ANSWERS: 36
  • my grandfather had one.
  • Quite a few, actually. My best man from my wedding died in a car crash and he had open casket. I hugged him goodbye. It was pretty wild.
  • Unfortunately, yes. A couple of times. It's oddly uncomfortable. My father, when I was young, had an open casket funeral, and being that I didn't understand the whole death thing, I kept wondering if he was ever going to open his eyes. It was odd.
  • No never!
  • The only closed casket one I have been to was a friend who had been in an automobile accident and was burned beyond recognition..all the others were open. Edit: Usually it's at the viewing when the casket is open if it's going to be. Every casket I have seen at the actual funeral has been closed.
  • now that you have asked it,i have never went to a closed casked funeral.
  • Actually, all the ones I've been to are open casket. Is this not normal? (I'm 38 and have been to about 7 or 8 funerals.) I'll admit it was freaky the first time I saw a dead body, though.
  • Yes my Irish father last year, i found that quite strange.
  • I think I have only been to one that was closed. Really I don't want to sit here and try to figure out how many I have been to. Too many to be sure!
  • Yes ! More times than I like to remember.
  • In Ireland, everyone has one. We call them 'wakes' and we go to the person who has passed away house (or sometimes their sons or daughters). Here we have tea and sandwiches, alcoholic drinks, cigarettes etc etc, its more like a gathering than anything. This usually only happens when an old person dies. When a young person dies, the whole town is affected and it is sincere respect. We very very very rarely use funeral homes.
  • Yes:-(
  • All the funerals I have been to have been open casket.
  • All of the funerals I have been to were open casket.
  • i've been to one. it was like she was made of wax! i remember asking mom if she was going to heaven looking like that.
  • 5 of them if I remember correctly.
  • Thankfully no... I don't need any more images of corpses burned into my mind; I have quite enough as is. I'm sorry if this is a bit lacking in tact... But I really don't need to be reminded of some things, nor do I need to add on to them. Also, I don't need to see the people I loved in such a state, as I prefer my last memories of them to be happier ones...
  • yes, and that feelin always causes me to reflect on life.
  • Yes, several
  • yes. it was strange...
  • Only one of the funerals I have attended was not an open casket.
  • yes, I was about eight and I can remember seeing into my great uncles' slightly open mouth. I guess the mortician didn't to too good of a job sewing his mouth shut.
  • Yes, my great grandmothers. She died on my 5th birthday, and I was so sad. We were very close, and I insisted on going to the funeral, even though my parents thought that perhaps I shouldn't. I went and was very glad that I did. It bother me that people kept saying, "She looks so good". She looked ok, but she didn't look "good". She looked like she had too much make-up, and too much foo-foo in the hair, not smiley, lovey great grandma. My second open casket funeral was my mom's. She died when I was 12. Had to listen again to everyone talk about how she looked good, which again, wasn't true. She had breast cancer, and had swollen up just before passing, and her fingers still looked really fat and swollen, like they might burst. However, her color was better than I had seen in months, of course it was make-up, but that's ok, at least she wasn't green any more. The worst part about my mom's funeral was talking to one her girlfriends after the service. This gal had been good friends with my mom for like 15 years, and told me that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer the previous year, but hadn't told my mom, as she didn't want her worrying about her. That was just so sad to me.
  • Most funerals in my area(Southern USA) have the casket open at some point during the activities. Almost always, it is open during the visitation period a day or so prior to he funeral ceremony. Most of the time, the casket is closed before the ceremony begins, but there have also been many that were left open during the service. Occasionally, the casket will not be opened to the public at all. This may be at the request of the family or the deceased, but sometimes it is because of trauma having rendered the body unviewable.
  • No but most of the viewings I have been to were open casket. The only viewing I was ever to that was closed casket was my own sweethearts. As much as the wonderful people at the funeral parlor tried they just couldn't cover up alot of the damage that was done to her from the beating she received so we all made the choice to have the casket closed
  • Numerous times.
  • Most have been open casket funerals.
  • A couple of them and both were relatives.
  • I'm pretty sure I've only been to one that wasn't open casket and that was my grandfather's, he was cremated.
  • ive only been to 3 funerals. and the very first one i went to was an open casket. it was a good friend of mine, i was 17, he was struck by a train on the way to lunch. i didnt think it would be open but it was. the other 2 werent. one was of cancer and they said she didnt look good, and the other was a suicide and couldnt be open for obvious reasons.
  • Yes, often. Where I am from it is the norm.
  • Yes,lots.Its normal here (in Ireland) to have an open coffin,sitting in the home(or a relatives home)of the person who died.Everyone comes to the house,eats and drinks,and "views" the body.When I first met my partner,who is from England,we attended one of these and I didn`t realise that this didn`t happen in England.He was completely shocked and disturbed.He is a bit more used to it now,but nobody has to go and look if they don`t want to.
  • Yes, I have. My own two sons, who died 5 weeks apart, Mother's Day and then Father's Day, and my sister in law, a few months later, all in the same funeral home, and the same room. Too much, too soon. Various other funerals I have attended throughout my life never even came close to the pain of attending my sons funerals though, and I would not wish such a thing on my worst enemy. The only closed casket funeral I attended was for my cousin, long ago, when he was a teen and was found floating in the lake near his home after 3 or 4 days. Very sad, indeed, and there were simply pictures of him sitting on and alongside the closed casket, which was steel and gave me the feeling of coldness and indifference.
  • Everyone one that I've been to that had a casket was open casket.

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