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When you have lost a loved one, arranging a funeral can be a difficult process. Cremation is one of the options in the funeral arrangement process, and we would like to help you understand what cremation is, how cremation works and why you might choose cremation.
We have decades of experience serving Hillsdale, Indiana, Clymer & area and our staff is ready to assist you when arranging a cremation for a loved one.
Part of making funeral and memorial arrangements on behalf of a loved one involves choosing between burial of the body, or cremation. Certainly this is a big decision, based on any number of factors: religious or spiritual beliefs, finances, or ecological awareness are just some of the reasons we've heard for choosing cremation. Before you can make the choice, you need to know exactly what it is you're considering. You can learn the basics of cremation below, however, if the content here raises additional questions for you, please give us a call . One of our cremation specialists will address any of your inquiries or concerns.
The Cremation Association of North America describes cremation as, "The mechanical and/or thermal or other dissolution process that reduces human remains to bone fragments". On our page, The Cremation Process, we offer a deeper look at the most common cremation process which uses extreme heat.
As we said earlier, people choose cremation over burial of casketed remains for any combination of reasons. Sometimes it's the simple fear of burial itself, which may stem directly from the Victorian phobia of being buried alive.
Once the cremation-over-burial decision has been made, all that's required is authorization. This is provided by the person who is the legally identified or appointed next-of-kin. Once all authorization documents are signed, and service charges are paid; the body can be transported from the place of death to the crematory and the cremation process can take place. However, there are some additional things you may wish to consider, such as:
Given the religious, ethnic, and regional diversity among us, there are many other reasons for the dramatic rise in the number of cremations performed each year. According to Tyler Mathisen of NBC, one of those reasons "is the softening of the Catholic church's views of the practice. For centuries—until 1963, in fact—the church outlawed it. The church's laws still express a preference for burial. But the outright ban is a thing of the past."
He goes on to tell readers that the decline in nuclear families is another reason. "As more Americans live far from hometowns and parents, and as family burial plots have waned in popularity and accessibility, millions have turned to cremation as a practical and cost-effective way to care for a loved one's remains."
Choosing cremation also allows a family the flexibility they may need in planning and preparing for a memorial service, celebration-of-life, or a scattering ceremony. While the cremation process can occur almost immediately (once all the proper paperwork is complete), the decisions required in planning a meaningful memorial for a loved one can be made in a relaxed, rational way.
You can also be sure that concern for the environment ranks high among many who choose cremation. Casketed and embalmed remains take up cemetery space and can pollute the ground water but many still question the amount of atmospheric pollution created by the cremation process.
On average, cremation is generally 45-50% cheaper than burial. Cremation allows you to avoid the big purchases of items like a headstone and a casket.
With burial, you are either interred underground in a plot or above ground in a mausoleum. With cremation, you have several options in terms of what you can do with your loved one’s ashes. You can scatter your loved one’s ashes, store them in an urn, hold a small portion of it in memorial jewelry, blast them as apart of fireworks, mix them into the ink of a tattoo, and do some many other creative things with ashes.
Plots at cemeteries are becoming more and more scarce. The cemetery you wish to be buried may not have plots available when you pass. Also since the supply of burial plots shrinks the cost of them has been on the rise. Cremation allows you to avoid the trouble of finding a plot.
Often times, when people choose a traditional funeral they choose to have their loved one buried as well. In contrast, cremation is more associated with memorial services and celebrations of life. A traditional funeral involves many more components such as a wake, gathering pallbearers, organizing a mass with a church, coordinating the burial with the cemetery, and much more. Memorial service and celebrations of life can be much simpler if you choose them to be. Since these ceremonies are more based on what you want and are less about common rituals, you can choose just how complicated and sophisticated the ceremonies are.
Cremation is considered to be more environmentally friendly than burial. Often the deceased is embalmed using harsh chemicals for a wake before he/she is buried. People have been critical that these chemicals can seep through a casket and create water and soil pollution. Secondly, burial plots take up land space and disturbs the Earth to inter a casket. Crematories do release carbon emissions into the air, but new technology is really starting to reduce the amount and impact.
Many people are starting to move away from tradition due to religions having a more relaxed stance on cremation. Catholics believe that the soul is immortal and does not depend on the physical body. Since cremation of the deceased's remains do not affect his or her soul, according to the Church, there are no doctrinal objections to the practice (Bryner, 2016). The less strict beliefs of the Catholic church are becoming another reason that people are choosing cremation rather than burial.
Rairigh - Bence Funeral Home & Crematory
of Indiana
965 Philadelphia Street
Indiana, PA 15701
Email: rairighfd@gmail.com
David A. Rairigh, Owner/Supervisor
Rairigh - Bence Funeral Home & Crematory
of Clymer
655 Franklin Street
Clymer, PA 15728
Email: rairighfd@gmail.com
David A. Rairigh, Owner
Taylor S. Allison, Supervisor
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