Photo courtesy of http://www.heavenlywhitedoves.net
White Doves represent spirituality in its deepest sense. Traditional funeral stories told that doves carried the souls of deceased people to heaven. Doves are often portrayed on graves to represent the eternal peace of someone who has departed this life.
Whatever you believe and whatever traditions you follow when mourning the loss of a loved one, it is always comforting to feel that they have gone somewhere peaceful and secure.
When the white doves fly away at the end of a service, people tell me that it feels like they are saying their final goodbye to that person. It often brings up emotions and helps to express grief, which is very therapeutic.
Heavenly Doves can bring between 1 and 25 white doves to services in Sydney. They can be released straight from their special box or they can be handed to family members and/or friends for release.
The doves are usually released at the end of a chapel or graveside service. But they can be released wherever family and friends feel it is appropriate – as long as they are released outside.
White doves are a great way of delivering a special message of peace and love (instead of just flowers) if you can’t be there because you live far away or circumstances prevent you being able to attend. We can read out a personal message or poem before setting the doves free.
How Many Doves Should be Released?
If you’re not sure how many doves to release, here are a couple of ideas.
A Single Dove
To represent the essence of your loved one passing away.
The Holy Trinity + A Spirit Dove
Three doves can be released to represent the father, son and holy spirit, then a single dove is released (usually from the hands of the closest person to the deceased) to represent their loved one joining with the Holy Trinity in Heaven.
Seven Doves = Spiritual Perfection
The number seven is a significant number in the bible.
Seven White Doves can represent seven angels in white flying through the sky.
Twelve Doves
The number 12 is also an important number in the bible.
12 doves can be released to represent 12 blessings (hope, joy, wonder, praise, peace, benevolence, comfort, faith, perseverance, strength, love and grace)
A dove for every year/decade
In the unfortunate loss of a younger person, we can provide a dove for every year of their life (up to age 20) or if the person was older, a dove for every decade of their life can be released.
A 21 Dove Salute
The twenty-one gun salute is often the highlight of official military ceremonies and commemorations. If your loved one served in the military we can release 21 doves, peacefully acknowledging their dedication to our armed forces.
A dove for closest family and friends
Heavenly Doves can simply bring a dove for each person that wants to take part in the release of doves at the funeral service.
Hand-releasing is the most common way that our doves are released because people can personally feel that they are letting their loved one go as the dove flies away.
Heavenly Doves has obtained top 3 in ‘special services’ category in NSW at Australian Bridal Industry Academy Awards 2007, 2008 & 2009. For more information and bookings see www.heavenlywhitedoves.net
Living Years Blog 
Are the doves simply released into the wild or do they “home” like pigeons?
The doves are trained to fly home. For that reason we can only release them within 100km of their home loft, which in our situation means we only release them in the Sydney region (Australia).