the main > Feelings > The procedure for scattering the ashes: implementation rules. The horrors of crematoria: truth and fiction How much does a person's ashes weigh


The procedure for scattering the ashes: implementation rules. The horrors of crematoria: truth and fiction How much does a person's ashes weigh




Cremation itself is controversial. Some believe that this is not Christian, others assert, on the contrary - "from dust we came, to dust and we will return." And among Muslims this is considered a terrible punishment, like burning in hell. Moreover, there are many other arguments both in defense and against giving a body to fire. This, of course, is a personal matter for everyone. Some say: "It is better to let my body burn than its worms will eat", and others - "This is not our way, no one does that." Cremation is often the will of the deceased himself, but if this is a decision of relatives, then it has good reason.

Since traditional burials are generally preferred in our country, relatives often do not know anything about cremation. Should a ceremony take place, should an urn with ashes be buried, and if so, how? Let's try to understand the features of this ritual.

What does the law say?

By law, relatives receive an urn with ashes in a separate, so-called farewell hall of the crematorium, where the solemn ceremony is held. but you can pick up the ashes of the deceased only if you have certain documents:

  • death certificates (official, stamped);
  • the passport of the person who picks up the urn;
  • a conclusion on cremation (issued in the same crematorium);
  • certificates on the provision of a place for burial.

The latter is issued at the cemetery, where relatives intend to bury the urn. There are several options:

  1. For instance, on a separate site... The burial of the urn after cremation can be carried out separately, as in the case of burial in a coffin. Previously, a site is allocated for the grave, a hole is dug. By the way, a small plot is enough for burying an urn, it will cost much less. After the funeral, the relatives, at their own discretion, ennoble the burial place, erect a cross or a monument, be sure to indicate the surname and name of the deceased, as well as the dates of his birth and death.
  2. Also practiced burial in the graves of relatives... Although, by law, every resident of the city relies on a free place in the cemetery, in fact this goes into a tidy sum. When burying an urn in a family grave, they will only take money for digging a hole, but the installation of a new monument and dismantling the old one - whatever one may say - will still have to be spent.
  3. Often the ashes are buried in columbariums, the so-called Walls of Sorrow. Each urn in such a wall is placed in a separate cell, after which it is closed with a memorial plate. To be honest, columbariums in Russia are even less popular than cremation itself. It just so happened with us that it is customary to go “to the grave” to visit the deceased. By the way, on the territory of modern crematoria there are also columbariums where you can bury ashes.

There is another option when burial after cremation is carried out in a specially designated area with the chilling name "unclaimed dust". Urns are buried there, for which they did not come ...

What are the traditions?

Burying the urn in a cemetery isn't the only option. For instance, in Western countries, many prefer to keep the ashes of a relative right at home... Of course, this is wild for us. Especially if you imagine that these are the remains of a deceased ... it becomes creepy. But if, say, it was the will of the deceased, then you can't argue with that ..

Another tradition is dispelling... Most often, the ashes are scattered in places of pilgrimage. But sometimes - following the last wish of the deceased, for example, over their native places. There are even officially registered ashes scattering services in the world so that relatives do not have to travel to the other end of the world in an effort to fulfill the last will of a dear person.

And how really?

In reality, everything is not so simple. One side, the ashes of the deceased are kept in the crematorium for free for a whole year. Only after this time is the ashes buried as unclaimed. It often happens that relatives cannot come, for example, living in another country. However, this does not prevent the crematorium employees from charging a penalty for each day the urn is stored. If you want to pick up the ashes of a dear person - pay.

Dispelling is no less sad. I have already said that the ballot box will be returned only if the necessary documents are available, including a certificate from the cemetery on the provision of a place. It turns out that if you decide to scatter the ashes of the deceased, you will still have to arrange a place for burial. If you explain the situation to the cemetery administrator, of course, you will be given a certificate without providing a place. But for a certain amount. They will also write off the place in order to sell it later.

One friend of mine argued in a broken voice that burning the body of a relative was nothing more than an attempt to save money on the poor fellow's funeral. They say they show cowardice so as not to pay for “human” funerals. But no. And here people are faced with deception and pumping out money literally out of the blue. We all find ourselves in the same boat when we have to deal with the modern funeral system, so let's support each other.

