Gold coffins, live music at UK funerals
People opting for glamorous farewells for their loved ones.
The guests were dressed in their finest lace, sequins and suits. A ballerina gave an electric rendition of the Queen’s Who Wants to Live Forever as she twirled around the room at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden. It was a Saturday morning in February and it was the funeral of Gary Feiertag.
From solid gold coffins to beach fireworks displays. funerals are no longer a grey, teary affair in Britain. More and more people are opting got “alternative funerals” which looks more like a glamorous wedding.
“Funerals are definitely changing,” Poppy Mardall, founder of London-based Poppy’s Funerals, told the Daily Telegraph. “People are realising it’s possible to do something more personal.”
Feiertag’s funeral featured an eight-piece orchestra, a full choir, the entire cast of the West End’s Lion King and a cocktail reception for 200. Peter Zorn, Feiertag’s partner, said, “It all felt so alive. There was everything from tears to laughter. People were crying, but smiling at the same time. They forgot they were at a funeral.”
Feiertag, 42, died in December 2016 after falling down the stairs of his home. Photographer Derek Seagrim wanted a “both traditional and modern” funeral for his wife Antoinette. The funeral took place in a crematorium in Barnes. It had a four-piece choir and a famous organist to play Debussy during the ceremony. A family friend who is the lead singer of a French indie band sang a cappella.
The traditional black coffin and hearse has also become a thing of the past. Now funeral agencies offer a vast array of coffins from handmade coffins to ones made using eco-friendly materials such as wool and bamboo. Some families opt to make papier mâché caskets.
Wool coffins
Handmade Yorkshire coffins made of pure wool is eco-friendly and are gaining popularity.
Eco-friendly pick
For 100 per cent biodegradable coffins families pick ones made of cardboards or bamboo.
Quirky choices
Some pick eccentric caskets, like a Nokia coffin for a man “whose final days were lightened by messages from friends” or a Tardis casket for a “time traveller departing to the unknown”.