About Burial Shrouds

A burial shroud is a distinguished wrap for the body; also referred to as burial sheets, winding-cloths or winding sheets. Shrouds can be made from white cotton, wool, linen or other material that is made of natural fibers. 

The shrouded body can be delicately carried with attached natural woven straps or inserted bamboo poles, and transported by hand to the natural setting. The shrouded body may simply be laid directly into a casket, or easily carried alone. Shroudage is much lighter than the usual (100 lb. to 300 lb.) weight of a casket.

The folds and ties of this shroud (at right) are patterned after a Japanese gift wrapping method, where presents are enclosed in material, not paper.


Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin dates back to the Middle Ages, likely between 1260 and 1390. It's made of herringbone twill, composed of flax fibrils, sized 14.3 ft. by 2.7 ft.

Shroud of Grushetskaya

This was Agafya Grushetskaya's shroud, daughter of Russian Noble, Semyon Fyodorovich Grushetsky & Mariya Ivanovna Zaborovskaya, she married Tsar Feodor III of Russia, becoming Queen (Tsaritsa). She died in 1681, aged 18, from childbirth complications.

When are burial shrouds used?

Some religions require the use of a burial shroud wrapped around the body prior to burial. For example, Jews use a burial shroud or "Tachrichim" and Muslims use burial shrouds of white cotton or linen shroud referred to as "Al kafan". 

The shroud is often wrapped around the body and the wrapped body is placed inside the casket for burial. Green burial grounds usually require the use of either a biodegradable casket or a natural burial shroud for burials in their cemeteries.

If you choose burial, would you use a burial shroud? Why or why not?

What You Should Know About Cemetery Burial

Cemeteries Require a Burial Vault or Grave Liner

If a contemporary cemetery has been chosen for the burial, a concrete grave liner or burial vault is usually required by the cemetery. Most cemeteries require this because it keeps the ground level, which makes the land easier to maintain (mow), as well as safer for the families and visitors who walk through the cemetery.

Unless a lawn crypt is already installed in the plot you purchase, you will need to purchase a vault or liner additionally. In Oregon cemeteries, basic concrete grave liners cost less than $1,000 and sealed burial vaults range from $1,500 to $9,000. There are also fees associated with installing the vault (usually around $150) and fees to open and close the grave (usually ranging from $100 for an urn, to $500 to $1000 for a casket). (See the red line of image A left. This is the burial vault or grave liner which surrounds the casket.)

Cemetery Burial Compromise (Ask for a Flipped Burial Vault)

When religious or environmental beliefs require the body to touch the earth, many cemeteries choose to accommodate this request by flipping the burial vault upside down and leaving it uncapped so that the body or the bottom of the casket is laid directly on the soil. Note: In this instance you must still purchase the entire vault, but most cemeteries do not charge to flip the vault for you. This option satisfies the requirements of the cemetery, as well as religious objections and/or environmental beliefs. (See image B at right. Note: grave liner, indicated in red, is open at bottom).

 

Green Burial

Green burial (or natural burial) grounds do not use containers. This provides a more direct return to the soil. (See image C left. In this instance, a burial shroud is often used).

Green Burial Grounds often use indigenous rock or planting a shrub as a markers. These lands are preserved and function as parks for life to thrive. While the graves disappear into the landscape. Locations are noted with Global Positioning System coordinates. (GIS) also helps pinpoint your loved one's final resting place.

Please share your thoughts on burial. Would you prefer cemetery burial or green burial? What advice can you share with others? 

Your Legal Right to Home Burial

Home burial is legal in some states and counties. The number of backyard burials is increasing, and has done so dramatically over the past 5 years. The Funeral Consumer’s Alliance reports that only two companies aided families holding home funerals in 2002, but now there are at least 45 companies.

Regarding Home Burial, most counties ask for a certain acreage amount, a distance of at least 150’ from a water supply, and at least two feet of earth on top. Before burial, the person in charge must sign the burial-transit permit and return it within 10 days to the registration of the county in which the death occurred. The practice is generally discouraged because of the potential affect on the property value. Because the practice is not common yet, society is still uncomfortable with it. Neighbors might find it disturbing to watch someone bring a body home, hold a funeral in their home, and then bury the body in their yard. However, a number of planned “Green Burial Preserves” are currently in development throughout the country to fulfill the demand for natural burials.