Russia is experiencing a boom in cremation. In Moscow and St. Petersburg 60% of the dead are cremated. Why is cremation replacing the familiar, centuries-old ideas about funerals in Russia? How does business in Kirov break down "outdated" concepts of cemeteries, and what does the Russian Orthodox Church think about cremation?

Recently I walked with a friend along the massive fence of the Donskoy cemetery. The walls of red brick made one think of the eternal.

- And I want to be cremated, - suddenly blurted out a friend. - In order not to rot.

It didn't come to an argument. The girl is 22 years old and she is convinced that cremation is modern, convenient and hassle-free. My arguments in support of traditional funerals shattered against the serene calm.

Russia is experiencing a boom in cremation. Funeral agencies over the Internet offer to solve all problems in the most "modern" way. And if you have any questions about the fact that burning a deceased in a furnace is a tradition, to put it mildly, not ours, almost any funeral agent will object to you: just like ours!

Probably, there is nothing surprising in this. The media too often talk about how a famous and respected person was once again cremated. Cremation, at least for secular people, is a common thing. Recently the Russian News Service reported: “60% of the dead are cremated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Pavel Kodysh, President of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoria of Russia, spoke about this. In Moscow, where 23 Orthodox monasteries and hundreds of churches operate, at least 60,000 people are cremated annually. The figure can be increased slightly, since Pavel Kodysh notes that "120 thousand people die in Moscow a year."

We tried to find out why people send their relatives to the oven

We tried to find out what guides people who send their loved ones to the oven. Attracted by the cost of cremation? Fashion for a popular method of burial today? The legacy of the Soviet past, when they first began to turn people to ash on an industrial scale? Lack of land or high cost of cemetery sites? Or is it the desire of a modern person not to think about death? Trying to cross out any reminders of funerals, deceased, and mourning ceremonies?

The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly spoken out about cremation. In May 2015, the Council of Bishops recommended that priests treat cremation as an undesirable phenomenon. “Taking into account the ancient tradition of reverent attitude to the body of a Christian as to the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Synod recognizes the burial of deceased Christians in the ground as the norm,” says a specially prepared memorandum “On the Christian burial of the dead”. The words of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill also do not require explanations and comments: “Cremation is outside the Orthodox tradition. We believe that at the end of history there will be a resurrection of the dead in the image of the Resurrection of Christ the Savior, that is, not only in soul, but also in body. If we allow cremation, then in this way, as it were, symbolically renounce this belief. "

Turnkey cremation

Cremation is cheap and modern. This is one of the main arguments put forward by supporters of fiery burials. To get first-hand information, I call the crematorium at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery.

- 7100 rubles, - the employee of the crematorium answers. - This price includes musical accompaniment. The registration of the deceased, the transfer of the coffin, the cremation procedure itself, farewell, engraving and sealing of the urn.

True, you still need to buy an urn, pay for the coffin, which, after the farewell ceremony, is burned along with the body of the deceased. Naturally, you shouldn't forget about transport.

To finally understand what money you need to have in order to cremate a person, he turned to the United Ritual Service. Here all proposals have already been formed on a turnkey basis.

- The price for cremation has doubled since July 1. Our coffin and transport cost 17,000 rubles. The same amount includes a bed, a pillow and slippers - the agency employee made a special emphasis on slippers. - It is customary for us to bring Christians in slippers for cremation.

On average, for cremation with all the necessary attributes, you will have to pay around 30,000 rubles. This is no burial.

In St. Petersburg, the deceased will be burned, placed in an urn and placed in a columbarium for 35,000 rubles. It's only 10 thousand less than a traditional funeral .

- There is still a difference, - the girl explains. - The grave still needs to be watched. The fence, and then the monument. And the urn with the ashes is kept in the niche forever. It does not require additional maintenance.

A striking pattern. The overwhelming number of employees of funeral firms advised me to use the services of a crematorium. The reasoning is simple: it is in step with the times and no unnecessary movements. And only one woman said with undisguised sympathy:

- Yes, you bury it properly - in the ground! Into the ground! Well, add 10 thousand, it's okay!

