1. Consider your outfit Back in the day, people would wear black to funerals. You don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFuneral etiquette: This is what you need to know<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s inevitable that at some point in life, you will attend an end-of-life celebration. Here are the funeral etiquette rules you need to know.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Funeral etiquette: This is what you need to know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s inevitable that at some point in life, you will attend an end-of-life celebration. Here are the funeral etiquette rules you need to know.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"21st Century Funerals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/21STCENTURYFUNERALS\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-14T12:29:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/funeral-etiquette-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Helen Wallace\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Helen Wallace\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Funeral etiquette: This is what you need to know","description":"It\u2019s inevitable that at some point in life, you will attend an end-of-life celebration. Here are the funeral etiquette rules you need to know.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Funeral etiquette: This is what you need to know","og_description":"It\u2019s inevitable that at some point in life, you will attend an end-of-life celebration. Here are the funeral etiquette rules you need to know.","og_url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/","og_site_name":"21st Century Funerals","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/21STCENTURYFUNERALS\/","article_published_time":"2025-10-14T12:29:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/funeral-etiquette-1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Helen Wallace","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Helen Wallace","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/"},"author":{"name":"Helen Wallace","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/d7aadbc93bd9fdaf519a4f313b688abe"},"headline":"Funeral etiquette: This is what you need to know","datePublished":"2025-10-14T12:29:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/"},"wordCount":530,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/funeral-etiquette-1.jpeg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/","url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/","name":"Funeral etiquette: This is what you need to know","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/funeral-etiquette-1.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-10-14T12:29:32+00:00","description":"It\u2019s inevitable that at some point in life, you will attend an end-of-life celebration. Here are the funeral etiquette rules you need to know.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/funeral-etiquette-1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/funeral-etiquette-1.jpeg","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"Funeral etiquette"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/funeral-etiquette-this-is-what-you-need-to-know\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Funeral etiquette: This is what you need to know"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/","name":"21st Century Funerals","description":"Professional Funeral Services","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#organization","name":"21st Century Funerals","url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-21st-Century-Funerals-Durban-logo-300x300-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-21st-Century-Funerals-Durban-logo-300x300-1.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"21st Century Funerals"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/21STCENTURYFUNERALS\/","https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@21stcentury_funerals"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/d7aadbc93bd9fdaf519a4f313b688abe","name":"Helen Wallace","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f716e2fff9075b66a5bcf04a5d3342a3150d1d6a7578a31da4e811c7a8ed98f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f716e2fff9075b66a5bcf04a5d3342a3150d1d6a7578a31da4e811c7a8ed98f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Helen Wallace"},"url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/author\/helen-w\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/funeral-etiquette-1.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5302,"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions\/5302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21stcfs.co.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}