Modern methods of burial. Lye bath

In all centuries, various peoples have had a mystical attitude towards the dead. Showing respect to their deceased relative, the survivors, however, had to worry about preserving their own health. Various rituals and methods of burial have survived to this day. With the increase in population on Earth and the trend for innovation in the ritual sphere, industry representatives are actively offering new methods of burial and formats of ritual rites. Some of them are traditional in our understanding, others can be called exotic.

Burial in the ground

The oldest and most common way of saying goodbye to loved ones. It has been used since ancient times as the most environmentally friendly option. The main religious differences during burial concern the timing of lowering the body into a hole dug for this and funeral attributes.

In Christianity . A coffin, shroud, white slippers and clean clothes for the deceased are considered obligatory. The coffin lid must be nailed down before being immersed in the ground. The coffin is lowered to a depth of 1.5-2 meters and covered with earth. The ritual is accompanied by funeral prayers and sometimes mournful music. At the funerals of famous people you can find inlaid oak coffins, an immersion elevator and other luxury items. Burial usually takes place on the 3rd day after death.

In Islam . A classic burial is performed using a stretcher instead of a coffin. They are carried exclusively by men. The body of the deceased is wrapped in pieces of cloth: three for men, five for women. The body is immersed in a dug hole and placed on its side, facing the qiblah. Since epidemiological standards prohibit burying people in the ground without a coffin, Muslims are placed in a special wooden box with a lid when buried. Special prayers are also read at the grave. Wiring is carried out in the shortest possible time.

In America. The burial of a relative's body in the Western Hemisphere is very conditional. After all, the coffin is placed in a special iron or concrete sarcophagus before burial. This is done to prevent the land from subsiding as organic remains decompose.

Among the pagans . When a prince or high-ranking nobleman died, it was customary to pour big mountain land - mound. His wives, slaves, and servants were often buried with him, before committing a ritual murder on them. Precious objects, utensils, tools, hunting and farming tools were placed in the grave. Thus, it was believed that in the next world a rich person would be surrounded by the same luxury that was present during his earthly life.

Cave burial . It is considered one of the forms of burial in the ground. In mountainous areas, where it was difficult to dig a deep hole for the deceased, bodies were walled up in natural rock niches. Thanks to natural voids, many of the remains have been well preserved to this day and have become an object for studying the life and customs of Indian cultures, the aborigines of Malaysia, Polynesia, and Africa.

Innovative ideas for burial in the ground

The traditional method of burial in a coffin has many opponents. Their main arguments are:

• the need to allocate a significant plot of land for a grave;
• impossibility of using the site for re-burial within 15-20 years;
• burying the mass inorganic substances that poison the soil (embalming agents, reinforced concrete, plastic, etc.).

Various organizations are being created around the world advocating for the preservation of the earth's ecosystem and the replacement of the usual burial by other means. We present only some of the proposed options. Some of them are already successfully practiced in the funeral industry. Others, due to legal obstacles, have not yet been implemented.

Green cemeteries . The body, wearing minimal clothing, is placed in the ground without a coffin. A tree seedling is planted at the head. The remains become a natural breeding ground for vegetation, and within a year the grave itself takes on the appearance of a level area. No grave monuments are provided - in in some cases put up a wooden cross with a sign.

Biodegradable capsules . Idea proposed Italian designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel in 2003. Reminds me of the idea of ​​green cemeteries. The body in the fetal position is placed in an ovoid shell, which is subject to rapid decomposition. A tree is planted above the burial. It has not yet been implemented, since this method does not yet comply with Italian regulations.

Cemetery skyscraper . This reinforced concrete building in Illinois is designed to store coffins in niches for long periods of time. The architects Yalin Fu and Yishuan Li called their creation “Moksha Tower”. This term in Hinduism refers to the process of liberating the soul from the mortal body. Similar vertical necropolises exist in Brazil (Santos) and Japan (Tokyo).

As a replacement for a wooden coffin, in Scotland you will be offered a product made from wool, and in England - from wicker.

Cremation

Cremation, or burning the bodies of deceased people in blast furnaces of crematoria, is the second most common type of burial. The procedure itself takes place away from the eyes of relatives. The coffin with the deceased is driven into a niche accompanied by mourning music or prayers; the workers of the establishment undress the body and transfer it to the oven, where burning occurs at a temperature of over 850°C.

Later, loved ones are given the ashes left after the cremation in an urn. It is dealt with according to the will of the deceased or the general decision of family members. Many famous people bequeathed to scatter their ashes on the shores of reservoirs or in places dearest to their hearts. Urns with ashes are also often buried in the graves of deceased relatives. This can be done already a year after burial in a coffin, since burials in an urn are usually shallow (50-80 cm).

Many cemeteries also offer the placement of urns containing ashes in a columbarium cell. It is closed with a gravestone and does not imply further opening. The slab can be granite, made of polymer materials or glass. Small personal belongings of the deceased and artificial flowers are allowed to be placed in the box.