A free site in a cemetery - or a paid niche in a columbarium?

After the procedure for burning the body, the urn still needs to be buried. To clarify the cost of this service, I turned to the State Budgetary Institution "RITUAL". This is a state budgetary institution of the city of Moscow. Through this site I go to the Rogozhskoe cemetery. You cannot bury the urn in an open columbarium, that is, in the wall. But you can buy a place for an urn in a special niche.

- This is something like a granite sarcophagus, - explained by phone. - The price depends on the rows. The first and fifth rows cost 70,000 thousand rubles.

The first row is almost at ground level. And the fifth row is at a height of a little over two meters.

- It's something like a mezzanine in the corridor, - I hear an explanation over the phone. - Slightly higher cost for the second row, third and fourth.

- How much is it? - I ask.

A place for an urn in the beggar of the Rogozhsky cemetery costs 90 thousand rubles

- 90 thousand, - answered the employee of the Rogozhsky cemetery.

For this money, you can organize a modest traditional funeral for several people.

They offered to place an urn with ashes in an open columbarium at the Khimki cemetery for 31,500 rubles. This is if the cell is located at chest level. You will have to pay for the sign separately - 5,000 rubles. I also need to add engraving. The amount for engraving consists of the number of characters. It turns out something about 40 thousand rubles. In total, to cremate and rest the remains in an open columbarium at the Khimki cemetery, you will have to pay an average of 75,000 rubles.

At the Lublin cemetery, you can bury an urn with ashes in the ground for 110,000 rubles. This is how much 1 square meter of land costs. A bench and a fence are not provided - there is too little space for such a luxury.

"The views of the inhabitants of big cities are not the same as in the outback"

Moscow region, Perepechinskoe cemetery. Here, the city authorities provide a site for two burials completely free of charge. At Perepechinka, as the agents call this place, you only need to pay for digging a grave.

“You can keep within 20,000 rubles,” says an employee of the funeral firm. - At the cemetery, the guys will have to throw around the circle for digging a grave. It's such a tradition, he adds.

Several ritual services offered to organize a traditional funeral for 20,000 rubles. True, you will have to do without wreaths, orchestra and other chic.

It is possible to bury any unemployed resident of Moscow without money. In the language of ritual agents, this is called "to spend on the last journey free of charge." The only condition is that the work book of the deceased must be closed.

Supporters of cremation may object: they say, but what about the monument? And leaving? The fence needs to be painted. And if possible, you need to do this every spring. And the grave sags, especially when fresh! The urn with ashes, if made of copper, is very durable ...

Doubtful arguments.

- Cremation is more convenient and faster. The views of the inhabitants of large cities are not the same as in the outback. I mean spiritually, - Dmitry, the dispatcher of the Moscow ritual agency, shares his thoughts.

"The earth should be for living people, not for the dead"

So in Kirov, people are discussing their crematorium. The entrepreneur Andrey Kataev decided to build a "socially significant object" in the city. They plan to cremate residents of Kirov at a "low price". 12,000 rubles - and it's done. And you also need to pay for the urn, coffin and transport.

- No more new cemeteries will be created. People will understand the advantages of the crematorium, and within one or two years we will reach the mark of 50% of cremations from all the dead, - says Andrey Kataev. - But since our people find it difficult to accept everything new, we will have to carry out some kind of action, explaining to the population that cremation is a civilized way of burying the dead.

I wonder how this work will be done? What kind of shares could it be?

Mr. Kataev is cool about the traditional method of burial.

- The cemeteries are dirty. Well, we do not have such a culture as, for example, in Europe, - says Kataev. - For priests, funerals are a business: they perform a funeral service. For "ritualists" - this is a business, they bury in the ground - this is their bread, - said Kataev.

That is, Mr. Kataev decided that the residents of Kirov do not know how to behave in a cemetery and it is best to send the dead to the oven. And for him this is not a business at all!

In an interview, the entrepreneur enthusiastically says that "the earth should be for living people, not for the dead." These are his words. They express his attitude towards the deceased person.

