Cvetanka's funeral service will take place inside the Burial Chapel at The City Of London Cemetery on Friday 26th April 2024 at 11:30 am.  This will be followed by interment at Cvetanka's final resting place within the Cemetery.

Funeral Service

The service will last 30 minutes and will be led by Father Dragan Lazic from the Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Sava, Notting Hill, London.

Koliva, a dish of boiled wheat with honey, with a lit candle on top, is an offering to commemorate our loved ones at their funeral.  It symbolises the cyclical nature of life and the sweetness of Heaven and is blessed during the prayers for the dead at the service.

Within the Orthodox religion it is held that the wheat kernels represent everlasting life.  Just as a new life rises from the buried kernel of wheat, the one buried will one day rise to a new life with God.

John 12:24 "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit".

The koliva will be prepared, to an authentic recipe, by a Serbian restaurant along with Pogacha which is a round loaf of white bread.  A spoonful of koliva will be placed into small paper cups to distribute to mourners at the graveside.  The offering is made with the memory to embrace the loved ones we've lost, so may their memory be eternal.

Mourners should stand throughout the service.

Interment

A short graveside burial service will be performed by the priest, where mourners partake of the koliva and then leave for the post-funeral reception.