Among the pagans, the ritual of burning the dead was widespread. For example, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome They were cremated more often and buried in the ground. It was believed that with the help of fire, the soul of the deceased would fly to heaven faster. Burial at the stake is traditional in Japanese and Indian cultures. True, during the sati ritual, burning does not occur to the full extent: after the upper tissues are charred, the corpse is thrown into the river and there it is eaten by the inhabitants of the reservoir.

In Europe, with the advent of Christianity, cremation was forgotten for some time, since the church interpreted this method of burial as pagan. However, during the spread of the plague and with a lack of cemetery land, people again turned to burning. The first cremation oven began operating in the 19th century. IN pre-revolutionary Russia crematoriums operated in Kronstadt and Vladivostok. Later blast furnaces were built in St. Petersburg, Moscow and others major cities.

Various religious movements have their own views on this ritual. Buddhists, Hindus and pagans preach the burning of bodies. The Orthodox Church in Constantinople, Muslims and Jews express categorical denial. Catholics and other Christian denominations favor traditional casket burial but do not prohibit cremation.

According to environmentalists, crematoria ovens emit at least 50 kg of carbon monoxide into the air each time. Hot gas has a detrimental effect on the atmosphere and accelerates the onset of the greenhouse effect.

Burial in water

People and sailors living near bodies of water often express their will to be buried in the water. Thus, even after death they want to be in their usual element. Variations of this burial are found among many peoples.

On a raft . The body is placed on prepared firewood, which is set on fire during the ceremony. Next, the raft is sent on a free voyage. After partial burning, the remains are immersed in water.

On the boat . A light single-seater boat was used to float the dead body down the river. At some point, the fragile ship was destroyed, and the corpse was taken by predators or fish.

In the sea . Having a corpse on a ship is a bad omen. Therefore, when a deceased person was discovered, he was wrapped in a shroud and released into the sea at full speed of the craft. There it became prey for marine carnivores.

In a concrete ball . Ocean reef researchers Don Brawley and Todd Barber once thought about preserving the underwater ecosystem. For this purpose, they developed and created hollow concrete balls to strengthen the reefs. After his death, Don's adoptive father bequeathed his ashes to be mixed with cement mortar and poured into a ball. After the first such burial, the service became popular among diving enthusiasts. Representatives of the Eternal Reefs company promise the durability of such “memorial reefs” for 500 years.

It’s even simpler in modern maritime affairs. A cremation oven is installed on ships and after burning the ashes are scattered across the ocean.

Burial in space

After exploring the world's oceans, man rushed into space. When the first tourist visited the Earth's orbit, space travel became more accessible in the worldview of the planet's inhabitants. And even though not everyone can overcome gravity during life, ending up in space after death is quite possible. You can place your ashes on board the rocket for further delivery into orbit.

In fact, the capsule that is taken for this kind of movement contains only 2-7 symbolic grams of remains. The rest of the ashes are scattered right near the launch complex. This is due to weight restrictions and rather expensive space flights. Currently, this type of funeral services is provided by two companies in the world: Celestis and Elysium Space.

Cannibalism and animal consumption of bodies

Not every area has enough wood or loose soil for burial in the ground or by burning. However, disposal of the dead body was a necessary procedure. In Tibet and Mongolia, the deceased was cut into pieces and the bones were ground. This mixture was fed to vultures. Predictions were made based on how quickly parts of the corpse were eaten. Zoroastrians from Persia also fed dead bodies to carrion birds. To do this, they placed the corpses on high platforms.

In the steppe of Manchuria, the totem animal was the wolf. Not the thin and shabby one you see at the zoo, but a real one strong predator. They tried not to offend him, and after the death of a man from the tribe, his body was wrapped in skin and taken to the habitat of wolves. This method of burial was considered the most acceptable by the steppe inhabitants, since the wild animal ate the corpses along with the bones. The ecological balance was not disturbed, and predators appeased in this way did not come close to human settlements.

Post-mortem cannibalism is practiced in New South Wales. The Aborigines smoke the meat of their relatives over a fire and then eat it. Representatives of another Australian tribe, the Dieri, prefer to eat only fat. Thus the virtues and strength of the deceased pass on to the living.

Mummification

The first well-preserved mummies were discovered during excavations of the tombs of the pharaohs. The custom, which came to us from Egypt, found its application in the burial of certain famous personalities:

• IN AND. Lenin on display in the Moscow Mausoleum.
• N.I. Pirogov, whose body is located in the church-tomb not far from the surgeon’s museum-estate.
• Evita Peron, the first wife of Argentine President Juan Peron, now rests in the family crypt.

Archaeologists often find well-preserved human remains in peat bogs or high in the mountains. The Yakuts of Siberia left the dead on platforms in a certain place without interment. In frozen conditions it was very difficult to dig holes in the soil. When exposed to cold temperatures and air, the bodies often naturally mummified.