One gets the impression that there is no need to debate the issue of cremation, since sooner or later everyone will be cremated everywhere. At least those who open new crematoria in the country are sure of this.

Land for burial even in "expensive and non-rubber" Moscow is given free of charge. It is not possible to save a lot of money on cremation, but the number of urns with ashes, in comparison with graves, is increasing. So my friend, who is only 22 years old, is already calm about the fact that her body can be burned.

In the next article we will look at how cremation was planted in Bolshevik Russia. Let's find out how the common people reacted to this. And let's try to answer the main question: why do people today so easily choose a fiery funeral without any coercion and pressure? What has changed in the minds of society over 100 years, and why is the next crematorium in the hinterland of our country, if not yet a tradition, but already a pattern?

People do not always want to talk about death, and even more so to think about their own funeral in the future. But, as you know, the human body is not eternal, and the time comes when the relatives of the deceased need to resolve the issue of the funeral. Modern funeral services are not limited to the generally accepted burial of a deceased person in a coffin, but offer several options for sending them on their last journey.

Increasingly, in modern society they are trying not to bury the body underground, but to cremate it. This process consists in burning a corpse in special furnaces (crematoria), at a high temperature of over 1000 degrees. In such conditions, even hard bone tissue becomes brittle and turns into ash. The tradition of burning bodies dates back to prehistoric times, and is popular even today.

Cremation is chosen for its convenience and practicality. In addition, some people are disgusted with the fact that their bodies will rot and be eaten by worms underground.

Crematorium

For cremating the body, certain conditions are required, which can be achieved thanks to a special Crematorium oven. Inside it, an incredible temperature is reached - up to 1092 degrees Celsius, which allows you to turn the body into a small handful of bones and ash. After burning, large remains of bones are crushed in a centrifuge, if there is permission from relatives.


Modern crematoria run on gas, electricity or special fuels. The whole procedure of cremation of an average person takes about 2 hours, but it all depends on the characteristics of each body. For example, a person who had cancer or tuberculosis during his lifetime requires more time to be cremated. The same can be said about drug addicts and those people who often took different drugs.

So that the eventually obtained ashes are homogeneous, all remains are sorted out and sieved. Metal crowns or prostheses present in the body are selected using a powerful magnet.

How does cremation work?

After preliminary preparation of the body, the closed coffin with the deceased is loaded into the oven chamber. Next, the automatic electronics of the device comes into play.

  1. The initial stage of cremation is the burning of the coffin. This process takes about 10 minutes. It all starts with the ignition of the walls of the coffin, which begin to disintegrate, after which the ignition affects all combustible materials. The soft tissues of the body begin to decompose when exposed to heat (carbonization process).
  2. Starting from the second stage, the automation of the furnace sets the temperature regime so that the destruction of the body takes place in certain sequences. The main thing is that these processes take place according to standard schemes, otherwise it will not be possible to achieve full mineralization of bone and soft tissues.

There are several factors that are taken into account when cremating each body, and due to which the required oven setting is set. These include:

  • The age of the deceased.
  • Body mass.
  • The time that elapsed from the declaration of death to the cremation.
  • Features of the deceased's lifestyle (habitual diet, drug therapy, the presence of diseases).

These parameters are of great importance for the crematorium workers, because the required incineration regime will depend on them. So, some factors provoke dehydration of the body, others, for example, the leaching of calcium from the bones, and all this affects the final result of cremation.

Ashes processing

Burning is not the end of a complex process. Another, no less important stage of cremation is the final processing of the remains, because after the thermal effect of the oven, they remain in a heterogeneous consistency. The remains include ash, bone fragments and possible metal parts. The homogeneity of the ashes is ensured in the Kremulator - a special device for crushing the remains to a state of homogeneous ash, sifting out all unnecessary.

But, in many crematoria, they work without this equipment, using the old methods of processing ashes (crumbling particles with a hammer and sifting the ashes by hand).

After cremation, the ashes of the deceased are placed in an urn and transferred to relatives, who themselves dispose of them at their own discretion, or follow the will of the deceased.

