<P> A memorial service, or a commemoration is one given for the deceased when the body is not present . The service takes place after cremation or burial at sea, after donation of the body to an academic or research institution, or after the ashes have been scattered . It is also significant when the person is missing and presumed dead, or known to be deceased though the body is not recoverable . These services often take place at a funeral home; however, they can be held in a home, school, workplace, church or other location of some significance . A memorial service may include speeches (eulogies), prayers, poems, or songs to commemorate the deceased . Pictures of the deceased and flowers are usually placed where the coffin would normally be placed . </P> <P> After the sudden deaths of important public officials, public memorial services have been held by communities, including those without any specific connection to the deceased . For examples, community memorial services were held after the assassinations of US presidents James A. Garfield and William McKinley . </P> <P> A good funeral (as they were called) had one draw the curtains for a period of time; at the wake, when new visitors arrived, they would enter from the front door and leave through the back door . The women stayed at home whilst the men attended the funeral, the village priest would then visit the family at their home to talk about the deceased and to console them . </P> <P> The first child of William Price, a Welsh Neo-Druidic priest, died in 1884 . Believing that it was wrong to bury a corpse, and thereby pollute the earth, Price decided to cremate his son's body, a practice which had been common in Celtic societies . The police arrested him for the illegal disposal of a corpse . Price successfully argued in court that while the law did not state that cremation was legal, it also did not state that it was illegal . The case set a precedent that, together with the activities of the newly - founded Cremation Society of Great Britain, led to the Cremation Act 1902 . The Act imposed procedural requirements before a cremation could occur and restricted the practice to authorised places . </P>

When are funerals held on which days of the week