The word cremation, crematorium is a word formation from the Latin "cremare", the literal translation is the verb "to burn". Cremation is also popularly called Fire Burial, and it has been used since time immemorial in all parts of the world.
Currently, cremation as a type of burial is being promoted all over the world under the slogan - Peace and earth to the living! This means that traditional burial in the ground is harmful to people’s health, although it is worth noting that different nations have their own motivations regarding the cremation of the dead. One of the frequently asked questions is: Is embalming necessary for cremation?
Cremation technology.
Cremation technology today has reached engineering heights. Cremation ovens of the new generation are a kind of computer; the entire process is fully automated and controlled by a control system - a PC mechanic. Modern furnaces, which by the way have international quality standards, have a hard fire-resistant coating; natural or liquefied gas, electricity, and special fuel are used for cremation. Most often, furnaces are equipped with automatic feeding and loading systems, a combustion product control system, which implies the absence of smoke and odor in the premises, and electric magnets for sorting metal objects before treatment with a cremator. A cremulator is a kind of mechanism vaguely reminiscent of a mill, in which metal balls are used instead of millstones to grind unburnt remains after cremation. It is worth noting that the technology used today preserves the entire ashes, avoiding even minor loss of ashes fragments through the exhaust systems of the cremation oven.
Ritual agents, as well as morgue employees, are obliged to warn the relatives of the deceased - there are rules for accepting the bodies of the deceased for cremation. One of these rules is the mandatory absence of an artificial device in the body of the deceased - a pacemaker. The device can damage the cremation oven because it provokes micro-explosions in the oven. Please note that the handles of the coffins are removed by the crematorium staff in order to avoid an uncontrolled increase in the combustion temperature during melting. The same prohibition applies to any glass product located in the coffin. When heated, the product quickly sticks to an expensive coating that cannot be replaced.
The temperature after heating such a furnace reaches 1200 degrees, this allows even small metal objects made of alloys such as silver, tin or gold to melt without a residue. At such a high temperature, the cremation process continues for a relatively long time - about 2 hours. As already noted, the handles and the cross are first removed from the coffins; if they are metal and not plastic, the coffin is placed on the domino (feed chain), a seal is attached, and a sign with engraved initials is used, as a rule, fire-resistant brick is used for this. The coffin with the body and all ritual attributes are burned; after cremation, the numbers on the engraving are additionally checked. Compliance with this rule makes it impossible to give away someone else's ashes to relatives. Contrary to the generally accepted opinion that the body in the coffin burns in fire, a stream of hot air is used in the oven, which eliminates small gas explosions when the organic tissues of the deceased burn.
The cremation process begins with preheating the cremation oven. Automated feeding of the coffin with the body into the oven is the first stage in the cremation process. This is followed by setting the coffin lid on fire; the burning process of a wooden coffin is not long - the coffin burns from 2 to 5 minutes, which allows you to increase the burning area several times. The temperature in the oven contributes to the beginning of the decomposition of the tissues of the deceased, releasing carbon dioxide, which in turn contributes to the combustion process. The temperature in the oven is controlled by a program; each cremation has its own combustion process. The choice of time and temperature conditions is influenced by such factors as the age of the deceased, the elapsed period from the date of death, the weight of the deceased, and the applied medications deceased (saturation of the body with certain enzymes during life), chronic diseases leading to death.
For example, those who died from a serious illness - tuberculosis or completely dehydrated bodies of drug addicts burn much more heavily, while the bodies of those who die with excess weight - obese patients (with a large body weight) burn relatively quickly. The bitter apotheos of our time is cancer. The process of burning the bodies of cancer victims is significantly different from other processes. The human tissues in which the tumor is located do not actually burn; the temperature must be adjusted. Cremation mechanics who observe the combustion process have repeatedly noted that cancerous tumors burn with an unusual flame, but with a shining blue flicker, unlike the combustion of organic tissue. The human body is known to be mostly composed of water. In the lungs there are approximately 80 percent, in the liver 70, and in the kidneys and brain about 80. According to the laws of chemistry, when exposed to high temperatures, a liquid turns into steam, which is the reason for the small amount of ashes remaining after the completion of the cremation process.
The only thing that, perhaps, can unite the many religions existing in the world is the belief in the existence human soul. The soul, as you know, is a kind of immortal substance: the personification of purity and energy. While the body is, simply, its container, and its existence on Earth is limited.
What happens to the soul after cremation?
Sooner or later, an inevitable moment comes in everyone’s life when, let’s say, the process of getting rid of the soul from the body takes place. And, depending on the people’s belonging to a particular religion, the method of its (body’s) repose is chosen. For some, this is a burial place, while others (like, for example, the ancient Egyptians) erect, or rather, erected tombs of incredible proportions and mummified the bodies of great people of their era, ultimately placing them in these grandiose structures. However, not all Egyptian pyramids are tombs... But we are not talking about that now.
Returning to the topic of a person’s death from life, it should be noted that one of the most common ways in the world today to free the soul from the body is cremation of the latter. Cremation is especially popular in Europe and America.
What does it mean to be cremated?
