Honoring Life at DeathEnd-of-life evolution in America
America is beginning to rethink the way it bids farewell to life. Traditional burial services are becoming less and less common as people begin to think of the funeral as […]
America is beginning to rethink the way it bids farewell to life. Traditional burial services are becoming less and less common as people begin to think of the funeral as a way to not only be returned to the earth, but also to celebrate and leave behind the life they lived on it.
The Washington Times reports of one Colorado town that has embraced this idea. In Crestone, Colorado, the volunteer group Crestone End of Life Project offers affordable open-air cremation services to the people of their small community. The outdoor funeral pyre creates a unique and powerful end-of-life service that allows mourners to pay their respects to loved ones in a way that honors the life of the deceased as well as their final wishes and beliefs.
As Randy Ellis, who was initially uncomfortable when his wife requested the ceremony for herself, told the Times after experiencing it, “…you realize that we’re all just part of nature, and she’s just rejoined nature in another form.”
Non-traditional funeral service options, like Crestone’s funeral pyres, allow for everyone to handle the end-of-life process in a personal and comfortable way. They allow us each to approach the end of our lives as we wish and for our loved ones to remember and mourn us in a way that is comforting to them. Loved ones are able to be an integral part of the process when participating in things like scattering cremains or digging graves, both helping the deceased to leave this life and helping themselves to cope with their loss.
Alternatives to traditional burial are becoming more attractive as Americans rethink the way they approach their own death or that of loved ones. As David Weddle, a religion professor at Colorado College explained to the Times, many people view traditional burials– the embalming, the wooden casket, the permanence of the headstone– as “a denial of death”. To go to such lengths to preserve the physical body after death seems to ignore death as a natural part of life. It suggests the superiority of life on earth and the finality of death.
Embracing end-of-life ceremonies that celebrate life as well as death challenges this idea. When people shirk the casket and the graveyard for alternatives like cremation or “green” burials, they have the opportunity to shape their death with all of the care with which they have shaped their lives. Mourners are given the freedom to honor, remember, and mourn loved ones in a way that best fits the life they have lived together.
SOURCES:
The Daily News. “What Remains: Americans warm to alternatives for end-of-life rituals”. 2/12/11 www.tdn.com
Washington Times. “Funeral pyres an option in Colorado mountain town”. 2/1/11 www.washingtontimes.com
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When I saw the image I thought it was crazy but then after reading the article it gave me pause for thought. Life is changing more than I would have thought.
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It’s about time that people start to become educated about alternative burial options. We have the power to be environmentally conscious at every stage of life!
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