Importance and burdens of rituals
I am of the opinion that in the US we have put aside tradition and rituals to our general detriment. We stopped doing "funerals" a long time ago in favor of "memorials." We recently discontinued "memorials" and now do "celebrations of life."
We no longer say traditional vows at weddings: the couple often writes their own and it is usually some variation of "I promise to go on extravagant vacations with you to exotic locations" and "I promise to bring you ice cream when you are sad."
In both cases it seems like we are trying to shy away from the weight of the matter at hand: either the finality of death, or the responsibilities of marriage.
On the other hand, there are other cultures where ludicrous sums of money are spent on funerals and weddings, to the financial detriment of the family.
I don't want to police how people choose to mark these milestones. But both extremes seem problematic in different ways to me.