Cryonics - another way to stop the process of cadaveric decomposition. The bodies of newly deceased people are frozen to ultra-low temperatures and then immersed in liquid nitrogen. Rich individuals resort to such preservation of bodies, hoping for their further revival at a time when science becomes capable of it. There are only 4 companies in the world that provide such a service: three are located in the USA and one in Russia.

Exotic burial methods

Along with the usual types of burials, the funeral industry also presents quite exotic ways of perpetuating the memory of the deceased.

Synthetic diamonds . The basis is the ashes or hair of the deceased. The carbon contained in them is extracted from the remains. The material is heated to 3000°C and then left for 4 months to mature. The result is to grow a diamond. It can be cut and worn as a keepsake. Now the main leaders in the production of such diamonds are LifeGem and Algordanza.

Graphite pencils . This idea was proposed by British designer Nadine Jarvis. According to her calculations, 240 writing utensils can be made from the ashes of the deceased. It is proposed to immortalize the name of the deceased on each product.

Fertilizers . Another way to return your debt to nature. American designer Katrina Spade proposes recycling bodies into nutrients for plants. You can then fertilize the plants in your garden with them.

Anatomical Museum . Become an object for studying the structure human body people with abnormal physiological developments can count on death after their death. As a rule, the museum administration enters into an agreement with them and pays a certain amount during their lifetime for the person agreeing to display his remains to the public. Among the most famous are the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg, the Vienna Museum at the Pathological-Anatomical Institute and the Hunter Museum in London.

Vinyl records . British musician Jason Leach began adding ashes to the production of musical media. The company he founded for the production of such records began operating in 2010.

Salutes and fireworks . The spectacular ceremony is offered by the British company Heavens Above Fireworks. When saying goodbye, salutes and fireworks shoot out the ashes of the deceased.

Resomation . Chemical dissolution of bodies through the action of potassium hydroxide, increased pressure and high temperature was developed by Sandy Sullivan from Scotland. The remains rapidly decompose within 3 hours. Undissolved particles are dried and given to relatives. This technology is considered an excellent alternative to cremation, since it does not require high temperatures and does not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Every year, ritual organizations come up with new burial options. Who knows which method will be popular in a few decades.

You might be interested:

The body of a British girl who died of cancer in liquid nitrogen. Lenta.ru looked into alternative burial methods and found out who and why dissolves the dead in alkali, feeds them to mushrooms, grinds them into powder and turns them into plastic figures.

Deep freeze

When a 14-year-old girl in the UK died of cancer, her body was placed in a cryostat filled with liquid nitrogen and cooled to minus 196 degrees Celsius. At such a low temperature, human flesh does not decompose and can be stored forever.

This technology is called cryonics. Its meaning is in the hope that one day scientists will figure out how to bring the dead back to life.

It doesn't come cheap. For example, to join more than 50 “cryopatients” of one of the specialized Russian companies, stored in two Dewar vessels somewhere near Sergiev Posad, you will have to pay from 12 to 36 thousand dollars. American Cryonics Institute froze British girl for 35 thousand dollars. And the Alcor company, considered the leader of this strange market, charges about 200 thousand dollars for a place in a cryostat.

The word “cryopatient” hints at the possibility of a cure, but is it real? big question. Modern cryonics is based less on science than on faith. There is no guarantee that freezing actually works. In addition, there is always a threat that the experiment will end faster than the bright future arrives. When one of the first cryonics companies ran out of money in 1979, all the frozen ones thawed and had to be buried.

Man-eating mushrooms

63-year-old American Dennis White knows exactly his future. Very soon, due to the attack on his brain incurable disease he will lose the ability to speak and understand human speech, and then die. After death, he will be dressed in a robe stuffed with spores of special mushrooms. When White's body is underground, the spores will germinate and eat him completely.

Mushroom hoodies are the invention of Stanford University graduates Jae Rhim Lee and Mike Ma. They came up with them while looking for more environmentally friendly approaches to burying the dead. According to their plan, mushrooms neutralize toxic substances, and formaldehyde with heavy metals used to preserve corpses will not poison the earth.

When developing the technology, Li tested the effectiveness of various types of mushrooms on own body. She fed them her hair, nails and pieces of skin and looked at the results. The most “voracious” mushroom formed the basis of funeral suits and shrouds manufactured by the company Coeio, created by Lee. Dennis White will be her first client.

Lye bath

In the early 90s, mad cow disease was raging in the UK. A dangerous disease that affects livestock and can spread to humans has killed almost 180 thousand cows, and authorities decided to slaughter another 4.4 million as a precaution. To make it easier to destroy animal carcasses, a Scot named Sandy Sullivan proposed dissolving them in hot lye.

Once the threat of mad cow disease had passed, Sullivan found another use for his invention: human burial. The company he founded, Resomation, produces machines for dissolving corpses. The body is placed in a special tank, inside which water and potassium hydroxide, heated to 160 degrees Celsius, circulate. After three hours, all that remains of the person are bones and a thick brown liquid with the smell of ammonia. The slurry is sent for processing, and the bones are crushed, placed in a funeral urn and given to the relatives of the deceased.

