What'll we do with our dead?

Hammer89 · 10-01-2019 5:21pm #1

Let's call a spade a spade: graveyards won't last, will they? We're a godless generation, us Milennials. Has there ever been another generation as detached from religion as us? Potentially not, and if that's the case, which it might well be, then how is this not going to have a knock-on effect for traditional, Christian burials?

Funeral and burial preferences have changed quite a lot. There was a time when cremation was a bit bold in the eyes of the church, a bit un-Christian-like, but now 33% of dead people are opting for this. This highlights a detachment even in non-Millenials, so how different could the landscape be in 40 or 50 years, when it's our time to go?

I appreciate that it's popular for the ashes of deceased people to be buried in graveyards to this day, but there's a chance we'll move further away from this in time, as people grow less sentimental over the idea of being buried with their loved ones. It's a lovely idea and I've nothing wrong with it obviously, but I don't think my generation will draw the same warmth and solace from it as our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

Who knows lads, but what I do know - or at least think - is that graveyards are f*cked. I'm not sure they'll physically go anywhere, but I do think the business side of them will suffer in the long run.

pleas advice · 10-01-2019 5:23pm

Dig up, stupid

El Weirdo · 10-01-2019 5:25pm

Hammer89 wrote: »

...It's a lovely idea ...

Yes. Lovely.

Mr. Incognito · 10-01-2019 5:26pm

They will all rot when they fall during the Millenial Plague

orourkeda1977 · 10-01-2019 5:26pm

You can burn my fat ass.

You could run the national grid for a week off it.

Deebles McBeebles · 10-01-2019 5:27pm

Bring out your dead.

10-01-2019 5:28pm

Breaking news:

A two seat Cessna has crashed in a cemetery in Kerry.

A Garda spokesperson has said 26 bodies have been recovered so far, but more are expected as digging goes on in to the night.

Zorya · 10-01-2019 5:28pm

Cremation for me and ashes into the Atlantic sailing westwards. I have heard though that there is a problem with the ashes from cremation - very alkaline they are. And millions and millions of people's ashes might be a problem for soil.

Graveyards are a bit spooky. The whole thing about liquifying and decomposing in a box...yuck. But you know, each to their own. We have plenty of space for graveyards in Ireland as we have low population density. Might be better to have grave forests though and bury bodies in shrouds under trees.

As an alternative bring back wolves and build excarnation platforms, and maybe the animals will drag off the bones and deal with them. Hmmm.

Gravelly · 10-01-2019 5:34pm

I've often wondered if burial will fall victim to the environmentalists - all those bodies in the ground are surely keeping some tree-hugger awake at night, worrying about polluting the water table, releasing CO2 and all that. Not to mention all the wood used in making coffins. All it will take is one millenial to float the idea that he wants his remains draped over a tree to feed the animals, and they'll all be at it.

oLoonatic · 10-01-2019 5:36pm

Graveyards always seemed a waste to me for both space and cost, i want the cheapest possible funeral. I've already made it very clear to cremate me and do as they wish with my ashes.

topper75 · 10-01-2019 5:38pm

Zorya wrote: »

Cremation for me and ashes into the Atlantic sailing westwards.

Sailing westwards? Nope. Prevailing winds here mean you will end up stuck in some kid's icecream on a bleak Lahinch promenade. So in that respect you will live on.

randd1 · 10-01-2019 5:39pm

Wouldn't it be better just to put people into the ground in paper garments and just let nature take it's course?

Heard of this idea years ago of planting seeds with the body, and using the nutrients from decomposing body to grow trees or crops. Not a bad way to go.

Ten of Swords · 10-01-2019 5:45pm

The future: Put a poll on social media listing 4 or 5 methods of disposal and whichever gets the most likes and shares is chosen and live streamed.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 10-01-2019 5:46pm

My friend wants to be buried at sea. It’s allowed in Ireland, but there are rules. You need a permit. Your corpse needs to be tagged so that they know who you are and that you aren’t a murder victim if you’re washed up. Your coffin needs to be weighted but contain holes to make sure it sinks. Or I think you can go sans coffin, if you want.

