Halloween, A Day of Renewal

No lie, Massachusetts requires funeral directors to renew their licenses annually--on Oct. 31

Really, who knew? In addition to its scores of infamous, unenforced ‘blue laws’ dating back to the colonial era, Massachusetts also has a good joke baked into its department of professional licensure, Board of Registration in Embalming and Funeral Directing, a requirement that Licensed Funeral Directors, Type 3 Funeral Directors & Embalmers, Registered Unlicensed Funeral Directors, Certified Funeral Directors, and Type 6 Funeral Directors & Embalmers file their paperwork and submit their annual fees ($66.00, $97.00, $155.00, $97.00, $97.00, and $155.00, respectively), by October 31 each year.

Local funeral director Sean Oteri, confirms the strange fact (and even shared a copy of his license to prove the point).

As to who came up with this link between a licensing deadline for funeral workers and a date traditionally associated with the dead (or undead), no one is saying, so far. A phone call and email to the state has not yielded a response.

Nor, so far, has a polite inquiry to the Massachusetts Funeral Directors Association in Weymouth.

If we hear, we will report.