Resomation compares this method with cremation: the result is almost the same, but the process is cleaner, safer, and more effective. Promoters of the technology admit that the resulting slurry confuses many potential customers, but Sullivan is confident that this is all superstition. “Let’s face it, it’s not going to be pretty either way,” he says.

Dead sculptures

For those who want it to be beautiful, plastination was invented - the preservation of bodies by replacing the water contained in the body with plastic. The spectacle cannot be called pleasant, but the flow of people who want to look at the dead treated in this way does not dry out. On scandalous exhibitions, which are organized by the inventor of plastination, Gunther von Hagens, have been visited by millions of people.

Transforming the human body into an exhibit of such an exhibition is a long and very labor-intensive process. Through a series of procedures, the water in the cells is replaced first with acetone and then with a liquid polymer that hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light or heat. After this, all that remains is to give the deceased the desired position and allow the polymer to harden.

Von Hagens has been touring the world since 1995 with plastinated bodies that resemble illustrations from an anatomy textbook. The German anatomist claims that in this way he teaches people to look at death in a new way. “You usually experience it when you've lost loved ones and are in a state of shock,” he says. “This exhibition allows people to face death in a good mood.”

Become a tree

Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak spent 20 years developing a burial method called promessia. As with resomation, a special machine is required here - the so-called promator. It cools the deceased using liquid nitrogen to minus 196 degrees Celsius. Then the vibration is turned on, and the “promator” in a matter of minutes breaks the body, fragile from the ultra-low temperature, into grains no larger than a millimeter in size.

The resulting powder is placed in a container made of corn starch and buried at a depth of 30-50 centimeters. Within a few months, both the container and the remains in it completely decompose. Vig-Masak believes that promession is more environmentally friendly than conventional burial methods: the person completely merges with nature, leaving only the tree planted on the grave.

The idea aroused the interest of the Swedish authorities and the press, but the “promator” is very expensive. The company Promessa Organic, discovered by a biologist, has so far tested its technology only on pigs. The tests were successful.

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

Recently I was walking with a friend along the massive fence of the Donskoye Cemetery. The red brick walls brought to mind thoughts of the eternal.

“And I want to be cremated,” my friend suddenly blurted out. - So as not to rot.

There was no dispute. The girl is 22 years old, and she is convinced that cremation is modern, convenient and without unnecessary hassle. My arguments in support of a traditional funeral were shattered by the calm calm.

Russia is experiencing a cremation boom. Ritual agencies via the Internet offer to solve all problems in the most “modern” way. And if you have any questions about the fact that burning a dead person in a furnace is, to put it mildly, not our tradition, almost any funeral director will answer you: just like ours!

There is probably nothing surprising about this. The media too often talks about how Once again A famous and respected person was cremated. Cremation, at least for secular people, is already commonplace. Just the other day, the Russian News Service reported: “In Moscow and St. Petersburg, 60% of the dead are cremated. Pavel Kodysh, President of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoriums of Russia, spoke about this.” In Moscow, where there are 23 Orthodox monasteries and hundreds of churches, at least 60,000 people are cremated annually. The figure can be increased slightly, since Pavel Kodysh notes that “120 thousand people die a year in Moscow.”

We tried to find out why people send their loved ones to the oven

We tried to find out what motivates people who send their family and friends to the oven. Are you interested in the price of cremation? Fashion for today's popular burial method? A legacy of the Soviet past, when they first began to turn people into ashes on an industrial scale? Lack of land or high cost of cemetery plots? Or is it a desire modern man not think about death? Trying to erase any reminders of funerals, dead people 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. "Considering ancient tradition reverent attitude towards the body of a Christian as a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Synod recognizes as the norm the burial of deceased Christians in the ground,” states the specially prepared memorandum “On the Christian burial of the dead.” The words of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill also do not require explanations or comments: “Cremation is outside 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 with soul, but also with body. If we allow cremation, then we symbolically renounce this faith.”

Turnkey cremation

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

7,100 rubles,” answers the crematorium employee. - This price includes musical accompaniment. Also, registration of the deceased, transfer of the coffin, the cremation procedure itself, farewell, engraving and sealing of the urn.

True, you still need to purchase an urn and pay for a coffin, which, after the farewell ceremony, is burned along with the body of the deceased. Naturally, you must not forget about transport.

To finally understand what money you need to have to cremate a person, I turned to the Unified Ritual Service. Here all proposals are already 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 bed, pillow and slippers - the agency employee placed special emphasis on slippers. - It is customary for us to bring Christians in slippers to cremation.

On average for cremation with everyone necessary attributes you will have to pay around 30,000 rubles. This is without 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 cheaper than a traditional funeral .

There is still a difference,” explains the girl. - You still need to keep an eye on the grave. A fence, and then a monument. And the urn with ashes is kept in a niche forever. It does not require additional care.

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

Yes, bury you as you should - in the ground! To the ground! Well, add 10 thousand, no big deal!