10-01-2019 5:50pm

Burn me and stick my ashes in the sea, or scatter them anywhere, i don't care.

I don't want anyone to feel obliged to come to a bleak, wet cemetery on my birthday, Christmas etc. and put flowers on my grave.

Gravelly · 10-01-2019 5:51pm

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

My friend wants to be buried at sea. It’s allowed in Ireland, but there are rules. You need a permit. Your corpse needs to be tagged so that they know who you are and that you aren’t a murder victim if you’re washed up. Your coffin needs to be weighted but contain holes to make sure it sinks. Or I think you can go sans coffin, if you want.[/QUOTE]

I believe they call that Bin Laden Style.

Hammer89 · 10-01-2019 5:53pm

randd1 wrote: »

Wouldn't it be better just to put people into the ground in paper garments and just let nature take it's course?

There'll be no insertion into the earth, going forward. Future generations will think it's as unconventional as we think of Egyptian burials.

'You'll never guess what our ancestors used to do for burials.
'Go on then, what did they do?'
'Right, so they put the bodies in these long wooden yokes first...'
'Like boats?'
'Yes but twice as expensive as boats and not as long. Anyway, then that box - I think they called them coffins - would get lowered into the ground.'
'Mental c*nts.'
'Absolutely'.

Beasty · 10-01-2019 5:54pm

There must be an opportunity here. Who will dispose of the remains of the final human? Should be training up robots to do it....

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 10-01-2019 5:56pm

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

My friend wants to be buried at sea. It’s allowed in Ireland, but there are rules. You need a permit. Your corpse needs to be tagged so that they know who you are and that you aren’t a murder victim if you’re washed up. Your coffin needs to be weighted but contain holes to make sure it sinks. Or I think you can go sans coffin, if you want.

The guidelines: http://www.dttas.ie/sites/default/files/content/maritime/english/general/environment/burial-sea-guidelines.pdf

Wibbs · 10-01-2019 5:58pm

rossie1977 · 10-01-2019 6:02pm

Certainly going nowhere here in West of Ireland. Funerals, gravestones are huge business here still with everyone competing with each other and funerals themselves being some of the biggest events with death notices on radio something I would suspect everyone listening to Midwest and shannonside regularly tune in for.

I have seen 3 of my friends die, one as recently as last year and all have gotten a Christian burial even though none were religious.

Look at it this way how many non Christian weddings are taking place in modern Ireland..maybe 10%? How many young couples don't baptise their kids?

lawred2 · 10-01-2019 6:02pm

randd1 wrote: »

Wouldn't it be better just to put people into the ground in paper garments and just let nature take it's course?

Heard of this idea years ago of planting seeds with the body, and using the nutrients from decomposing body to grow trees or crops. Not a bad way to go.

I'd be happy with that

A big wooden box is wasteful

Hammer89 · 10-01-2019 6:02pm

Aegir wrote: »

Burn me and stick my ashes in the sea, or scatter them anywhere, i don't care.

I don't want anyone to feel obliged to come to a bleak, wet cemetery on my birthday, Christmas etc. and put flowers on my grave.

They wouldn't go anyway; not because they don't love and miss you, but because we're increasingly finding better ways in which to honour our loved ones and they don't involve crying over a large bit of marble with your name on it.

CalamariFritti · 10-01-2019 6:05pm

We're all just stardust no matter what you do with it. Which is actually rather poetic and nice. I'm ok with cremation.

Silent Running · 10-01-2019 6:10pm

My instructions are to take from my corpse anything that can be used to help another living person, and burn the rest. I don't care what happens with the ashes. I've no romantic notions about where they go.