The literal meaning of the word "cremation" cremare, translated from Latin, means the process of burning corpses. (This sounds, of course, somewhat ominous - but you should take it calmly.)
It must be said that burning a body is not the final stage of the entire process of saying goodbye to a person. After cremation, the ashes of the deceased are usually handed over to his relatives so that they can decide what to do with them next: bury them or scatter them.
Some, however, in no way want to part with the embodied memory of their loved one - and put an urn with ashes in the room on the bedside table at the head of the head... so that they are always nearby...
Truly, your ways are mysterious, O Lord...
What happens to the human body after cremation
This is understandable, I think, without further explanation: the body of the deceased ultimately turns into ashes. And in principle, there is nothing wrong with this: after all, most religions believe that the body is the prison of the Soul... Buddhists and Hindus are completely sure that the burning process only benefits the soul, accelerating the process of its release...
It is important to remember that, as is believed in many religions, the body can be consigned to fire or earth only on the third day. This is exactly how long it takes for the soul to leave its vessel. That is, cremation should be carried out no earlier than three days after the person died. This period is also necessary for the astral body (the first body of a spiritual nature) and the casual body (personal body) to separate from each other.
Thus, it is important to understand that only the earthly, deceased shell of the soul, which does not experience pain and does not feel it, is burned. Well, if it so happened that the deceased (or deceased) had to be cremated earlier, the subtle matter “lingering” next to the body may experience a little stress...
But there are also cases of everyday death: the burning of a person, say, in a fire: and in this case it does not at all mean that his soul will be damaged. It’s just that this process of involuntary cremation, again, will serve as some kind of stress for her.
In principle, today there is practically no difference in whether a person is cremated or simply buried. A person does not feel pain after death. Although other evidence can be found on this topic...
Eternal hell or a method of purification
or does the cremation of the body harm the soul?
This question quite naturally arises among the relatives of a person who has left our world.
The church's attitude towards cremation is still ambiguous. Let's put it bluntly: and Orthodox Church, and the burning of corpses was not at all welcomed by Judaism. And in Greece, for example, cremation is still prohibited by law.
However, over time we see how what was considered impossible and forbidden just yesterday exists quite normally today.
Orthodox canons of the church, despite their relatively recent installation “You are earth and you will go to earth,” - Today, for the most part, cremation is no longer condemned. The funeral service for the body of the deceased occurs even in crematoria. And the thought that with the arrival Last Judgment Only those who were buried will be resurrected - now there is an erroneous thought. After all, according to new version When the body is cremated, the soul remains intact, and for resurrection on the Day of Judgment, the bodily shell is not required at all.
Bible references regarding cremation
However, neither the Old nor the New Testaments directly mention that burning a human body after death is a sin. And at the same time, there are notes that it is a sin to burn a person on an altar. In turn, there is an opinion that the ashes of the cremated person must, nevertheless, be interred.
The burial place must be marked. In Orthodoxy, this role is played by a monument or a cross. A Christian who was cremated after his death has the right to memorial services and funeral services in exactly the same way as everyone else (except for those mortals who committed suicide). And after cremation, his soul ascends to heaven in the same way as it would after burial.
How people were cremated in the past
Cremation as a way of disposing of the mortal body of the deceased was popular long before our era. Thus, the ancient inhabitants of the Scandinavian Peninsula did not bury their brothers. In order to say goodbye to a person’s body and release his soul, the funeral pyre technique was used. The body of the deceased was wrapped in cloth and placed on the fire.
There were also measures that were important to observe when burning corpses. This method of farewell was especially relevant in the Middle Ages, when the plague raged in many regions of Europe. In this regard, scientists of those times believed that burying bodies in such a situation was simply dangerous, since the epidemic in this case could spread further.
So still: bury in the ground or cremate?
Thus, as we can see from the above, cremation in our time has become a process that is equivalent to a traditional funeral. But, despite this, not every family, having lost a loved one, decides to take this step, fearing superstitions that are still spread by various cults, sects and their fanatics.
If you evaluate this method of saying goodbye to a person objectively, it turns out that it is not so bad. For example, there are certain arguments in favor of cremation:
- Cremation is the absence of the likelihood of being buried in a state of clinical death;
- The environmental cleanliness of the process is obvious: cadaveric poison will not enter the soil and will not poison groundwater;
- There is space saving for aesthetic reasons;
- It is possible to preserve ashes in columbariums;
- Relatively inexpensive compared to traditional funerals;
- And, finally, the absence of obvious contradictions with existing church canons.
There’s just one thing that’s probably impossible to argue with: among the Slavs, cremation to this day is not the most common method of saying goodbye to the dead. After all, traditions of this kind are instilled in cultural societies over years and decades, so that the degree of shock in people’s minds from this, frankly speaking, visually not the most humane process, decreases gradually, from generation to generation.
In addition, due to the fact that this procedure is not the most common in our country, there is not always someone to turn to for help in its implementation. This is especially true in small settlements where there are not many cremation sites. But, nevertheless, they exist, and you can find them by contacting organizations that provide funeral services to the population.
How people are cremated
Many probably imagine this whole process as similar to pictures of horror films in their best genres. But it is not so. In crematoriums during cremation everything happens quite simply and concisely. A coffin is used in which the deceased is placed on the third day after his death. Then the coffin with the person is sent to a special chamber, where under the influence of high temperatures it is burned to ashes.
