Celebrating the life of a loved one is the best way to preserve happy and loving memories of them. This practice honors their life as it focuses on their positive attributes shared through stories told by the celebrants. Their reputation and legacy remain cherished and respected as those positive attributes pass down as life lessons and exemplary practices. 

It is essential, therefore, to celebrate the life of your loved one, and here are seven great ideas on how to do that.

 

1. Organize a Simple but Fun Tournament in Their Memory

Doing something fun lightens your spirit and allows you to focus on your loved one with happiness. You can do this by organizing a simple but fun tournament if your celebration involves multiple people. 

 

This tournament can be anything that encourages fun competition between participants. The activity could be a sport, a creative activity such as drawing the portrait of your loved one, or trivia to determine who answers the most questions about your loved one correctly. At the end of the tournament, a winner is given a trophy for that year’s event.

 

Since multiple options of activities are available, create a theme around the tournament. If it is a cooking tournament, theme it around the foods your loved one liked, or if it is sports, name the event after your loved one. By doing this, you will have this fun activity every year while keeping it interesting for the participants. 

 

2. Spend Time Doing Something They Cared About

Your loved one probably had something they deeply cared about. They simply talked about it a lot or spent their time doing it. This interest could include; picking up trash at the beach, visiting the sick, volunteering in their community, etc. 

 

If they had such an activity, you could honor them by getting involved in that activity yourself. This way of celebrating their life will also contribute positively to the community and leave you all feeling fulfilled and happy about the time well spent. 

 

3. Talk About their Positive Influences on Your Lives

For a loved one who was outgoing and popular, everyone in their social circle might have something nice to say about them. If many people attend the celebration, each person should share the positive influences this loved one had on them.

 

Sharing these experiences will allow you to learn more about the person you all loved. The influences that they had on your life could provide helpful insight into the challenges that one of you might face, but, most importantly, each time one of you talks about the loved one’s positive influence, it further creates an endearing feeling and pride in the fact that they were a part of your lives. 

 

Sharing these thoughts while being gathered around a custom urn can make this process even more impactful and meaningful. A completely custom urn can capture their personality and interests which makes sharing what you loved about them even more personal and meaningful.

 

4. Do One Random Good Deed for Their Community

What you do may not necessarily mean that what you do has to have been meaningful to your loved one. No. It could be something you are interested in, but do it in this person’s memory. This activity could, for instance, be donating to a charitable cause, setting up a college fund for someone in that community, volunteering in your community, and so on. 

 

The activity can be done individually or as a group, but it would be more meaningful if you did it in a group. You can make this extra unique by printing out merch for all the participants in case the activity requires physical participation, for instance, cleaning public spaces. Another example could be fundraising and donating to various causes if you make the celebration an annual event. 

 

5. Form Groups of Familiar Strangers and Share Memories of Your Loved One

You can use the celebration to meet mutual friends with your loved one. If several people show up for the event, you could organize yourselves into small groups and share your perspectives or talk about the life of your loved one. This activity will preserve their memory as you form stronger bonds with each other over the life your loved one lived. 

 

A great tip would be to encourage attendees to bring something physical that reminds them of this person. They could share their stories surrounding that object and how it reminds them of the loved one. Doing this will lead you to discover more details about the person you cared about, giving you more reasons to celebrate and honor their life. It will also help you form new connections with people that will help you feel closer to your loved one.

 

6. Learn Their Favorite Skill

Learning and engaging in your loved one’s favorite skill can also be a great way to honor their memory because it helps you feel closer to them while doing the fun activity they loved doing. If they liked dancing, learning their favorite dance, for instance, means that each time you bust those moves, you will honor them with all the fun you will have. If they loved making stuff with their hands, you can find similar DIY projects to help you engage in their interests and keep their memory alive. 

 

The great thing about this is that you can do it alone or with a group. If you do it with a group, it will be all that more meaningful and a great way to unite all of you who knew this person. 

 

7. Live For them

Lastly, the best way to celebrate the life of your loved one and honor it as well is to live for them. This means you can take their life lessons or positive habits and incorporate them into your own life if you find them worth adopting. 

 

Living like this will not only increase the quality of your life but their memories and ideas will remain alive through you. You will get to carry on the good they brought into this world. The best part about this is that if you resolve to live for them, you will be less likely to give up, which will improve your life in the process. What a wonderful way to honor the life of your loved one.