Oink · 10-01-2019 6:14pm

Shoot me out of a cannon while playing The Ace of Spades so loud that anyone within a ten-mile radius goes deaf and Lemmy rises from the dead.

mordeith · 10-01-2019 6:21pm

Oink wrote: »

Shoot me out of a cannon while playing The Ace of Spades so loud that anyone within a ten-mile radius goes deaf and Lemmy rises from the dead.

I was always impressed with Sean Lock's wish to be fly tipped on a hedge in a scenic area. That way he could continue to annoy people even when he's dead.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-01-2019 12:17am

When I die, I want my remains scattered in Disneyland. Also, I don't want to be cremated.

AndrewJRenko · 11-01-2019 12:38am

Is cremation environmentally friendly, with all the gas and all? I don't like the idea of a graveyard, but what's the alternative?

oneilla · 11-01-2019 12:42am

Throw them into the brown bin maybe?

Ariadne · 11-01-2019 12:47am

I want to be cremated and my family are aware of this. No idea what to do with the ashes but sure I'll leave that up to them.

the_pen_turner · 11-01-2019 12:48am

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Is cremation environmentally friendly, with all the gas and all? I don't like the idea of a graveyard, but what's the alternative?

solar rays amplified through a huge magnifing glass

Insect Overlord · 11-01-2019 12:56am

Dakhmas for the win.

11-01-2019 1:12am

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Is cremation environmentally friendly, with all the gas and all? I don't like the idea of a graveyard, but what's the alternative?

I read about an alternative in the last few months, they were saying how the disposal options (burial or cremation) materials/fuel, the process and chemicals/by products are environmentally harmful whichever current option you decided on (it was referring to the USA so maybe its more applicable there), the alternative was you are placed in what seemed like a pressure cooker and liquefied via heat/bacteria? this took care of bones and everything, now I thought they would use the goo as a fertiliser but from what I recal the option they seemed to be thinking of was flushing you down the sewer.

foxy farmer · 11-01-2019 1:16am

Crowd of people around my grandparents table chatting at dinnertime during the harvest years ago. One of them pipes up.
"Well Jer you buried your father since we were here last. "
"We did boy." he replies. Sure we had to do something with him when he died."

Bigbagofcans · 11-01-2019 11:12am

Yes you're going out the same way you came in
Someone will notify your next of kin
Some will weep and some will moan some will spit upon your stone
But you're going out the same way you came in
Oh they lay you out in all your fancy clothes
And they'll figure out just who and what you own
Then the lawyers line their nest and your kinfolk gets the rest
But you can't take it with you when you go
Yes you're going out the same way you came in
No matter who you know or where you've been
Makes no difference who you are
Skid Row Joe or superstar
You're going out the same way you came in

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:21am

The Parsi people in India put their dead out to be eaten by vultures (it is also essential for them to have a dog at their funeral) - we could do something similar here, but with crows.

Deebles McBeebles · 11-01-2019 11:23am

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

You're going out the same way you came in

Certainly hope not. My mother will be long dead by then.

Bigbagofcans · 11-01-2019 11:26am

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Certainly hope not. My mother will be long dead by then.

You're going in the same way you came out :P

xi5yvm0owc1s2b · 11-01-2019 11:27am

Shannon Crematorium is now operational.

Built at a cost of €2.4m, it was completed after a nine-year planning process. The building includes a chapel, which can seat 140 people, with video screens where tributes can be played. There will also be a small chapel/hospitality area with seating for 60 where people can remain on after the cremation.

Mr Cranwell said: “We will help put together these tributes and families can also have webcam facilities which will enable families to have a ceremony transmitted anywhere in the world.”

So this is the future of death. You will be cremated while tributes air on video screens and your friends in far-flung countries watch a live stream on their iPhones.

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:32am

Mercy Defeated History wrote: »

Shannon Crematorium is now operational.

So this is the future of death. You will be cremated while tributes air on video screens and your friends in far-flung countries watch a live stream on their iPhones.

