How To Write a Eulogy
At Sahara Indian Funeral Services in Sydney, we are here to help assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! When your loved one has passed away, there are many things that need to be planned for the funeral and preparing a Eulogy is one of them.
Basically a Eulogy is a pre- planned speech that is given by a loved one or a friend at the funeral service. The Eulogy is given to commemorate and celebrate the deceased and is delivered by a family member, close family friend or the priest.
The Eulogy started way back in Ancient Greek times, this ancient tradition has carried over into modern times. Although not all religions include a Eulogy in the funeral services, many religions do, and here at Sahara Indian Funeral Services in Sydney, we support all religions and traditions and are more than happy to assist you and your family on ideas and how you can prepare the right and appropriate Eulogy for your loved one.
When preparing a Eulogy that honours and farewells your loved one, there are many key points that you can consider that will honour, share, express and respect the deceased.
There are various writing styles that can be implemented, these styles usually depend on the person and circumstance of the deceased. For example if the deceased was not close to you, however you have been asked to say an Eulogy on behalf of the family, then you may wish to consider including aspects of the deceased that include that persons history, career and achievements.
If the deceased was close to you on a more personal level, than you can include more personal topics such as memories, stories that you had shared. Writing a Eulogy is not something one writes everyday, so it can be very confusing and daunting. This is where our funeral home director and staff can assist you. We also have Hindu priests and other priests of other religions available that can assist you in compelling a Eulogy that will reflect your loved ones life.
A Eulogy doesn’t need to be one way or another, you can combine both types of writing styles and combine them into one. In general writing a Eulogy is almost a difficult task for many, however you can use this time to help yourself and other family members to start the healing process.
When writing a Eulogy, you may wish to consider important key points such as writing from the heart! Expressing your thoughts and feeling and what meant the most to you about that person is a good place to start. Even though this can be a task that seems unachievable at the time, please do remember that Sahara Funerals in Sydney is here to help you every step of the way!
Many loved ones feel great comfort in referring back to old photos from the past and compiling important moments in dates throughout the deceased person’s life. Special times and occasions that has meaning to both of you and your family is a good place to start.
Sometimes a piece of memorabilia that belongs to you or your loved one is a great place to start building the content of your Eulogy. Use the importance of that memorabilia and the memories
surrounding it to find the inspiration.
Sometimes something as simple as your loved ones special flower can spark a memory or special occasion surrounding that flower. Maybe the deceased liked to keep that particular flower in the house or within their garden. You can use those special memoires to include in your Eulogy.
If you are still lost for ideas about writing a Eulogy, then you may like to consider consulting with family and friends and other acquaintances, they should be able to shed some light and give you some valuable ideas. Writing their ideas, thoughts and memoires down on a piece of paper can also help you with the overall writing process. When you see these memories in black and white it quite often help the flow of the Eulogy come together much quicker.
Sahara Indian Funerals in Sydney are always approachable and our funeral director and staff are more than happy to sit down with you and give you suggestions on what you could include in your Eulogy. A Eulogy quite often contains content such as your feelings for that person, moments you shared, memories and anything else that you can think of that is meaningful to you or your loved one.
Some people like to use humour in their Eulogy, especially when their loved one was a funny or humourous person throughout their life. When appropriate humour can help lighten the mood and
relieve tension within the congregation of the people at the funeral that are paying tribute. The humour should always only be in appropriate situations and of good taste. You may wish to talk to other family members and friend to hear their feedback first, just in case humour may offend.
Many Hindu priests and other religious priest or celebrants suggest making a rough draft first, then having them take a look over it. This can help you to decide what content you would like t use and what content you would like to discard. Also they may also bring up religious points that you may like to add in that would commemorate their lives. Many priests have know the deceased all of their lives and may be able to share with you their very own thoughts and memories.
When compiling a Eulogy you should consider setting out your information so that it contains a beginning, middle and end, so that it flows and makes sense. Keeping your thoughts to a structured
sequencing can help your Eulogy flow and feel interesting to listen to. Once you have completed your Eulogy, make sure that you review it many times so that you feel happy and confident when you read it out loud at the funeral service. Practicing your speech a few times in front of another friendly will also make you feel confident on the day.
To give your Eulogy meaning you can also include meaningful content such as, nicknames that they were known as, when and where they were born and any special meaning that may have to you, their parents and how they met, their siblings and their names and interesting facts about their early childhood.
You can also mention in your Eulogy schools that they had attended and any achievements they had, the academic awards and qualifications they achieved during their school years and some interesting facts about their school days and early childhood.
Sahara Indian Funerals in Sydney also suggest that you add other milestones to your Eulogy such as their working career, any details about their marriage, any children they had including their names or any significant relationships they had throughout their adult life.
If the case the deceased where older, than it would be nice for you to include in your Eulogy the details and names of their grandchildren and what their grandchildren meant to them. You could also mention any hobbies that they may have had, for example they may have liked to have played sport, traveled or they had a keen interest in craft.
You can always add information such as their likes or dislikes, the type of music they liked to listen to or any saying they liked to say, or maybe they were known for their humour. Many people like to add special poem that had some type of meaning to the deceased or possibly a reading or lovely piece of music.
All of these are just some ideas that you can use when compiling a Eulogy, please remember that Sahara Indian Funerals are here for you and your family 24 hours a day 7 day’s a week. So if you need some assistance or just need someone to run things by, then our funeral director and friendly staff are always here for you. Please feel free to call us when you need us, we are only just a phone call away.