When it comes to naming baby, it’s a relatively common (but by no means universal) Canadian tradition for children to be given names from within the family. A son might be named after his father or uncle, for instance; a daughter for her sister or grandmother. Middle names, which most Canadians have, are very often chosen this way. Children usually take the last name of their father. If children are born to parents who aren’t married, or simply don’t use the same last name (see marriage traditions, below), they’ll sometimes be given a hyphenatedlast name combining the names of both parents, for example, “Martin-Jones.”

To briefly summarize, most Canadians generally get married in a lavish public ceremony in a church or banquet hall before about a hundred or so close friends and family members. The bride will typically wear a beautiful white wedding dress purchased especially for the ceremony, while everyone else will wear their finest formal wear. Once the gang is assembled, a legally-certified wedding officiant (administrator), usually a religious leader or judge, will publicly lead the bride and groom through special wedding vowsexpressing loyalty to one another, and then proclaim them officially married. The event will then usually conclude with an equally lavish, but more relaxed wedding reception, dinner, or after-party.

In practice almost every detail of a typical Canadian wedding, from flowers to music to seating arrangements, is governed by more rules and traditions than could possibly be summarized here. Though such wedding rituals are broadly inspired by European-Christian customs, particularly British custom, North American weddings these days are often said to have evolved to exist in a world of unique tradition all their own. Canadians from non-Christian or non-European backgrounds often have unique wedding customs, though these are often fused to varying degrees with North American ones.

In most Canadian families, the moment someone dies their corpse is shipped to a mortician for embalming and preparation. Once that’s done, there will usually be a viewing — where close family can quietly look at the presented body in a special decorative casket — followed by a full funeral a few days after that. Depending on the religiosity of the family, funerals may be held in either a church or some manner of secular funeral parlour, and will feature dozens of guests who knew the deceased during life. A few short speeches, or eulogies,  by close friends or family may be given, followed by another processional viewing of the body.

Burial ceremonies will usually be held a few hours after the funeral. As the name implies, these centre around the ceremonial lowering of the deceased into an awaiting grave at a cemetery. In recent years, Canada has seen a tremendous spike in the popularity of cremation — where the body is burned into ashes after the funeral then buried in a small urn — as a cheaper, and some say more tasteful, alternative to burying the body in a full casket. Most Canadian cemeteries are privately owned and will house dozens, or even hundreds of bodies, with graves sometimes separated by religion.

Because death can be such an unexpected thing, and funerals so rushed, the exact planning of a Canadian’s death ceremony is often either explicitly outlined in the deceased’s will, or, more commonly, simply delegated to agents of the multi-million dollar funeral planning industry. Like weddings, there also tends to be a great deal of multicultural diversity in funerals stemming from different religious customs. Canadians from Asian or Middle Eastern backgrounds in particular often having distinct traditions regarding the proper way to handle and dispose of the deceased.