These ashes are then collected in special funeral urns to be given to relatives. But what you need to pay attention to when cremation of a person is chosen is the observance of the funeral procedure in accordance with the religion of the deceased. That is, if we are talking about Christians, then the entire ritual should take place according to generally accepted rules, with a funeral service and a memorial service.
What to do after the cremation ritual?
The closest relatives of the deceased can receive the ashes in their hands at the crematorium. The ashes are transferred in a special funeral urn. But what to do with it next is up to them to decide for themselves.
In general, the Orthodox Church recommends burying the urn according to its canons. But, depending on the last request of the deceased and the discretion of the relatives, you don’t have to worry about whether to leave the ashes after cremation somewhere nearby or bury them. After all, if in a will a person asked, for example, to scatter his ashes in some special place, then it is worth doing so. After all, God or To higher powers it doesn’t matter which atoms or other particles are used to return a person to his new life... If, of course, it comes.
Cremation and embalming of the body
And one more thing - let's look at the main methods of saying goodbye to the body of the deceased:
- The most popular is burial. From ashes to ashes... In general, this method is most popular in the CIS and Islamic countries;
- Burning remains is a relatively new method. In Russia, the first crematorium was built only in the last century (in 1920). It is more popular in Europe and America.
- Embalming. The most ancient way. It has been known to people since time immemorial, when Egypt was ruled by the pharaohs.
As you can see, there is no need to talk about the first method in particular detail here, since it is familiar to Orthodox culture. As for the second method, arguments were given in its favor that allowed it to be appreciated. But in our time, hardly anyone has heard in detail about embalming; only widely advertised mummies from the era remind us of them Ancient Egypt and, perhaps, the dried-up figure of Lenin, still resting in the Moscow Mausoleum.
Embalming is a method that is used (and, in to a greater extent, was used) to preserve the body with minimal damage. Thus, corpses that date back to the fifth millennium BC have been preserved to this day quite well, in comparison with fossilized particles of their “peers.” But this method is not very popular today, and the secret of the components of the balms used by the Egyptians has long been lost by our civilization.
And, in conclusion of this regrettable topic, a few more words about some of its details:
Funerals and ritual traditions
If a person is suffering from a serious illness, our tradition strongly advises him to confess. Whether this makes sense or not is difficult to say, but there are many cases when people suffering from cancer, for example, on their deathbed, asked to bring them a priest for confession. And often, as soon as they confessed, their torment stopped quite quickly.
As for the procedures associated with burial, everything usually happens as follows:
- The person’s body is brought to the temple, where his funeral service takes place (nowadays this is rarely practiced, and the priest most often comes himself at the request of relatives at the location of the body);
- This is followed by the procedure of burial or cremation: depending on what the relatives choose;
- Sealing (special ceremony performed by a priest).
Next, after the funeral ritual, everyone comes to the house of relatives and remembers the deceased. The funeral table should be no frills. The presence of sophistication is not welcome. Relatives distribute candies and sweets to others with a request to remember the person who has passed away.
The landmark is a pipe. For some reason, it seemed that next to the crematorium there should be a tall chimney smoking the sky with black, black smoke. You probably read war books about fascist concentration camps as a child. Now, in the 21st century, the technologies are different. But more on that later.
“The crematorium, there it is, on the hill, so red,” the tipsy couple pointed the way. And then we saw him. A real little mansion. No ominous pipe nearby.
Behind the “teremok” there is an open field, and behind the field there is a cemetery. The location for the construction of the crematorium was also chosen based on the principle of being closer to the energy source, that is, the gas that is used in the furnace for burning corpses.
Process
The curtains in the central part of the ritual hall slide apart, and the coffin with the body moves smoothly and silently into the center. The farewell ceremony is underway, the suffocating smell of incense is everywhere, the priest reads a prayer, and Albinoni’s aching music sounds. The ritual does not drag on for long, the last bouquet is placed on the pedestal, and the last mourner leaves the hall.
If desired, relatives can watch the coffin being loaded into the oven through glass from a special room. This service is paid additionally.
Operators on a special trolley bring the coffin to the loading console, and from somewhere in the wall long grippers extend, lifting the coffin from the trolley. Everything is controlled electronically.
There is one last movement left: loading into the oven. But there was a slight hitch: the remains of the previous deceased were burning out in the oven.
Cremation lasts 1-2 hours at a temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius. “Healthy” ones burn out quickly. It takes much more time to cremate patients, especially with diagnoses such as cancer and tuberculosis.
As the workers explained, organic matter is burned - skin, muscles, fat. But the bones don't burn. They are removed from the oven and ground in a special mill - a cremulator. Then that's it - and bone meal, and the ashes from the furnace are placed in special capsules with a volume of approximately a three-liter jar.
Each capsule is numbered, and this number appears later in all accompanying documents. The capsules are black in color and look completely unattractive. They are produced at local sanitary ware.