What the law says

There is a certain law according to which the distribution of ashes to relatives is carried out. After the completion of the burning of the body and the loading of the remains into the urn, it is handed over to the close relatives of the deceased in a specially prepared room - the farewell hall, where a “farewell” ceremony is performed. But, just like that, the urn with the ashes cannot be received, since its issuance occurs only after the presentation of certain documents:

  1. Death certificate of a person.
  2. Passport of a relative who wants to pick up the urn.
  3. Conclusion on the cremation (taken in the crematorium in which the procedure was performed).
  4. A certificate of the availability of a burial site (it can be obtained at the cemetery where relatives plan to bury the urn). There may be several options:
  • Burial on a separate site - the burial of the remains after being handed over by the crematorium can be carried out in a cemetery, like a standard coffin burial. The cemetery must pre-allocate a site and prepare a pit. For burying an urn, you do not need such a site as for a coffin, so it will cost a little less.
  • Recently, they began to practice burying ashes in the already existing graves of relatives. As stated in the laws, a free plot of land at the local cemetery is provided for one resident of the settlement, but in fact, the relatives of the deceased always pay a considerable amount of money for this. If the urn is buried in a family grave, money will be required only for digging the hole, but if it is necessary to change the monuments, again you cannot do without costs.
  • Urns with ashes are often buried in the Wall of Sorrow's columbariums. In this wall there are many cells in which an urn is placed and covered with a memorial plate with data about a person resting in this place.

Common traditions

Burying the urn with the ashes of the deceased is not the only option. For example, in many Western countries, many people leave trash bins at home. For us this may sound unacceptable and creepy, after all, there are the remains of the deceased in it, but if such was the will of the deceased, then hardly anyone will argue with this.

Another tradition of parting with the deceased is scattering the ashes. Typical scattering sites are meta pilgrimages. But occasionally, fulfilling the last will of the deceased, relatives scatter the ashes over their native places. There are special services that are engaged in scattering the ashes of a cremated person, which will deliver and scatter the ashes anywhere in the world.

A crematorium technician from the UK spoke about the secrets of her work and answered questions people wanted to know about the last refuge of man. Many speculations about the work of the crematoria were dispelled, but many new details appeared. For example, about which type of people burns faster than the room smells after cremation and whether crematoria are really trading in ashes.

The technician said that on average, the cremation procedure lasts a little over an hour, depending on the material from which the coffin is made. The bodies are burned at a temperature of 800 to 1,000 degrees until only one ash remains.

Cancers make cremation take longer, older or fragile people also lengthen the burning time and burn more slowly than larger people with more fat. Very thin people do not have a lot of fuel, so it may take longer to cremate them.

An employee of the crematorium said that after the procedure she did not smell anything special. Ashes consist only of burnt bones and a coffin. Muscle and tissue are completely destroyed during combustion.

The technician said that sometimes bone particles still remain in the remains after cremation if there was a lot of calcium in them. Unburnt piercings and rings are also common. Jewelry, she said, melts into small balls during cremation. They are not removed in advance from the deceased, unless relatives ask for it.

Once I shoveled the ashes and after the cremation a book was preserved. We think it was a Bible with very tightly packed pages. Many years ago, funeral directors used Bibles as pillows for the deceased.

The specialist also dispelled rumors that the employees of the crematoria are trading in human ashes (it is not clear for what purpose).

They (the remains that are given to relatives) are absolutely 100 percent from the correct ashes. The ID card is attached to the remains and stays with them until the ashes leave our crematorium.

But I have no emotions, because I did not know this person. I am sad to see children or people my age, but I keep it to myself. This work makes me love life and live to my fullest.

The question "how a person is cremated" has always worried people. And this is no coincidence: interest in death is inherent in our nature, and fire has fascinated people since ancient times. In this article, we will explain in detail how a person is cremated.

It is important to understand that cremation is only the first stage of burial. Depending on the will of the deceased / relatives, after cremation, the urn with the ashes is laid in the niche of the columbarium, buried in the grave or otherwise (for example, scattering the ashes).

