The local parish in north-eastern Helsinki is Malmi Parish. In Helsinki, however, the funeral service does not have to be held in your own parish church – when the deceased's home city was Helsinki, every church and chapel in the city is available.

All reservations are handled through one number, the Parish Union's Burial Services (+358 9 2340 6000, Mon–Fri 10:00–14:00). You can deal with the parish directly or handle the same matters at our funeral home office.

Popular churches for funeral services in the area:

• Malmi Church – 300 guests, recently renovated
• Tapanila Church
• Puistola Church

Funeral and farewell services in Helsinki are held in eight chapels, and you can choose any of them. The Malmi Cemetery chapels are the most popular choice for local families – and the crematorium is on the same grounds, so the service and cremation take place in one location:

Malmi Cemetery (services Tue–Sat)

• Main Chapel – 90 guests, Malmi's most used chapel. Organ and grand piano.
• Eastern Chapel – 45 guests. Organ; electric piano on request.
• Western Chapel – 45 guests. Organ; electric piano on request.
• Northern Chapel – approx. 30 guests, for viewing and saying farewell to the deceased.

All Malmi chapels have step-free access, and a separate building next to the chapels provides waiting rooms for each chapel.

Hietaniemi Cemetery (services Tue–Sat)

• New Chapel – approx. 240 guests, the largest funeral chapel in Helsinki
• Old Chapel – approx. 50 guests

Hietaniemi Crematorium (services Mon–Sat)

• Large Chapel – approx. 100 seated, up to 200 guests. All faiths and non-religious ceremonies.

Honkanummi Cemetery, Vantaa – jointly owned by the Helsinki and Vantaa parishes (services Tue–Sat)

• Large Chapel – 120 guests
• Small Chapel – 60 guests

The service can also be held in any Helsinki parish church, such as Malmi Church. Use is free of charge for church members.

Good to know about cremation: at Malmi, Honkanummi and Hietaniemi Crematorium, the crematorium is located in the same building as the chapel. When the service is held in one of these chapels, the chapel staff moves the coffin directly to the crematorium after the service – avoiding extra transportation costs.

Malmi Cemetery is operationally Finland's largest, with around 2,000 burials per year. It offers new coffin and urn graves, new urn quarters, a memorial grove and its own Catholic burial quarter. Returned, reusable graves can also be redeemed at Malmi, and burial in an existing family grave is possible once the burial right has been confirmed.

The funeral chapels and the crematorium are on the same grounds, so the service, cremation and burial can all take place in one location.

The grave can also be chosen from any other Parish Union cemetery:

• Honkanummi Cemetery (jointly owned by the Helsinki and Vantaa parishes) – new coffin and urn graves available, several memorial groves and scattering areas. Also home to the non-denominational cemetery.
• Östersundom Cemetery – new coffin and urn graves available, memorial grove.
• Maunula Urn Grove – for cremated only: urn graves, three memorial groves (incl. an anonymous one) and a scenic scattering area by a pond. Several new grave plots available.
• Hietaniemi Cemetery – new grave plots become available only occasionally, rarely by lottery. Four memorial groves, two scattering areas and a veterans' grove.
• Kulosaari Cemetery – urn graves and a memorial grove, primarily for Kulosaari residents.

Good to know:

• A new coffin grave is provided only for a deceased Helsinki resident and only in connection with a death – graves cannot be reserved in advance. New coffin graves are available at Malmi, Honkanummi and Östersundom.
• Every cemetery has a memorial grove, and scattering areas are at Hietaniemi, Honkanummi and Maunula. Memorial groves have no maintenance or administration fees.
• Practices vary by area: in some memorial groves and scattering areas the family may be present, while others are anonymous or handled by cemetery staff. Scattering is not done in winter.
• In most memorial groves and scattering areas, a name plaque can be ordered from the Parish Union and attached to the communal memorial – a wall, pillar or stone. Anonymous memorial groves have no plaques.

A grave plot is provided to Helsinki residents regardless of religious affiliation. Existing grave locations: hautahaku.fi.

Malmi Crematorium operates at Malmi Cemetery next to the chapels, so the service and cremation can take place in one location. The crematorium is usually chosen based on where the service or the grave is – for example, those blessed at the Malmi chapels are usually cremated at Malmi Crematorium. We handle the crematorium booking on the family's behalf. Prices and practices differ:

• Malmi Crematorium (Parish Union): Helsinki residents 260 € + cold storage fee 50 €/starting week – in practice from 310 €. The reduced price applies to Helsinki residents only; others pay 500 € + cold storage fee. Urn release Tue–Sat 9:00–15:00.
• Honkanummi Crematorium (Vantaa): jointly owned by the Helsinki and Vantaa parishes, so Helsinki and Vantaa residents pay the same 260 € + cold storage fee.
• Hietaniemi Crematorium (Crematorium Foundation): 320 € for everyone regardless of home municipality, no cold storage fees. Free cardboard urn. Express cremation 640 €.

Urn transfers

• The Parish Union transfers the urn free of charge if the cremation took place at Malmi or Honkanummi and the grave is located at Maunula, Malmi or Honkanummi cemetery.
• In all other cases, the family – or the funeral home at the family's request – takes care of the urn transfer.

Choosing an urn

• For urn burials, an urn is chosen from our selection (from 49 €) – for sea burials there are dedicated water-soluble urns.
• In memorial groves and scattering, the ashes are buried without an urn: for cremations at Malmi or Honkanummi, a loan urn from the crematorium can be chosen, so no urn purchase is needed.
• Hietaniemi Crematorium provides a free cardboard urn.