Equipment
The furnace control panel displays two temperatures: in the combustion chambers and in the afterburning chambers, where everything that is not burned in the main chamber burns out. This is necessary for the environmental cleanliness of the process. Therefore, we did not see any ominous black smoke, and there is no specific smell here.
Both stoves are from the Czech Republic. We also produce these in Russia, but they cannot withstand competition in terms of environmental characteristics and, moreover, are much more massive than foreign ones. From installation to overhaul The manufacturer guarantees 12 years of proper operation.
Before placing an order for cremation, relatives receive a memo with special requirements, for example, the following: the coffin must be wooden, without metal fittings.
You cannot cremate a person with medals, orders, badges, as well as pacemakers, electrical prostheses internal organs and limbs. It is also better not to use wreaths and other ritual accessories; the crematorium does not dispose of them, but returns them to relatives.
Additional services
The crematorium provides, as they say, a full range of services. For example, storing bodies in special refrigerators for up to three days. The refrigerator has a capacity of 14 places and can be full to capacity.
They carry out sanitary and hygienic treatment of the deceased and hairdressing services, embalming, storage of capsules, burial and further care of the grave or columbarium niche. Holding an urn with ashes loved one It’s not possible at home; she will be required to be buried or placed in a columbarium.
The price of cremation, oddly enough, depends on the length of the body, and not on the weight. Crematorium officials say the costs of a conventional funeral are comparable to those of a funeral through cremation. Their clients are not wealthy citizens at all, they are people with different incomes.
As for the burial itself, burying an urn is much cheaper than burying a coffin. A crematorium is a real factory for the disposal of human remains, and it is quite profitable.
Workers
Daily work with corpses and proximity to death are not considered harmful factors, so crematorium workers do not have any benefits, such as early retirement or extended vacation.
But the operators of cremation furnaces have such a harmful factor - this is the noise from the fan and the operation of the gas burner in the machine room. That's why they need milk.
Shift - five people: two drivers, an agent for home visits, a cashier, and a host of ceremonies.
There is no full-time psychologist in the crematorium, nor a doctor. If someone gets sick, there is a first aid kit, it stands right there, in the farewell hall, on a tray. The usual set is ammonia, heart drops.
Rootless
A lot of abandoned corpses are burned here. These are old people from a nursing home, homeless people, but not only.
IN Lately The number of cases has increased when a person has a first and last name, address, relatives, but refuses to bury the deceased. A person dies in a hospital, but they simply don’t take him out of there.
The ashes of unclaimed dead are supposed to be kept for a year, in case relatives show up. But no one remembers such cases recently...
The problem of overcrowding in cemeteries, visible to the naked eye - certainly exists. Something must be done, otherwise between the world of the living and world of the dead on the physical level, every line will literally be erased. And it is not so rare that old cemeteries are razed to the ground and residential buildings and shopping centers are built in their place. Even for people who are not superstitious and not adherents of mystical teachings, it is clear that there is nothing good in living on bones. There is nothing good in living next to a cemetery, when the landscape of the view from the window is complemented by tombstone crosses.
Let's talk today, what is better - Crematoria or cemeteries? What to choose in the end?!
Burial places were chosen earlier, at the founding of the city, or during its already active, but not as crowded life as it is now - on the outskirts, borders with settlements and desert areas. And today the urban population has increased, and the pace of construction of megacities is increasing, and the birth rate curve is only now beginning to catch up with the death rate curve.
For example (according to Wikipedia), at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia:
“The rural population of the empire significantly outnumbered the urban population. Of the total population of 174,099,600 people, 24,648,400 people lived in cities, i.e. only 14.2% (data from 1913). In terms of the ratio of urban and rural population, Russia occupied one of the last places among the largest states of the early 20th century."
A little more than 100 years later, namely at the beginning of 2015 (according to Wikipedia):
“As of January 1, 2015, according to Rosstat, there were 146,270,033 permanent residents in Russia. Population density - 8.55 people/km2 (2015). The population is distributed extremely unevenly: 68.2% of Russians live in the European part of Russia, which makes up 20.85% of the territory. Urban population - 74.03% (2015)."
Over the course of one century, despite the apparent lack of growth in the country's population, the share of the urban population increased from 14.2% to 74.03%. This is reflected in mortality and, naturally, in the condition of city and suburban cemeteries.
It would be possible to move future cemeteries to a distant suburban area, and leave the previous ones, which are within the city limits, as they are and simply not bury them there. But here, too, not everything is so simple. The authorities have their own arguments, and those at the helm of the funeral business, of course, do not want to lose their profits with all their might. But after all, burial sites moved outside of populated areas and residential areas will also become megacities in a couple of decades or centuries. Well, what should we do? Closing previous cemeteries and opening them in more distant places is nothing critical; death, if you think about it, is the same natural process as birth, and we need to take care not only of maternity hospitals.
In addition to the usual burial method for everyone, cremation is becoming more and more popular. And although the procedure itself and its essence are alien to the mentality of the Russian person, crematoria have become a fact of our time and a necessary measure for resolving funeral issues.
Crematoria will be built in many Russian cities, and cremation, according to more than half of Russians, is a good alternative to land.