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

After the procedure of burning the body, the urn still needs to be buried. To clarify the cost of this service, I contacted the State Budgetary Institution “RITUAL”. This is government state-financed organization city ​​of Moscow. Through this site I go to the Rogozhskoye cemetery. It is not possible to bury the urn in an open columbarium, that is, in a wall. But you can buy a place for an urn in a special niche.

“It’s something like a granite sarcophagus,” they explained over the phone. - The price depends on the row. 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 just over two meters.

“This is something like a mezzanine in the corridor,” I hear an explanation on the phone. - The cost is slightly higher for the second row, third and fourth.

How much is it? - I ask.

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

90 thousand,” answered an 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 separately for the sign - 5,000 rubles. You also need to add engraving. The amount for engraving is based on the number of characters. It turns out something like 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. How much does 1 cost? square meter land. A bench and fence are not provided - there is too little space for such luxury.

“Residents of big cities have different views than those in the outback”

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

You can meet 20,000 rubles,” says an employee of a funeral company. - At the cemetery, the guys will have to throw a circle around the grave for digging. This is such a tradition,” he adds.

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

It is possible to bury any unemployed Moscow resident without money. In the language of ritual agents, this is called “carrying out the last journey free of charge.” The only condition is that the deceased’s work book must be closed.

Proponents of cremation may object: they say, what about the monument? What about care? The fence needs to be painted. And if possible, this should be done every spring. But the grave sags, especially when it’s fresh! An urn with ashes, if made of copper, is very durable...

Dubious arguments.

Cremation is more convenient and faster. Residents of big cities have different views than those in the outback. I mean in spiritually, - Dmitry, a dispatcher of a Moscow ritual agency, shares his thoughts.

“The earth should be for living people, not for the dead”

Here in Kirov people are discussing their crematorium. Entrepreneur Andrei Kataev decided to build a “socially significant facility” in the city. They plan to cremate Kirov residents at a “low price.” 12,000 rubles - and the job is done. 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 of all the dead,” says Andrei Kataev. - But since our people have difficulty accepting everything new, we will have to carry out some kind of unique action, explaining to the population that cremation is a civilized way of burying the dead.

I wonder how this work will be carried out? What kind of shares could these be?

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

Cemeteries are dirty. Well, we don’t have such a culture as, for example, in Europe,” says Kataev. - For priests, funerals are a business: they perform the funeral service. For “ritualists” this is a business; they bury in the ground - this is their bread,” notes Kataev.

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

In an interview, the entrepreneur enthusiastically talks about how “the land should be for living people, not for the dead.” These are his words. They express his attitude towards the deceased person.

It seems that there is no need to debate the issue of cremation, since sooner or later everyone, everywhere will be cremated. At least those who are opening new crematoriums in the country are sure of this.

Even in “expensive and non-rubber” Moscow, land for burials is given free of charge. Save on cremation big money It doesn’t work out, but the number of urns with ashes, compared to 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 introduced in Bolshevik Russia. Let's find out how ordinary people reacted to this. And let’s try to answer the main question: why do people today so easily choose a fire funeral without any coercion or pressure? What has changed in the consciousness of society over 100 years, and why is another crematorium in the outback of our country, if not a tradition, but already a pattern?

We are surrounded by legal controls at every corner in everyday life. There is no aspect that is not controlled by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

It would seem like death loved one- This is the deepest sorrow, during which a person must live in peace. But no, a person expects some legal nuances that require utmost attention, even in such difficult times.

A deceased relative must be buried. But how to do that? From a legal point of view, quite complex issue. Let's go in order.

What is the funeral process?

It would seem that these are such banal things that do not require explanation even to a child, but in fact, this is not so. There is a legal side to the funeral process that still needs to be explained.

Jurisprudence determines almost every nuance of this issue, except, of course, religion and its religious practices. And from the point of view of jurisprudence, the funeral process is the collection of documents about the legal death of a person and the burial of the body. Let us note that for jurisprudence the part in which all the necessary papers for burial are drawn up is important.

It is important to understand! It cannot be said that the legal side ignores the burial conditions. The legislation of the Russian Federation defines many conditions and standards for the burial of a body.

Rules?

In the funeral process, as in any other process, there are rules. There are quite a lot of them, especially if you take into account not only legal, but also religious rules.

Religious rules are established by the church of the faith that a person professed during his lifetime. They are not prescribed anywhere as a legal act. But legal rules are controlled by the legislation of the Russian Federation, but, of course, they do not violate a person’s religious faith.

That is, it turns out that legal and religious rules have such a complementary chain.

First, let's look at the rules of jurisprudence. The legislation of the Russian Federation annually tightens the rules for burying bodies, since even in this nuance the number of fraudulent schemes is growing. The tightening concerns specifically the allocation of land for burying a body. They were provoked by fraudulent schemes, the essence of which was the sale of land. It happened that there was only one grave in a large area, and the scammers sold the rest of the plot. Since previously, before the innovations, all cemetery territories belonged to the administration of these cemeteries, then their administration acted as fraudsters.

