When a person is going through a difficult or emotional time in their life, the people who bury the dead play a crucial role. Undoubtedly, all of you acknowledge this fact. But unfortunately, you often don’t know how to call these professionals from the funeral services.
Nowadays, the terms like funeral director, undertaker, or mortician have surfaced a lot. But the fact is, all these three terms are more or less, synonymous. All the terms ideally refer to the one person who will conduct and supervise the process of preparing the dead one for burial with complete responsibility for directing the funeral.
Differences exist
On deeper analysis, people will notice that there can be slight differences in the roles and responsibilities of these three terms under scrutiny. The titles have resulted from the changing perceptions of death in different cultures and an increase in specialized skill sets.
The Singapore bereavement services can explain the subtle differences between undertakers, morticians, and funeral directors.
1. Undertaker
There are a lot of misconceptions about undertakers being the people who literally lay the bodies of the deceased under the ground. An undertaker is the person who is undertaking the task of the burial and funeral.
The term came under the limelight during the 17th century as the context of deathcare became widely popular. You may say that funeral undertakers were the older version of funeral directors these days.
2. Morticians
Preservation of the body before burial is the choice of many people. A particular set of workers with immense skillset can replace body fluids with embalming chemical substances that prevent quick decomposition of the body.
These well-trained workers of the funeral service in Singapore who participate in the embalming process are called Morticians. In Latin, the term “mort” implies death. According to some historians, the title was just a try to hide the cynical feeling about the profession.
3. Funeral director
Standing in today’s world, you need a director for each job for complete management. The funeral services offer to carry out one of the most sensitive, emotional, yet necessary jobs in the world- burials and funerals.
The funeral director will play the following roles:
- Offering support to the bereaved during the initial phase of grief.
- Handle the logistics of the family which includes transportation of the body.
- Prepares team for embalming
- Fills the death certificate and completes associated legal paperwork.
- Arranging or directing the funeral.
Thus, the director will be responsible for each step in the course of action after a person passes away.
Interchangeable concepts
Since maximum funeral services in Singapore are small with local operations, the funeral director is also the owner who will beautify the body for public viewing. Again, the mortician is also the owner of most funeral homes. This is the reason why funeral director and mortician are interchangeable terms.
Undertaker is a kind of euphemism. It refers to the person in charge of the entire funeral process. The only thing is that, as the term funeral director sounds more professional and pleasant, it’s the most common term to represent the funeral service owner.