What Russians think about repeated burials and cremation in a short TV segment:
Cremation and crematoria
Currently, there are 17 crematoria in 14 cities in Russia: Moscow (Mitinsky, Nikolo-Arkhangelsky, Nosovikhinsky, Khovansky), St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, Norilsk, Ekaterinburg, Barnaul (started work in 2015), Nizhny Tagil, Vladivostok, Artyom, Nakhodka, Rostov-on-Don, Surgut , Chelyabinsk, Tula, Khabarovsk.
What do we know about cremation? According to the website homotomia.ru, only 15% of respondents considered themselves knowledgeable about the intricacies of the cremation process.
And this despite the fact that (according to the website crematorium.ru) - “in those cities of the Russian Federation where there are crematoria, the percentage of cremations is in total number burials range from 45 to 61.3%.”
However, in reality(Do you personally often hear that friends preferred cremation to the usual burial for a deceased relative?):
“...for the most part, their services are not particularly popular among the population (cremation in these cities (which have crematoria) is chosen by relatives of no more than 15-20% of the deceased on average). The largest percentage is in St. Petersburg, Norilsk and Moscow (50-70% of all deaths). The largest crematorium - the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk Crematorium in Moscow - is equipped with 7 double cremation ovens. Its construction was completed in March 1972. It covers an area of 210 hectares and has 6 non-religious mourning halls, which are used for atheistic funerals. The cremation complex in Volgograd, launched in 2011, is considered the most environmentally friendly. His cremation installation was purchased in Germany and includes a KE 400 type cremation oven with a high-purity chromium sorption filter,” Wikipedia about Russian crematoriums.
« Crematorium(from the Latin “cremo” - to burn) - is a building of a ritual nature, intended for burning the bodies (remains) of the dead (dead), giving them fire (cremation).”
« Cremation- This is the destruction of a corpse by burning. Such a process may be either uncontrolled open burning in funeral pyres or controlled burning in a cremation oven installed in a crematorium.
The cremation process is the burning of the body of the deceased due to flows of gas heated to high temperatures (870-980 °C) supplied to the chamber of cremation furnaces. To make the process more efficient, modern ovens have introduced a number of modifications (one of them is to apply most of the flame to the torso, which makes up the bulk of the body). Currently, gas (natural or propane) is usually used as fuel for furnaces, and less often electricity. Until the 1960s Coal or coke was actively used.
Modern ovens are automated and controlled by microprocessor devices, equipped with safety devices to ensure safe use (for example, the oven retort door is locked until normal operating temperature is reached; the coffin is fed into the oven as quickly as possible to avoid heat loss).” (Wikipedia)
Who needs cremation and why? Firstly, burning corpses in fire initially had two main motivations: religious and domestic. In the first case, the dead were burned at the stake, as the religion of the nation said; in the second, the climate, lack of tools for digging holes, unsanitary conditions, and a large number of dead people often forced them to give preference to this method of burial. Today in our country, of course, those who look at the cremation procedure from a religious perspective are in the minority; we are mainly interested in the recycling aspect. This procedure is for those who have firmly decided that they do not want to smolder in the ground after death (or so his relatives decided, if the deceased did not leave other recommendations, or he did not care), who want to save on a funeral (although this also depends on the high cost related goods and services, it may turn out that cremation is several times more expensive if relatives, for example, wanted to place the ashes in a gold urn). In general, half the world already uses cremation as one of the most active ways burials. It is important to know what it is in general, what are the benefits of this option of wires to the Other World.
About the life of the Khabarovsk crematorium, about the costs of cremation and many other nuances in the plot of the “Details” program of the “Russia24” channel:
“Cremation reduces the area required for burial by 100 times, and the period of mineralization of bodies is reduced from 50 years to 1 hour.
Crematoria were first built in Italy, in Milan in 1875 (joint developments of German and Italian engineers). Already in the 20s of the last century, in many European cities, even with a population of no more than 100 thousand inhabitants, it was thought possible to have a crematorium, and in cities and towns with a population of 110 thousand or more, the presence of a crematorium was a mandatory urban sanitary norm.
In 1874, the International Federation of Cremation was organized, whose primary task to this day is to explain to the population of the planet the advantages of the cremation process, both from an economic point of view and from the point of view of ecology, hygiene, sanitation, ethics and aesthetics. Today, the Cremation Federation unites 21 countries, Russia is also a member.
In the pre-revolutionary period in Russia, the first crematorium was built in Vladivostok using a Japanese oven, and the first crematorium in post-revolutionary Russia was built in Petrograd in 1927.
Today, cremation is widespread in North America(there are more than a thousand crematoria in the USA), Europe; Cremation is mandatory in some Southeast Asian countries. There are 356 crematoria in England; in the Czech Republic - 80; in China - 1300; in France -70; (in fact, in every big city). In the world on this moment There are about 14,300 crematoria in operation. Cremation is most widespread in Japan (98% of all deceased are cremated), in the Czech Republic (95%), Great Britain (69%), Denmark (68%), Sweden (64%), Switzerland (61%), Australia (48%), in Holland (46%)"
(from the site homotomia.ru, article “Basics of cremation”).