According to the new legislation of the Russian Federation, no more than 4 m2 will now be allocated per plot; two graves can be created on such an area. The changes did not affect related burials either. Now no more than 11 m2 will be allocated to them. Of course, the Government of the Russian Federation will accept new changes, but this is all in the future, and at the moment these are the standards.

It is important to understand! In addition to these standards for the size of graves, let us recall that this site is designed not only for burial, but also for a table and bench. In theory, it is not mandatory, but the vast majority of people adhere to this rule. If relatives do not consider it necessary to set up a table and a bench, then the place remains empty, you can even plant flowers. It is strictly forbidden to make a second burial of a body in this area, allegedly arguing that there is no need for the place to be empty. Single grave and calculated for one person. That's the rule.

Family graves?

Standard graves still do not require a deep explanation, so let’s move on to family burials.

A family burial is a place in a cemetery, strictly within the territory of which the bodies of relatives and families are buried. That is, in this place all people are relatives to each other, there are no strangers.

From the side of the law, this aspect requires enormous legal attention, which it actually receives.

Family burials were popular back in the Middle Ages. It is known that previously this was the only way people were buried. The bodies of relatives were buried right in their residential plot behind the house. Rich people created crypts and large memorial burials for their family. And now this is still common in Russia.

Kin burial is one approach to burying a body. Let's consider all its advantages.

• It is known in advance where the body can be buried.

• No need to worry and buy land plot to the cemetery, taking on all the complex legal procedures for the purchase.

In addition to this, there are certain conditions.

1. Absolutely any cemetery in Russia can allocate territory for a family grave.
2. To bury a body in a family grave, the desire of the deceased himself or the desire of relatives is necessary.
3. For burial, permission from the cemetery administration is a mandatory factor, which must be in writing. In fact, this is a pure formality, since the administration has no authority to refuse this.

There are also rules for this type of burial. In this case we are looking at legal rules.

1. Relatives themselves choose the type of burial. This may be a casket burial or an urn burial resulting from cremation.
2. A family grave is created only for close relatives - grandmothers, parents, children. To do this, you need a document confirming your relationship. If a person is in a different degree of relationship, then he is not allowed to be buried in a family grave.
3. To bury the second body in this grave, it is necessary to maintain a period of sanitation, which lasts 15-20 years. It is determined differently for each region.
4. The cemetery management is obliged to prepare and develop a burial plan immediately after the relatives have collected and provided them with all the necessary papers for such a mournful procedure.
5. The department also checks the territory for sanitary readiness for a new burial.
6. At such funerals, relatives also have the right to state compensation.

The aspect of the sanitation period becomes unclear. The sanitary period is the time after which it is allowed to bury the body in the same grave. In fact, this period only applies to coffins; an urn after a person’s cremation can be buried at any time, because there is no sanitary period established for it.

Need to know! This period is necessary to cause less harm to nature. The cemetery administration will categorically prohibit burying a coffin with a person’s body before the deadline; you don’t even have to try to ask. This is contrary to all regulations and rules, and their violation entails legal liability.

The question also arises, how to purchase a plot for a family burial? It's actually quite easy. At the moment, there are auctions that sell territories specifically for family burials. That is, there is no need to buy several plots at once and supposedly connect them. This is terribly inconvenient and will not constitute a family burial.

Many large cities even operate electronic services and Internet sites offering such funeral services. Their main advantage is convenience and comfort of use; you don’t need to go somewhere to decorate the site.

Documentation?

Even such a procedure requires a clear set of papers. Of course, each burial method requires its own set of documents, but we will consider the standard package for a normal case. An ordinary case means the burial of a person in a coffin, accessible to everyone.

• Stamp death certificate. This document is very important, it is issued by the MFC department after the relatives present the death certificate.

• Passport of a relative who took upon himself the entire organization of the funeral.

• A written agreement with a funeral company that provides the necessary funeral services. It is also better to provide a receipt for payment for these funeral services.

All procedure is complete legal aspects. For the most part, they appear in documents, since each step requires its own documents. Papers are needed even to pick up a person from the morgue and get required document about his death.

That is why, in such a matter, it is recommended to immediately contact a lawyer or hire a legal representative, and transfer all problems with the funeral to a funeral agent. This is necessary because sometimes it is very difficult for a person to gather himself in this grief, and documents require utmost attention.

Also, after the death of a person, it is necessary to remember that he left an inheritance, which may, by law or by will, go to you. In order to defend the property and take possession on time, it is also better to use the services of a lawyer who can provide consultation. If any frightening controversial issues arise, then there is no need to wait, go straight to a lawyer.

Funeral services?

Due to the high development of our society, people come to help various services, making his life easier. The funeral service is no exception. Sooner or later, everyone dies at some point and it is difficult for relatives to get used to this idea, but they still need to bury the person by organizing a funeral and receiving all the documents. And all this in about a couple of days. It is difficult for a person who has not yet recovered from grief to cope with such a task, so he hires a funeral agent to organize the funeral.

