Viral Video Of The Day

Via Mashable:

It is the deepest show of respect. A large group of school children in New Zealand have honoured their beloved teacher by performing the traditional dance, the haka, as his hearse rolled into the school for the funeral. At least 1,700 boys at Palmerston North Boys' High School on New Zealand's North Island participated in the epic performance for their physical education and maths teacher, Dawson Tamatea. Tamatea, 55, died in his sleep on July 20, according to TVNZ. He had been a teacher at the school for almost 30 years. "This was a very emotional and powerful performance," the school wrote on its YouTube channel. "We are extremely proud of our boys' performance and we know that Mr Tamatea would be too."

Celebs Turns Out For Joan Rivers Funeral

Broadway stars Hugh Jackman and Audra McDonald performed as did the New York City Gay Men's Chorus. The eulogy was delivered by Howard Stern.

Joan Rivers: My Funeral Plan

"When I die (and yes, Melissa, that day will come; and yes, Melissa, everything’s in your name), I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action. I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don’t want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing 'Mr. Lonely.' I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag. And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyoncé’s. - Joan Rivers, from her 2013 book I Hate Everyone...Starting With Me.  Hit the link for more.

Weekend (Funeral) At Bernie's

New Orleans funerals have always been known for being celebrations of a life fully lived rather than somber reflections on loss, but this may be pushing it a bit too far. Via WGNO-ABC:

In life Miriam Burbank loved a cold beer, and an occasional scotch. So it’s only fitting, that it all be captured as part of her home-going. “I didn’t want her to just go, just go. So, I had to do something amazing. So she’s never forgotten,” Kimball said. Burbank’s daughters had a vision and presented it to funeral directors at Charbonnet Funeral Home, located in Treme. “They said they didn’t want a traditional religious type service,” Intern Funeral Director Lyelle Bellard said. “That she was just one of those people that just enjoyed life enjoyed living, just enjoyed people.” Burbank is sitting at a table wearing Saints colors. Her fingernails are even painted black and gold. She’s got her Busch beer and menthol cigarettes. The arraignment has been well received by friends and family members.

This short news clip is going viral.

Obama Snaps Selfie At Mandela Funeral

At today's funeral for Nelson Mandela, President Obama posed for a selfie with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt. This landed the president on the mocking Tumblr, Selfies At Funerals, and has spawned the usual ridicule across Teabagistan.

LIVE VIDEO: Nelson Mandela's Funeral

At Jose Sarria's Funeral

The funeral for Jose Julio Sarria, also known as the Widow Norton, was held yesterday at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral.  Sarria, who was the first openly gay person to ever run for public office in the United States, left instructions for his service:

Female titleholders from his Imperial Court -- the gay organization and charity he started in 1965 -- are requested to wear "black/dark full length (understated) mourning attire, crowns, shoulder length veils covering both crowns and one’s face" along with "black gloves (opera length if wearing short sleeves)." Males titleholders are "respectfully requested to wear dark suits, crowns and white gloves."

More photos from yesterday's service can be found at the Facebook page of photographer Steven Underhill. Sarria was buried in a plot next to Joshua Norton, the eccentric 19th century miner who declared himself Emperor of San Francisco. (Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

UPDATE: JMG reader Steve points out that the San Francisco Chronicle has posted photos too.

Protesters Boo Thatcher Funeral

A crowd of protesters booed the funeral procession of Margaret Thatcher today. Chants included "Tory scum" and "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Dead, dead, dead!"

Thatcher Funeral To Cost £10M

The funeral for Margaret Thatcher will cost an estimated £10M, a figure which will surely provide fodder for the critics of the Iron Lady's famed austerity principles.  More on the planning:

The ceremony will be held at St Paul's Cathedral in London next Wednesday. The Queen and Prince Philip have already confirmed they will go. The guest list for the funeral was drawn up by Lady Thatcher's family with the assistance of the government and the Conservative Party, with more than 2,000 invitations being dispatched on Friday. It will be the first funeral of a British politician the Queen has attended since that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.

Broadcaster Andrew Neil and actor Michael Crawford will be present, as will Tory donor Lord Harris and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Those who have already confirmed they will not be attending include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan's widow Nancy. Neither George Bush Senior, Mr Reagan's vice-president who succeeded him in the White House, nor his son George W Bush, US president between 2001 and 2009, will be attending.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been invited to attend, but it's not yet clear how the Obama administration might be represented.  Newt Gingrich says he is going.

Cremation Rates Rise

According to NBC News, cremation is the "hottest trend" in the funeral industry.

Every year in America, 2.5 million people die. In 2011, the last year for which numbers are available, 42 percent were cremated, according to the funeral directors association. That's double the rate of just 15 years ago. In some states, largely in the West, the cremation rate tops 70 percent. In Washington, it's 72 percent; in Nevada, almost 74 percent. (The lowest rate of cremation, in case you need a great pick-up line, is Mississippi's, at 15.7 percent.) So why the big jump in cremations? There are lots of reasons.

One is the softening of the Catholic church's views of the practice. For centuries – until 1963, in fact – the church outlawed it. The church's laws still express a preference for burial. But the outright ban is a thing of the past and now, under some circumstances, bishops can permit a funeral mass with cremated remains present. Another reason for the rise in cremations is the decline in nuclear families. As more Americans live far from hometowns and parents, and as family burial plots have waned in popularity and accessibility, millions have turned to cremation as a practical and cost-effective way to care for a loved one's remains.

