Cremation facts for kids
Cremation is the act of burning a body after it has died. Cremation is a popular option to dispose of (get rid of) a body instead of burying it. The place where cremations take place is called a crematorium or crematory.
Religions which approve cremation include Christianity, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Shinto, and Neopaganism. Judaism and Mormonism strongly discourage cremation. Islam, Neo-Confucianism, and Zoroastrianism disapprove it.
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Ways of keeping or disposing of the cremated remains
Cremated remains (also called ashes) are returned to the person's family. The family then has a few options of what to do with the remains. Usually the ashes are buried in an urn at a cemetery plot just as a coffin is buried in normal earth burial. Many religions require the ashes to be handled in dignified manner. In Scandinavia it is customary to bury the ashes ín an urn in a family grave (a grave which contains the remains of many family members). Family graves are also popular in Japan and Thailand.
Sometimes the cremated person has thought about what they want to be done with their remains and have shared their desires with their family. Cremated remains can be kept in a container called an urn, which in turn can be buried on cemetery plot or placed in a depot called columbarium, or thrown into the air or water of a place that was special to the cremated person, or buried anonymously in the ground. These are the most popular choices of what to do with remains. There are also other, less common, options of how to dispose of the remains. Some examples of ways to scatter the remains are: through fireworks, shot from guns, or dropped from an airplane or hot air balloon. Remains can even be sent into space or turned into a diamond. The latter can be done because humans and diamonds are both made largely from carbon.
Queen Victoria, pioneer in cremation jewelry
Queen Victoria is the most well-known mourner because she went into a state of mourning for several decades. To honour her late Prince Albert, Queen Victoria “took to wearing black jet jewelry, from Whitby, in Yorkshire. As a limited and fairly difficult medium to work with, jet was expensive. It’s a hard material, requiring skilled craftsmanship to avoid breakage during carving”
Related pages
Images for kids
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An electric cremator in Austria
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Bronze container of ancient cremated human remains, complete with votive offering
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An 1820 painting showing a Hindu funeral procession in South India. The pyre is to the left, near a river, the lead mourner is walking in front, the dead body is wrapped in white and is being carried to the cremation pyre, relatives and friends follow.
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The Woking Crematorium, built in 1878 as the first facility in England after a long campaign led by the Cremation Society of Great Britain.
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The trial of William Price confirmed that cremation was legal in the United Kingdom. He was himself cremated after his death in 1893.
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Advertisement for woollen envelopes to wrap the body in for cremation, appearing in the Undertaker's Journal, 1889.
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A sketch from the Vrba–Wetzler report, showing the rough layout of the crematoria used at Auschwitz, one of the several Nazi German extermination camps in occupied Poland
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A relic found amid the ashes of Chan Kusalo (the Buddhist Patriarch of Northern Thailand) is placed inside a chedi shaped vial and displayed inside Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai.
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Bone-picking ceremony at a Japanese funeral
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Cremated ashes still in plastic bag
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A U.S. Navy sailor scatters cremated remains at sea. Visible is the clear plastic inner bag containing the remains, and next to it the labeled black plastic box that contained the inner bag. This is normal in American packaging.
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Cremation allows for very economical use of cemetery space. Mini-gravestones in Helsinki, Finland.
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Cremation of the dead by Hindus in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
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(Germany) A piece of fire clay used for identifying the ash after burning the dead body
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(Germany) A cinerary urn. The laces are used to lower the urn into the ground
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(Germany) A sealed cinerary urn, showing the ash capsule containing the remains of the dead, along with the name and dates
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(Germany) The ash capsule
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(Germany) An open ash capsule showing the remains of the dead
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(Germany) Ash capsule and cinerary urn after 15 years
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Cremation of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, 31 January 1948. It was attended by Jawaharlal Nehru, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, Maulana Azad, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Sarojini Naidu and other national leaders. His son Devdas Gandhi lit the pyre.
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Cremation process at Pashupatinath temple.
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A Hindu cremation rite in Nepal. The samskara above shows the body wrapped in saffron red on a pyre.
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Cremation taking place at Pashupatinath Temple.
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See also
In Spanish: Cremación para niños