A funeral agent is a person who takes on all responsibilities for the education and conduct of the funeral. This is a rather complex procedure and has many components.

Each city has its own ritual service that provides assistance to people. Help includes moving the body, making a coffin and monument, etc.

All funeral services provide a standard list of services:

1. Coffin.
2. Wreaths.
3. Funeral arrangements.
4. Crosses.
5. Movement of the body on their transport.
6. Monuments.
7. Clubs.

There are even so-called elite funeral services that can take on a little more than other services. They provide selection service beautiful place at the cemetery, musical accompaniment body. In addition, the funeral agent, at the request and desire of the client, will take upon himself the organization of the funeral in a cafe or restaurant, of course, for a separate profit.

A separate aspect is worth considering the prices of such services. On average, calculations show that everything is not that expensive. For example, the average price of a coffin is about 3,000 rubles. In this case, it all depends on the materials of manufacture. As for monuments, it’s the same here, it all depends on the material. The cheapest monument is a metal tombstone; on average, its price is about 2,000 rubles. A granite monument costs 10,000 rubles, which is also the most expensive tombstone.

Need to know! For each service different list prices They are very high in Moscow and large cities. There are known companies that charge 30,000 rubles for making a coffin. Note that it is not made of silver, but still made of wood.

Methods of burial?

This question is very interesting, because every day new technologies come into our lives. Let's watch.

1. In first place, of course, we will put the standard method of burial - burial in the ground. This method has been widespread since ancient times, since people have always used it. Burial in the ground has religious nuances, since there are different faiths and each has an individual way of burying their person. This method of burial also includes burying a body in a cave. The method has been used for a long time. The corpses were carefully walled up in caves, observing strict burial rituals. This also includes funerals in ancient pyramids. Ancient Egypt was famous for this method.
2. Green graves are a method that was introduced quite recently. They resorted to this method because funerals of people become simply murder for the soil. The standard method requires twenty years of aging for subsequent burial nearby. The "green" method involves burying the pipes in the ground with minimal clothing. A tree is planted at the head, growing due to natural fertilizer provided by humans.
3. Biodegradable capsules. The method resembles the previous method. The human body is placed in a special, quickly decomposed shell and buried in the ground, with a tree planted at the head. The principle is the same.
4. Cremation is the second most widespread and popular method. In special buildings - crematoriums, the body is burned at high temperatures, and then relatives are given an urn with the burned ashes of their loved one. And the relatives decide on their own what to do with her next. In some cases, the ashes are buried, and in others, they are scattered. There are cases when people simply left them at home.
5. Burial in water is also enough famous case. The body was placed in a boat or on logs, and after their destruction it ended up in the water. Then the predatory fish decided the fate of the corpse.
6. Mummification. The result of this method is that every third person apparently real example- Lenin. His corpse was mummified after his death, and it is still kept in the Moscow museum.

How are homeless people buried?

This issue is not difficult from a legal standpoint.

In every yard there are homeless people who simply have nowhere to go. It is for this reason that there is a fairly high mortality rate among them. Especially in winter, when a person simply dies on the street from the cold. In this case, you must immediately call the police. They will then take the body to the morgue for an autopsy. Such manipulations are necessary, since the exact cause of a person’s death is unknown, and that is what will be determined there.

But what's next? Burial of a body can be carried out in several ways. Many argue that the body is cremated, supposedly this is cheaper for the state. Yes, cheaper, but prohibited by law. The legislation of the Russian Federation prohibits the cremation of homeless people, because relatives may turn up and wish to conduct the burial differently. Jurisprudence is replete with such cases, which is why the law imposed this ban.

The state allocates a certain budget for the funerals of homeless people. The burial itself is handled by municipal ritual services. You can come across different stories about what is dying more people than the state budget suggests, so people are thrown into one grave. You should not believe this, since these stories are not confirmed by law. If such illegal actions were detected, then the departments of such services were punished with legal liability.

There is no separate cemetery for homeless people; it has not been designated by the state. But in every city cemetery there is an area that is called unidentified burials. This is where homeless people rest. All data about the graves and the people in them are stored in a specialized cemetery database, in case relatives show up. Yes, indeed, relatives appeared in most cases.

The person in the grave has a registration number and a name, if known.

Electronic passport?

Technology has also reached the ritual area. Nowadays, the portal for the electronic passport of graves is in high demand. It contains a variety of information about cemeteries and the graves located in them.

At the moment, not all cemeteries are included in this passport, but it continues to develop. Therefore, in the near future it will be possible to track any grave in the portal.

Legislation of the Russian Federation?

As we have already understood, the legislation of the Russian Federation exercises control in the funeral business. For this purpose, the only Federal Law of the Russian Federation was issued.

