Living Funerals, celebrations of life, Seizenso - 3 words that all describe roughly the same idea - holding a ceremony to honor the end of a person's life, while they're still alive.   

It's often said that "funerals are for the living" because the person being honored is already dead and gone, and only the living benefit from the ceremony of remembrance. Doesn't this seem a bit backwards though? Why is it that a person usually never gets to hear their own eulogy, the very words that are supposed to wrap up the most impactful parts of their life? This is the reason for the idea of the living funeral, a practice known in Japan as seizenso or "funeral while living". Why wait until somebody is gone to share all the things about their life that were important to you, and often live with the regret that you never cherished those things while they were here?   

Some people even take the idea a step further. At the Hyowon Healing Center in Korea, participants sign up to go through a staged mock funeral. They take memorial pictures, write out final words that they would wish to leave to those behind them, and then lay in a coffin for a meditative process that reenacts the process of dying and leaving the earth. Not just for people who believe they may die soon, this ceremonies are also popular with younger people who say that it helps them put the important things in life into perspective, and to let go of the little unpleasant things which are not so important in the big scheme. This is similar to the now popular phrase memento mori, which commands us to remember that we will die, and to use that knowledge to frame decision making for the rest of our lives.   

This video also covers another social practice which is growing, known as the death cafe. Although this sounds ominous, a death cafe is a gathering dedicated to talking about questions and thoughts around death. This is aimed at breaking the taboo of talking about death in many cultures, which some feel can hold us back from having healthy attitudes about it. If you want to find out more about this practice, and possibly even find a meet up in your area, I recommend going to deathcafe.com.