Mourners making unholy noise at burials - Veteran funeral directors slam ‘disgraceful’ music, behaviour

The once solemn journey from hearse to church and burial, traditionally marked by sacred gospel music, is increasingly featuring sometimes lewd music, prompting some veteran funeral home operators to call for tighter regulations.

President of the Jamaica Association of Certified Embalmers and Funeral Directors, and director of Lyn's Funeral home, Calvin Lyn, said the shift is "disgraceful".

"And not only the music, but the volume they are playing it. You even see attendants set sideways on the running board; it is a capital 'no'. But for me and the organisation I lead, we are in total opposition to that," he said.

Lyn told THE WEEKEND STAR that he has observed the growing trend and has warned other members against the practice.

"They are even coming from funerals and still playing. We tell our members don't do that. You don't need to be playing music coming from funerals to attract attention or to advertise. We are against it and that is not dignified."

A funeral director for more than five decades, Lyn noted that while song selections often come from families, the responsibility ultimately lies with the funeral home.

"The selection comes from the family, like the Jehovah Witnesses, they have different choruses from Church of God, United etc. So they will bring tape and thumb drive of favourite choruses of the deceased, but those are appropriate songs," he emphasised.

Similarly, Peter Perry, director of Perry's Funeral Home, opined that the issue has nothing to do with pleasing the customer.

"Once you have the body in the hearse, you should only play gospel or any of those singing songs, but you have to vet the type of songs families give," he said, also chiding operators for playing music after leaving burials. "Carry the hearse go park in silence. But they are playing songs with all bad words. This is getting out of hand."

Lyn maintained that he has not yet encountered families requesting inappropriate songs, "but I would tell them point blank I wouldn't play it". He argued that the problem started from untrained, newer operators entering the industry.

"We, Lyn's Funeral Home, introduced sacred music on the hearse. We selected the good old hymns, but what has happened in recent times is that the government refuses to put in a regulation. But we are trained abroad, we have dignity and discipline and what it takes to operate a proper funeral. They (offenders) are just hurry come up, fly by night because they are not trained."

Perry echoed similar concerns, calling some operators "loose people" who "don't respect the industry".

"Hence anything goes for them, they don't have class," he said.

Lyn said that families already have an opportunity to express personal tastes during nine-night gatherings and wakes. He also noted other unpleasant trends.

"Someone called me that they saw someone actually going in the church smoking ganja. Now, 20 years ago when I was driving hearse, they were at the door. So this is where they are," he said.

Perry warned that the situation could worsen without intervention. He urged operators to respect the industry and cautioned them from going to certain levels to be 'hot and trendy'.

Meanwhile, popular clergyman Reverend Dr Al Miller, who has officiated numerous funerals, said the trend does not surprise him, even though he has not witnessed it first-hand.

"If you are having 'thinking change', you are going to have behaviour change. This highlights the changing value of society," he said, adding that changes are also evident in funeral attire.

"Many have raised the concern, and they are deeply concerned, but we are raising a generation that has no clear moral guide and principles to determine action. There is no decorum on what is acceptable and not acceptable."

Still Miller stressed that music at funerals should be used "to comfort and encourage and to build up and speak to a consciousness of their own mortality".

"The funeral homes themselves should take responsibility, because are they holding the values or are they letting other factors determine what they do?"