During cremation, as with burial in the ground, there is a process of transition of organic tissues into inorganic chemical compounds that make up the soil. Cremation is essentially the same burial, since the body passes into the ground. There is only one difference: the mineralization of the body and its incorporation into the soil takes up to 20 years, and the cremation of a person reduces this period to one and a half hours.

Residents of Russia are increasingly preferring cremation to the usual method of burial. The share of cremation in Russia as a whole is not high - 10%, but in large cities it is 30-40%, and in Moscow and St. Petersburg it is close to 70%. This is due to many reasons, the main among which are the lack of space in cemeteries, the simplicity of the process and the low cost.

How people were cremated in the past. Cremation history.

The history of cremation is rooted in antiquity. People have long understood that ashes are safe for health, and many religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, have included cremation in their rites. In India, Japan, Indonesia and many other countries, as people were cremated in the past - on a fire in the open air - they still do this.

Along with the most ancient type of burial - corpse placement - cremation was practiced already in the Paleolithic, and in the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the inhabitants of ancient civilizations began to cremate everywhere. Burning became the dominant rite of burial in ancient Greece, from where the tradition passed to Ancient Rome, where they came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bstoring ashes in specially designated places - columbariums, where you can come and honor the memory of your ancestors.

Stoves for burning bodies of people began to be used in Europe in the late 18th century due to the growth of cities and the lack of space in cemeteries. Gradually, cremation began to spread in Europe, the United States and other countries.

How a person is cremated in a crematorium today.

Cremation of a person takes place in crematoria - complex engineering structures designed for 100% combustion of the dead along with the coffin at an ultrahigh temperature.

The crematorium complex consists of several industrial furnaces capable of generating a temperature of 900-1100 ° C, which ensures the complete disintegration of the body and turning it into ash. Cremation takes from one and a half to two hours, and after cremation of a person, ashes with a volume of 2-2.5 liters remain.

The coffin with the body is delivered to the crematorium and placed on the hearse in the hall for the farewell ceremony. At the end of the ritual, the coffin is transferred to the conveyor and moved to the transit room, from where, after a certain time, it enters the cremation oven. In imagining people being cremated in a crematorium, we, especially at a young age, think that the body goes into the fire immediately after the coffin disappears behind the curtains of the farewell hall. But this is not always the case: this technology is not provided for in every crematorium.

After cremation, the ashes are placed in a metal capsule and sealed. Most often, the relatives of the deceased want to receive the ashes in the urn. Burial urns come in various designs, and they are chosen according to taste: bought in a crematorium or ritual store, and then handed over to crematorium employees who transfer the ashes from the capsule to the urn.

The urn is taken by the relative responsible for its receipt, after which the final stage of burial begins.

After the cremation, the urn with the ashes is kept in the crematorium until requested by her relatives. The shelf life differs in different regions, but most often it is 1 year. If the ashes are not claimed, the urn will be buried in a common grave at the crematorium.

Cremation of a person: How people are cremated.

The most common two-chamber cremation oven. In the first, the coffin with the body is burned in jets of hot air, and in the second, in the afterburner, 100% combustion of organic tissues and impurities are trapped. An important element of the crematorium equipment is a cremator, in which burnt remains are crushed to the state of ashes, and metal objects are extracted from them with the help of a magnet.

Most often, furnaces operate on gas, as it is economical and quickly sets the desired temperature in the chamber.

To exclude the mixing of ashes after combustion, each body is registered, an identifier is assigned to it, and a metal plate with a number is placed on the coffin. After cremation, the plate with the number is inside the remains, which allows identification of the ashes.

What to do after cremation?

After cremation, when an urn with ashes is received, do one of the following:

  • Bury the urn in the grave. This can be either a new site, bought at an auction, or a related grave;
  • Place the urn in the niche of an open or closed columbarium;
  • You can dispose of the ashes at the will of the deceased, for example, scatter it. The legislation of the Russian Federation does not define special places for this, so the choice depends only on you.

Advantages of cremation versus traditional burial:

  • you can bury the urn at any time; no need to rush to a decision;
  • no need to wait until the end of the sanitary period after the last burial in a related grave (for Moscow, 15 years).