Cremation Ceremonies

Cremation Ceremony - Benares, India

Most Hindus practice the ritual of cremation of the body. The cremation ceremony releases the soul from an earthly existence and prevents the astral body from lingering. The physical body must not remain visible or else the soul will remain for days or even months after death.

The deceased’s body is cleaned, dressed, adornments placed on it and then carried to the cremation ground as prayers are chanted. After the corpse is almost completely burned the skull is cracked with a long bamboo stick, which releases the soul from entrapment in the body.

After the cremation, the ashes are thrown into a river, ideally the Ganges river, and the mourners walk away without looking back.

But, now the soul must be attended to. To ensure its passage to the Invisible World, an 11-day ritual is performed with daily offerings of rice balls, which provide a symbolic transitional body for the deceased. During the 11-day period the soul is preparing to leave and on the 12th day the departed soul reaches its destination and is joined with family, ancestors and loved ones. Without the rites, the soul may never reach its destination.

Cremation Ceremonies - United States

No photographs to share as most westerners do not practice public cremation. 

Cremation among the early Christians was rare.  It was considered "paganistic" especially in the Jewish culture where traditional sepulcher entombment was preferred.   Modern cremation, as we know it, actually began only a little over a century ago, after years of experimentation into the development of a dependable chamber.  When Professor Brunetti of Italy finally perfected his model and displayed it at the 1873 Vienna Exposition, the cremation movement started almost simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic.  In the British Isles, the movement was fostered by Queen Victoria's surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson.  Concerned with hazardous health conditions, Sir Henry and his colleagues founded the Cremation Society of England in 1874.  The first crematories in Europe were built in 1878 in Working, England and Gotha, Germany.

Meanwhile, in North America, although there had been two recorded instances of cremation before 1800, the real start began in 1876 when Dr. Julius LeMoyne built the first crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania. 

In 1884 the second crematory opened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and, as was true of many of the early crematories, it was owned and operatedby a cremation society.  Other forces behind early crematory openings were Protestant clergy who desired to reform burial practices, and the medical professional who was concerned with health conditions around early cemetaries.  Crematories soon sprang up in Buffalo, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit and Los Angeles.  By 1900, there were already 20 crematories in operation, and by the time Dr. Hugh Erichsen founded the Cremation Association of America in 1913, there were 52 crematories in North America and over 10,000 cremations took place in that year.  In 1975, the name was changed to the Cremation Association of North America to be more indicative of the memnbership composition of the United States and Canada.  At that time, there were over 425 crematories and nearly 150,000 cremations.  In 1999, there were 1,468 crematories and 595,617 cremations, a percentage of 25.39% of all deaths in the United States.   From: The Cremation Association of North America, see, www.cremationassociation.org