God that sounds depressing. Give me a good 'oul balls to the wall Irish wake any day.

_Brian · 11-01-2019 11:37am

Hammer89 wrote: »

Let's call a spade a spade: graveyards won't last, will they? We're a godless generation, us Milennials. Has there ever been another generation as detached from religion as us? Potentially not, and if that's the case, which it might well be, then how is this not going to have a knock-on effect for traditional, Christian burials?

Funeral and burial preferences have changed quite a lot. There was a time when cremation was a bit bold in the eyes of the church, a bit un-Christian-like, but now 33% of dead people are opting for this. This highlights a detachment even in non-Millenials, so how different could the landscape be in 40 or 50 years, when it's our time to go?

I appreciate that it's popular for the ashes of deceased people to be buried in graveyards to this day, but there's a chance we'll move further away from this in time, as people grow less sentimental over the idea of being buried with their loved ones. It's a lovely idea and I've nothing wrong with it obviously, but I don't think my generation will draw the same warmth and solace from it as our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

Who knows lads, but what I do know - or at least think - is that graveyards are f*cked. I'm not sure they'll physically go anywhere, but I do think the business side of them will suffer in the long run.

You don’t need religion for a burial though.

I was at the burial of a far out relation.
Five of us, funeral director and two grave diggers.

Collected him from mortuary, no prayers, he’s wife didn’t even go in to see the coffin being closed.

Drove straight to council run graveyard.

Myself, brother and two grave diggers lowered him into the ground and the lads started shivering in the clay, no priest, no prayers, nothing.

Had to count the grave location and write it down for his wife in case she ever wanted to go back, that’s maybe eight years ago and she never set foot back since that moment.

Personally I don’t care, cremate me and spread me somewhere in a nice deciduous forest and that would be grand.

seamus · 11-01-2019 11:43am

I don't particularly see an issue with graveyards; we all rot and feed the worms either way.

Though we should be encouraging the use of materials which degrade more quickly and discouraging the use of embalming fluids.

This stuff of pumping corpses full of preservatives and sticking them in strong and treated wooden boxes is perverse. You're going to bury them forever a couple of days later, why do they need to be robust?

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:47am

seamus wrote: »

I don't particularly see an issue with graveyards; we all rot and feed the worms either way.

Though we should be encouraging the use of materials which degrade more quickly and discouraging the use of embalming fluids.

This stuff of pumping corpses full of preservatives and sticking them in strong and treated wooden boxes is perverse. You're going to bury them forever a couple of days later, why do they need to be robust?

So the undertaker can charge grief-stricken relatives loads of money for it.

enda1 · 11-01-2019 11:52am

Cremation is not environmentally friendly at all!

I much prefer the idea of burial in linen garments with a new native tree forest growing out of your corpse. Of course after any medical implants and fillings have been removed in order to prevent heavy metal leaching and titanium waste etc.

The Davestator · 11-01-2019 11:53am

Fun Fact

Graveyards are in church grounds

Cemetery's are not in church grounds

blade1 · 11-01-2019 11:53am

randd1 wrote: »

Heard of this idea years ago of planting seeds with the body, and using the nutrients from decomposing body to grow trees or crops. Not a bad way to go.

If they do that with Donald Trump, this is what you would end up with!:eek:

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:54am

The Davestator wrote: »

Fun Fact

Graveyards are in church grounds

Cemetery's are not in church grounds

Every day's a school day - did not know that.

BeerWolf · 11-01-2019 12:19pm

Cremated or liquefied.

Deebles McBeebles · 11-01-2019 12:33pm

Has anyone mentioned wolves? I would happily donate my body to be a meal for a pack of wolves.

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 12:35pm

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Has anyone mentioned wolves? I would happily donate my body to be a meal for a pack of wolves.

Hard enough to come by a pack of wolves in this part of the world though.
Badgers maybe?

What'll we do with our dead?

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