Benefits of cremation. From the side of those who bury. Reducing the cost of burial and honors by up to 50%, if you use the simplest materials, in the future no one will build an entertainment center on the grave, razing it to the ground. That is, the memory and ashes are always with you (although a sufficient number of relatives of the deceased prefer to scatter the ashes over the deceased’s favorite places).
From other sides. Saving land, reducing pollution of water sources located near cemeteries, preventing unsanitary and environmental disasters.
However, there were cases announced in the press when not far from one Russian crematorium They found burials of unburnt bones. The crematorium was closed, disputes began, investigations began into what the relatives received in the urns with ashes and who was buried.
And the undoubted disadvantage of cremation, besides those voiced in the article. This is the impossibility of exhuming a body (for investigative actions) if a person has died violent death, if there is a suspicion that the wrong person was buried, it is also almost impossible to identify the identity genetically.
According to the testimony of crematorium workers- very often after the procedure, fragments of unburned bones remain, which are ground in a special device similar to a drum with iron balls. The amount of ashes is about 4-5 liters, but usually only 2-3 are placed in the urn, that is, some part of the ashes man is walking in the trash.
Crematoria as boiler houses: For us it’s blasphemy, but for others it’s just warm radiators. How far has the progress been: "Cremation requires large quantity energy, and at the same time the heat from the burning of corpses is wasted. Some European crematoria have found a solution to the problem. Instead of letting combustion gases escape down the chimney, you can use them to heat homes. Since 1997, in the Swedish city of Helsingborg, local crematoriums have provided 10 percent of the heat in homes" (from the website freundchen.blogspot.ru, from the article “A crematorium can be a source of energy”)
Urns with ashes can be stored in columbariums - storage facilities specially designed for this purpose; as a rule, a certain fee is charged for this from the relatives of the deceased.
Cemeteries and burials
We all know firsthand about cemeteries, so many people understand what it is, and although not everyone is familiar with the word “inhumation,” everyone is aware of the essence of the procedure. Inhumation is the burial of the deceased's body entirely in the soil.
If there are no epidemics or pandemics of infectious diseases (which, as a rule, reign in poor countries with hot climates) and the burial area is far from swamps and reservoirs, then a depth of 2 meters to which the coffin is lowered and buried almost guarantees sanitary and epidemiological safety.
Based on the latest data on the density of the Russian population for 2015, it turns out: 8.55 people/km2. Well, my dear, there should be enough land for everyone... Why are we, the most spacious country in the world, so greedy? Especially considering that cremation, no matter how elegantly it is advertised, is alien to the consciousness of many Russian people, who have been accustomed for centuries to burying the dead in the ground.
There are currently approximately 7.3 billion people living on Earth, and this figure is “living”: Some people die, a new generation appears. Population growth is due to increased birth rates. And in total, according to various sources, there lived on Earth from 79-110 billion people to the fantastic figure of 5.2 thousand billion people. It is impossible to establish the absolute plausibility of one version or another, but most likely the truth is somewhere in the middle. If we assume that the number of all deceased and living inhabitants of the planet reached the same fantastic figure indicated above, then even then the situation with the place on earth would be far from the most cramped:
“The population density, if all the people born would remain alive, would be from 34 to 52 thousand people per 1 square kilometer. In other words, for each person there would be a large room of 20 - 30 square meters- people still didn’t end up being stuffed like “herrings in a barrel”” (from the site pandia.ru, article “How many people lived on our planet”).
“Lying in the land” after death is somehow Christian, say many of those who argue their position only with an ethical aspect. And indeed... After all, it’s somehow uneasy that the relative you loved, or rather, the bodily part of him, is now placed in a small vase with a stopper or there is nothing at all if the ashes are scattered. There was a man - there is no man. I would like there to be some place where you can come to remember where a piece of earthly things belonged to the deceased. And even if there is no soul on the grave, this is all that remains of the earthly face of the deceased.
True, there is also a moment that is not so moral. Coming to the grave and looking after it, of course, is a necessary action for the peace of the soul, but if some people honor the memory of the dead, modestly clean the burial site, plant flowers, then others organize drunkenness at the wake, impartial spectacles, in no way showing respect for the honor of the deceased etc. Although, that's probably a different conversation.
According to the Christian faith, dead people (according to one version - saints, according to another - different) on one day, after the Second Coming of Christ, must be resurrected, that is, they will be resurrected by God. And here is the point: how will He resurrect them if there is no bodily temple even at the level of the skeleton? However, from those who lie in the ground for a couple of hundred centuries - after all, in theory, there is also nothing left, and the promise of God is beyond centuries and times.
I think that not a single person will give a 100% correct answer as to whether it is possible to recreate a living thing from ashes; this is accessible to the divine sphere. However, the word that man is created from dust and goes to dust may also suggest the possibility of resurrection from dust. Let's leave these puzzles to God, theologians, ministers - who can know what will happen?
Jews (a people who are in a special place with the powers of heaven), for example, are against cremation. And the Orthodox Church does not approve of this procedure as a correct burial option; it considers it a pagan rite.
The advantages of burial in the ground, of course, in the first place is that there is a “place of meeting” with the deceased, a place of memory, in the second place is a fairly safe (if all norms and rules are followed, no flooding) in sanitary and environmental terms, a method of burial. Of the minuses- relatively high cost of burial costs (with similar parameters for cremation).