The biggest reason for the rise in cremations, as the article notes, is cost.

Military Vets Attack Westboro At NC Funeral For Slain Lesbian Soldier

From the blog Guardian of Valor:

So at the funeral today for Fallen Soldier Sgt. [Donna] Johnson a Westboro member decided it would be smart to stomp on the American flag. A Soldier did not take kindly to that and broke through the line, hitting one of the protesters that was disgracing Old Glory. As he was being arrested, two other Soldiers rescued the flag. The first video was filmed bu a friend of mine, the person you see jumping around with the flag is also a buddy. The second video was made by another person there to protect the funeral it is a little clearer. The person you see jumping around right before the Soldier runs in and clocks the member is a friend of mine. The Soldier was not charged and later released.

Hit the link for the other clips.

(Tipped by JMG reader Mike)

NORTH CAROLINA: Westboro To Protest Funeral Of Slain Married Lesbian Soldier

Sgt. Donna Johnson, who was married to a woman, was killed along with two other Americans during a suicide bombing in Afghanistan on Monday.  Today Westboro Baptist Church claims that they will be there on Saturday to protest her funeral in North Carolina.  (Tipped by JMG reader Jennifer.)

Headline Of The Day

What should their slogan be? Source.

Billboard Of The Day

Source.

Communion Priest: My Diocese Is Lying

"If a Quaker, a Lutheran or a Buddhist, desiring communion had introduced himself as such, before Mass, a priest would be obligated to withhold communion. If someone had shown up in my sacristy drunk, or high on drugs, no communion would have been possible either. If a Catholic, divorced and remarried (without an annulment) would make that known in my sacristy, they too according to Catholic doctrine, would be impeded from receiving communion. This has nothing to do with canon 915. Ms. Johnson’s circumstances are precisely one of those relations which impede her access to communion according to Catholic teaching. Ms. Johnson was a guest in our parish, not the arbiter of how sacraments are dispensed in the Catholic Church." - Father Marcel Guarnizo, who says that contrary to the press release issued by his diocese, he was indeed suspended for refusing communion to a lesbian during her mother's funeral.

In a lengthy statement published by Catholic News, Guarnizo adds that he briefly left the funeral services due to a migraine headache and that he didn't "walk out" as reported.

SCOTLAND: Hundreds Mourn Young Gay Murder Victim Stuart Walker

Hundreds of mourners turned out yesterday for the funeral of Stuart Walker, the young gay man found burned and tied to a lamppost in his Scotland village last month.

Many of the town’s 9000 inhabitants attended the service. Mr Walker’s sister, Julie called her brother the “life and soul of our family”. She said: “You were our ray of sunshine when you were here. And now you will forever be our brightest star, watching over us.” The day of Stuart’s death, 22 October, was described as “one of the darkest in Cumnock’s recent history” by the vicar, Reverend Patterson. Leona Lewis’ Footprints in the Sand was played during the procession, with 600 mourners following the hearse to the town cemetery.

An 18 year-old man has been charged with the murder.

Elizabeth Taylor's Funeral Is Today

Perhaps to thwart the Westboro Baptist Church, who yesterday vowed to picket her funeral, Elizabeth Taylor will be buried today at the famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the final resting place of many Hollywood stars. I just checked the Twitter feed of Margie Phelps, who doesn't yet seem to be aware of the speedy service. Story developing...

UPDATE: E! Online reports that the private service took place under tight security and without "unwelcome interruptions," although Westboro may get another shot during an upcoming "more expansive" memorial service. Taylor was interred in Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum near Michael Jackson. Tomorrow night Broadway's marquees will go dark for one minute at 8PM in Taylor's honor.

GETTING IT RIGHT: Naval Academy Honors Gay Marine's Burial Request

The Naval Academy has honored the final wishes of a gay Marine who had told his husband that he wanted his ashes interred at the USNA Columbarium. John Fliszar was a 1971 graduate of the Academy, but what's so heartwarming is how the Academy treated his husband, Mark Ketterson.

The memorial coordinator asked about his relationship to the deceased. Ketterson said that John Fliszar was his husband. “They were always polite, but there was this moment of hesitation,” Ketterson recalled. “They said they’re going to need something in writing from a blood relative. They asked, ‘Are you listed on the death certificate?’ ‘Do you have a marriage license?’ ” He was and they did, the couple having been married in Des Moines when gay marriage became legal in Iowa two years ago. Ketterson sent a copy of the marriage license. That changed everything.

“I was respected,” he said. “From that moment on, I was next of kin. They were amazing.” The USNA alumni association sent Ketterson a letter expressing condolence for the loss of his husband. The USNA says Fliszar’s interment followed standard operating procedure. “His next of kin was treated with the same dignity and respect afforded to the next of kin of all USNA grads who desire interment at the Columbarium,” said Jennifer Erickson, a spokesperson for the academy. “We didn’t do anything differently.”

There's more to this great story, hit the link.

ARIZONA: Activists Work To Shield Funeral Attendees From Westboro Protests

Not What We Expected, Was It?

I went into it expecting spectacular tackiness, but I must say that overall the MJ funeral was muted, dignified, sedate, and (as much as any arena funeral could be)...classy. Yeah, surprised me too. Points off for Al Sharpton's typically bombastic rant, but Brooke Shields in particular immediately redeemed that bit. And so the most widely watched non-sports event in the history of the world ends with the tears of a little girl. Fascinating.