You hold a funeral for old programs:

Among the tiny graves on Blocker Hill, the wind echoes with the tortured cries of computer programmers. Beneath the eight grave markers, and perhaps in a rumored unmarked grave nearby, lie reams of paper printouts of code for software that has left this mortal operating system.

The cemetery is a quirky tradition among the programmers at LexisNexis, which provides online legal and business information. Rather than simply delete programs that are retired or replaced, they print them out for a proper send-off - not always with fond regards.
...
In 1992, up to 50 mourners followed pallbearers carrying a wooden coffin with a printout of the former Database Update Control System as a trumpeter played "Taps," project consultant Alice Kaltenmark said. Eulogies were said and chocolate cake served.

I guess I can understand this. Sometimes software can take on a life of it's own, especially if you have to support it for a long time. You can put blood, sweat and tears into it. This can offer some much needed closure when you finally put the code to rest.

Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.
- Michael Sinz

Unless you kill it and bury it.