The funeral business is one of the most profitable; a place in the front row at a famous cemetery costs from a couple of million rubles to several tens of millions and more (depending on the city). Who wants to lose such a fatty piece of cake? And the business is a win-win: people have died, are dying and will always die: such is life, we are all mortal. And if the ruble exchange rate is an unstable phenomenon, then death is inevitable for everyone.
What's better for the environment?
About the dangers of cremation ovens. It all depends on what kind of ovens are in the crematorium, what kind of fuel they use, but in any case, there is harm to nature. For example, even with the highest quality and most expensive technologies:
“The environmental damage from one crematorium oven is comparable to the damage from the running engines of 50 passenger cars” (data from an article about the need to build a crematorium in Krasnoyarsk).
“However, according to some estimates, it is the burning of bodies that produces 9 percent of mercury pollution in the atmosphere. In addition, nitrogen oxides, dioxins, benzpyrenes are released from the pipes of crematoria - among other things, they have a carcinogenic effect" (from the website pravda.ru, from the article "Crematorium fined for harming nature").
About the dangers of land burials. Still, overcrowding of cemeteries, especially those adjacent to residential village areas, reservoirs, is a problem, and not only a lack of land zone, but also environmental and sanitary. Rain and groundwater erode part of the soil, all the products of corpse decomposition, along with wastewater, end up in the watercourse, in vegetable gardens, in taps, wells... Bones do not decompose until several centuries (thousands of years), and modified products, chemical food fillers, and the environment destroy people and everything around even after death: today’s corpses, according to scientists, decompose extremely slowly, the body’s formerly living tissues seem to have been saturated with all sorts of preservative nastiness during life so that no one needs to be embalmed. When we bury the dead, the earth absorbs all this chemistry, then the water cycle in nature, and many other biological, chemical processes, contributing to the spread and continuation of littering the earth with slags.
However, is everything so pessimistic and is the prospect of maintaining the predominant trend towards cemetery burials so dangerous for the world and our country? Even if we proceed from the most “crazy” figures about the number of people who have ever lived on Earth, everyone would have received at least 20-30 meters, and in today’s Russia, for 8-9 people there is a square kilometer of open space. Nature is the most powerful filter of waste, although it will respond accordingly if it is not taken care of.
Crematoria will still be built everywhere, because for now the trend of growth in the world's population continues exponentially, which means the recycling aspect of death is acquiring more and more relevant and acute features. People need to be buried somehow and somewhere. After all, even in countries where cremation is the main type of burial, the ashes of people are already under their feet in the literal sense. Relatives of the deceased scatter ashes from urns over sacred places or rivers, mountains, forests. Experts have found that in the area of active “sowing” of ashes, vegetation and productivity increase abundantly. That is, the ashes become ordinary fertilizer, like ash. And here, too, no matter how you look at it, the word “... until you return to the ground from which you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return,” is appropriate.
“Recycling” is the processing of garbage, waste... that is, it turns out that our body is just... garbage? In general, the term “recycling” has become very popular recently: there is a lot of garbage on the planet, humanity has begun to realize that we will all get bogged down in tons of waste if we don’t do anything with it. We need to put it somewhere, or, more precisely, somehow process all the dirt, moreover, turn it into profit or at least not into decline. People leave behind too much of everything, the world strives for chemical, environmentally harmful perfection, which, naturally, has such a side effect as an increase in waste in all spheres of life on the planet. But, you see, the concept of garbage has become so impersonal that on the way to this “perfection” we forget what is what, the word “disposal” has become almost synonymous with cremation, life is a moment, and the body is dust. Still, we Russians, for the most part, are not Buddhists or Hindus, so we can talk about the correctness of cremation in a religious context, Our arguments relate mainly to recycling, saving square meters of land. True, there is one more point that I understood from a dialogue with a friend: cremation guarantees that the deceased will not be buried alive, and such fears are found among people, because lethargic dreams are a reality.
It turns out that nothing is safer, everything is harmful. But the problem is eternal, people die, and they need to be buried somehow. Cemeteries must be located far from residential and water areas, flood prevention is necessary, and crematoria must be built very far from the city.
Of course, the right to choose the method of burial always remains with the dying person (if he has time to express his will in this regard) and with the relatives of the deceased. And everyone, without excuses why it is this way and not otherwise, has the right to choose any of available ways burials. Still a personal and sad topic.
But there is important point: Opinions may differ when we consider the problem as global and as personal. As a global one, it goes beyond the boundaries of roads, towns, cities, but as a personal one, everyone, even after death, wants to have their own corner, a piece of land.
What do you think about cremation and traditional burial in a cemetery?
In the 21st century body cremation service became popular in many European countries. Despite the general conservative sentiments and the not-so-loyal attitude of the official church, the idea of cremating the bodies of the deceased after death is gradually replacing old burial traditions. According to statistics, today about 70% of the Western population has a favorable attitude towards this ritual, and over the years the number of its adherents is only increasing.
