No drinking in the mourning, say priests
Downing pints of beer and telling blue jokes at funeral services will no longer be tolerated by Roman Catholic priests in Ireland.
In a move aimed at halting the growing trend towards "a la carte" funerals, mourners have been warned against placing photographs and football shirts on coffins.
The worst examples of inappropriate behaviour during services that have been cited by priests included the drinking of cans of beer in memory of the deceased during one eulogy, and a display of women's underwear on a coffin on another occasion.
One eulogy was even delivered in the style of a best man's speech, complete with risque jokes.
But now the National Centre for Liturgy, which looks after church rituals, has announced moves to curb such irreligious behaviour.
Its spokesman, Father Patrick Jones, said the guidelines were intended to promote best practice rather than tell relatives how to grieve.
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On a totally unrelated note, I've spent all of Advent wondering how you were going to fit in the flame on the fourth Advent candle. I figured you'd shrink the wreath size to accommodate, but you chopped off the bottom. Now it looks like your Advent wreath is just four candles in a patch of weeds. ;)
Hmmm, I fully expect my funeral and wake to have a party feeling. I hope they do anyway. I'm gone; I'm not coming back; so remember my life as fun, not a dirge-deserving suicide-inducing tearjerker.
My current plan is to set some money aside and let it compound until the day I die, with it laid out in my will that the investment (after taxes) should be used to supply food, beer, and fun.
What's the fun of an Irish wake without booze and bad jokes? If we lose that, then Irish mourning will be little more than (dare I say it?)British. I've always thought the traditions of an Irish wake were a healthy way of getting all emotions out in saying goodbye to a loved one. When I die, I would MUCH prefer a party with spirits and joking than a bunch of people sniffling in silence.
On that unrelated note, I scoured the Internet looking for the image of that particular Advent wreath with the fourth candle lit, since I used it for the first three weeks on my blog. I couldn't find it! Now I have a scrawny Advent wreath with four candles on my blog for this final weak, and I'm too blasted stubborn to change it at this point.
So much for Celtic masses. ROFLOL