In addition, as regards graves and burials specifically, they are protected by the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. More specifically, the law controls all manipulations that can be carried out on monuments. For their destruction and desecration, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has prepared entire criminal articles for vandals, which automatically imply criminal liability.

There are also Standard Rules for the Construction and Maintenance of Cemeteries. They were formed back in the USSR and have continued to operate successfully in Russia since then.

Important! For all questions about how they can bury you, if you don’t know what to do and where to go:

Call 8-800-777-32-63.

Or you can ask a question in any pop-up window, so that a lawyer on your question can answer and advise you as quickly as possible.

Lawyers on how people can be buried, and lawyers who are registered Russian Legal Portal, will try to help you from a practical point of view in this matter and advise you on all issues of interest.

Between earthly and heavenly life, the deceased person will have to undergo a burial procedure. On the planet there are the most various ways, with which the dead are carried out in last path. We have collected 15 of the most unusual ways burials, some of which are shocking, while others give hope for resurrection.

1. Trees with human DNA

At first glance, the idea of ​​eating an apple that contains human DNA seems completely crazy. But Biopresence offers a service called “Living Memorials” or “Transgenic Tombstones”, in which it inserts the customer’s DNA into the DNA of the tree.

2. Ashes in fireworks

There are many creative ways to scatter a person's ashes. But this method is perhaps the most pompous. The ashes of the deceased are placed inside a firework, which is then shot high into the sky and explodes into sparkling colored lights.

3. The art of cremation

Most families keep the ashes of their loved ones in an urn. Some people keep the urn at home, some in a columbarium. But there is also creative way ashes storage: mix ashes with paint and turn it into a work of art. You can also make a glass sculpture, decoration and much more in a similar way.

4. Burial in the reef

For those who love the sea, burial in coral reefs is suitable. Ashes after cremation are mixed with cement, and artificial reefs are sculpted from this mixture. One of the most famous underwater mausoleums is the Neptune Memorial Reef, 5.2 km off the coast of Key Biscayne in the US state of Florida.

5. Cryonics

Cryonics - from the Greek word Kryos, meaning icy cold. This is the process of low-temperature preservation of human and animal bodies. Most people resort to cryopreservation in the hope that in the future the technology will be able to restore their life and health. True, for the possibility of resurrection you will have to pay a substantial amount - from $80,000 to $250,000.

6. Balinese cremation

The ceremony, known as Ngaben cremation, takes place in Bali, a province of Indonesia. Those who die in this area are considered to be deeply asleep. Thus, family members of the deceased do not mourn because they believe that the deceased will be reincarnated or resurrected as his last place repose. The body is then placed in a coffin on the day of the ceremony, which is then placed in a bull-like sarcophagus where it is burned.

7. Hanging coffins

Similar ancient burial customs are known in China, Indonesia and the Philippines. Hanging coffins, known as Xuanguan, are mounted on sheer cliffs.

8. Funeral trees

Among the Balinese and among the Australian Aboriginal tribes and North American Indians It was a common custom to tie the corpses of children placed in coffins to trees. In particular, the Tibetans believed that such burial forests would help the spirit of a dead child to be reborn in paradise, and would also help prevent the death of another child or misfortune in the family.

Memorial diamonds are created from the hair or cremated remains of the deceased. When hair is used, samples are subjected to a carbon extraction process. When cremated remains are used, carbon is obtained in gaseous form. Diamonds are then synthesized from carbon using conventional methods.

10. Tibetan Sky Burials

Sky burial is a Tibetan practice in which the body of the deceased is thrown into certain place to be eaten by wild animals (especially birds of prey).

In North American Indian culture, corpses were often placed on wooden platforms, on which they were exposed to the natural environment and gradually rotted and decomposed. This ritual has two main stages: the first involves leaving the corpse on a raised platform and then covering it with leaves and branches until the flesh rots. In the second stage, when only the bones remained, they were painted red and left to decay naturally.

12. Ifugao death chair

Tribute to the dead Ifugao depended on the rank of the deceased in society. As part of the developed mourning ritual, the corpse was kept in a sitting position on this chair for about 2 weeks for noble people and 2-3 days for commoners. After this, the remains were transferred to a burial place near the mountain and placed in a sitting position, after which they were covered with stones and rocks.

13. Towers of Silence

According to Zoroastrian traditions, corpses were piled on top of a circular building known as a dakhma or "Cheel Gar". The term "tower of silence" is actually a neologism. The roof of this structure was divided into three rings, with the corpses of men located on the outer ring, women in the second circle, and children in the center. When the corpses turned into white bones after a year, they were collected and placed in a hole, filling it with lime.

14. Endocannibalism

In ancient times, some Indian and Indian cultures practiced endocannibalism, which is the practice of eating the flesh of people from one's community. This shocking practice was once widespread throughout the world.

Self-mummification

Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who went through strict and Long procces preparing for their death, as a result of which they mummified themselves. In Japan, only 24 such cases were recorded.

Today, many people cremate the bodies of their deceased relatives and place the ashes in urns. allows you to understand what it means to “die beautifully.”