Cremation of a human body consists of burning it in a special furnace until the skeleton and all soft tissues are completely mineralized. The object of religious rites in in this case becomes the ashes of the cremated person (skeletal remains and ash residue). If we consider this process from a purely technical aspect, the main difference between cremation and simple burial is the speed of transformation of the body. With burning, the complete transformation of the corpse takes about two hours, while with traditional burial, the entire process takes years or even decades.
How body cremation occurs - features of technology
Modern cremation is a complex and high-tech process. Despite their apparent simplicity, the ovens used for this process are controlled by smart electronics. They perform many functions and allow for complete mineralization of the remains.
How do modern cremation ovens differ from old ones?
Unlike outdated models that were in use 20–25 years ago, most modern stoves do not use solid or liquid fuel, but run on gas. The body is burned not in the flame itself, but in a stream of hot air at a temperature of 900–1100C. As a result of the process, only a handful of burnt bone material remains, which, after removing the metal parts, turns to ash.
There are also electric ovens. In this case, the process is also extremely clean and efficient, but due to the high energy costs, the cost of the service can be quite high.
Is it possible to save all the ashes?
Old cremation technologies had several significant disadvantages: mixing of remains with combustion products and the so-called “vent” into the atmosphere, during which burnt organic tissue escaped through the chimney. Today these problems have been completely resolved. Modern ovens do not have powerful exhaust systems. Instead, a loop circulation of hot air is used, so the ashes of the deceased are completely preserved.
Will the resulting ashes be environmentally friendly?
Previously, it often happened that the body burned unevenly and fatty organic clots were found among the remains. And this, of course, is absolutely unacceptable. Such an oversight is not only terrible from an aesthetic point of view, but also carries a potential danger, because any remaining organic matter will continue to decompose.
But in any case, this is already a thing of the past. Modern stoves are controlled using electronic equipment that accurately calculates the duration of the process and the combustion temperature, taking into account the size and weight of the body. Thanks to this, 100% mineralization of all remains is achieved. In addition, as an additional measure, the furnaces are equipped with special afterburning chambers, which eliminate any possibility of incomplete combustion of organic matter. Therefore, obtained after the procedure, it is also suitable for both burial and safe storage in a special urn.
What happens to the human body during cremation
After the final preparation of the body is completed, the sealed coffin with the deceased is placed into the burning chamber using special manipulators. After this point, the electronics come into operation.
- The first stage is the burning of the surface of the coffin. It usually takes up to 3-5 minutes, after which the coffin completely disintegrates and all flammable materials begin to ignite. In parallel, thermal decomposition of body tissue occurs, which triggers the carbonization process.
- Subsequently, the furnace electronics regulate the temperature regime in such a way that the thermal destruction of the body occurs according to certain parameters, since if this process proceeds too quickly or, conversely, too slowly, it will not be possible to achieve 100% mineralization of the skeleton and soft tissues.
Despite the apparent simplicity of the process, there are many factors that must be taken into account. These include the age of the deceased, body weight, the amount of time between death and cremation, as well as diet and drug therapy if the person died as a result of a long illness.
These parameters are very important, because, for example, some diseases cause tissue calcification, others - dehydration, others - changes in the density of bone and muscle tissue, and so on. Therefore, organizations that professionally engage in such activities always carefully study this information before starting the cremation process.
Post-processing of ashes
Directly burning the body is not everything. Another integral part of the cremation process is the post-processing of the burned remains. The ashes formed after heat treatment have a heterogeneous shape.
They consist of ash, bone fragments, as well as all kinds of metal parts - screws, coffin handles, nails (prostheses, pins, rods, plates may also remain, if they were once used to treat fractures). The ashes are brought to a homogeneous state using a cremulator - a special machine that carefully kneads the mineral residue to the state of homogeneous ash, sifting out foreign objects.
However, in many crematoria they do without such equipment, proceeding the old fashioned way (processing the ashes with hammers and sifting them by hand). But even here there is no reason to worry. Indeed, in old Soviet-style crematoria, after burning, unburned bones could remain, which the staff of the institution, ignoring moral and ethical issues, simply removed and threw away.
But today this is completely excluded. Modern ovens burn the body efficiently, leaving homogeneous ashes. It is absolutely harmless and environmentally friendly, and manual removal of metal particles is quick and easy. After this, the ashes are placed in an urn and given to relatives, who can dispose of them at their own discretion or following the will of the deceased.
What should you pay attention to if you choose cremation of the body?
The choice of coffin and accessories for the deceased must be carried out according to the principle of “beautiful and flammable.” This approach will simplify the cremation process itself and satisfy the needs of the funeral service agency (the main ones relate to safety precautions during the process). In general, all preliminary measures boil down to the removal of medical devices implanted into the body (if any) and the seizure of jewelry.
If, at the request of relatives, jewelry remains on the body of the deceased, you should not worry about the fact that they may be stolen after the end of the process. Gold, silver and gems usually cannot withstand the intense heat of modern ovens and disintegrate into fine particles.
It should be noted that cremation does not necessarily have to be accompanied by a departure from traditional burial rites. Even in this case, you can carry out all the usual funeral events, including saying goodbye to relatives, friends and relatives of the deceased; ceremonial burial of the urn with ashes and organization of a memorial dinner.