How important is attending the funeral of a loved one/relative to you?

Do you think attending a funeral is an indication of how much you care? Do you feel bad if you miss someone’s funeral? Maybe you feel that the funeral is for the benefit of the living and so you don’t feel obliged to attend?

I feel that a funeral often interferes with my memory of someone as, whenever I think of that person I tend to think of their funeral and not of them as they were when they were alive. I tend to go to funerals more for the sake of the other people attending and not to prove how much I cared about the deceased.

Also, does religion play a part in how you/people feel about funerals?