Swedish Death Announcements

I admit it: I have been reading the pages of death announcements from an early age, fascinated, imagining the life of the deceased, based on the name and age of the deceased and the list of the family members. Usually I did not (and do not) know those who had died. In the cases I do, the announcement forces me to confront what has happened. But even when the announcement means that somebody I knew is now dead, my focus is not only around their death, but also much around the lives they lived.

Perhaps this was one of reasons I later got interested in genealogy?

In Norway I grew up with very standard death notices in the newspapers – and they still look more or less the same! A cross on the top, inside a black frame and then the text. Often the text read: «Fell asleep peacefully» - a sentence that made me wonder, as a young girl, of any connection between death and sleep!
These death notices were only in the newspaper.

In my other country I discovered that the family, right after the death of a family member, printed A4 sized death notices, mainly to quickly announce the funeral that often took place within a day or two. These notices were put up outside the family's home, but also on public billboards. Perhaps it is my Norwegian background, but death notices next to theatre announcements, apartments to be let, still seem strange. In this battle of death and life on the billboard,the death notices often get covered by new life announcements!

In my other country the family also put death notices in the national newspapers, but in addition it is quite common that friends, neighbours and employers publish death notices – I see it as public condolences to the family of the deceased.

In Norway most death announcements the family publishes in the newspaper carry a cross. My impression is that the cross more symbolizes death itself than any specific connection to Christianity, but perhaps I am wrong.
On a random page in the Norwegian daily Aftenposten the 41 death notices had
36 crosses (all the same design), two birds(same design), two flowers (same design) and one heart. Aftenposten announced they have 27 symbols to choose from, most relating to religion.

In Sweden the pages with death announcements look like a catalogue of graphic symbols! On two random pages in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter there were altogether 42 death notices (bigger notices than in the Norwegian newspaper...), but only 13 crosses, in many different designs. The same number, 13, had birds instead of crosses. The birds were also in many different versions. Variety! Then there were seven flowers, five hearts, a dog, a musical note, a tram and a hunter.
Additional symbols I have found in Dagens Nyheter included a black cat, a tree, a horse with a carriage and a rider, a cook, two masks, an eagle, a private airplane and a camera!

If you could choose, what would be your symbol?
Would you still stick to the traditional symbols of your religion?