Please share your thoughts on home burials. Have you helped conduct a home burial or known someone with a private property cemetery? What advice can you share with others? 

Your Legal Right to Home Funerals

Many people do not know is that it is legal for them to take their loved ones home (in their own car) and to keep them (if cooled) for a number of days. Currently home funerals are legal in 45 states. Many people do not realize that embalming is not mandatory. 

Legally, you can take your own deceased loved one home with you as long as you get the proper permit for transporting, and follow approved procedures for cooling, and length of time before burial.

Home funerals pose no health risks under normal circumstances. (According to the World Health Organization, "Ordinary contact or handling of an intact, unautopsied body does not pose a risk, and cosmetic work may be undertaken without any special precautions.")

Home funerals offer a more humane and healing alternative to the usual American custom of giving your loved one's body to a professional who will take full charge of the body for you.

Individuals have the legal right to care for their own at death. They can file the death certificate and file obituaries with the local newspapers. The most important benefits of Home Funeral to the bereaved are psychological. The healing and acceptance of death is easier for the family when they are able to touch, see and spend time with their lost loved one.

Even in states where a funeral director is required, home funerals are far less expensive. An average American funeral costs more than $6,000. The home funeral version can cost a lot less. 

Our Video on Home Funerals

Please share your thoughts on home funerals. 
*Have you helped conduct a home funeral? What advice can you share with others? 
*Would you take part in a home funeral? Why or why not?

Green Burial vs Modern Cemetery

Preserve History; Preserve the Earth. 

When it comes to burial, there are two different overall outlooks. One group is concerned preserving precious wilderness and returning naturally to the earth, and the other group wants to preserve and share their history and life experiences with others beyond their lifetime. If we consider this fact, it becomes clear that both contemporary cemeteries and green burial grounds serve a specific, important purpose to society. One preserves our earth. One preserves our history.

Focus each Cemetery on what it does Best.

Some consumers are beginning to inquire about more sustainable endings. They question the necessity of embalming, the cost and material waste of contemporary caskets and wonder why green burial isn’t made more widely available.

Although new green burial grounds have been opening up in answer to these concerns, offering embalming-free burials and biodegradable caskets, contemporary cemeteries have also begun looking to meet the consumer’s desires by offering green burials in their contemporary cemeteries. Additionally, some modern cemeteries even offer green burials right alongside contemporary burials. The question we must ask here is - do families looking for green burial want to be buried in town, in a contemporary, manicured and paved cemetery? For most, we have found the answer is “no”.

What's really driving the green burial funeral movement...

People see modern, paved, landscaped cemeteries as wasteful. They see land as a valuable resource. What green burial advocates are really concerned about is land conservation, not their carbon footprint. Cemeteries and crematories offering carbon offsets are completely out of touch. It's also quite ridiculous to "green wash" a cemetery, labeling it a "hybrid", (offering green burial in the middle of a concrete-lined cemetery.) As you will notice,

the most revered green burial grounds are usually off the beaten path, non-landscaped, non-paved plots of land rife with native trees and vegetation. The families who choose to bury loved ones in these lands don’t want paved roads to get to them. They want the natural process of returning to the earth to take place amid the beauty of nature. They want to contribute to a practice that conserves the land for future generations. These desires are unfortunately not ones that fit well into a contemporary cemetery space. However, this statement is not meant to devalue the modern cemetery. Rather, we would like to point out that the contemporary, paved, manicured cemetery has a grander agenda on its hands than to turn its sights towards "hybrid" burial to address the real issue of infrequent visitation.

Reuse is 100% Eco-Friendly

When we think of green or sustainable, most often the first thing that comes to mind is a biodegradable product or an efficient reuse of resources. Let us consider the three R’s to reducing waste: reduce, reuse and recycle. By actually following the lifecycle of a product, reusing and repurposing the item, this achieves the purpose of sustainability.

A Greener Cemetery is a Frequented Cemetery

The fact of the matter is that modern cemeteries already exist. Their land has already been designated for burial purposes. Their roads are already paved. Their locations are centrally located, well-known, convenient and easily accessed. Green burial advocates do not diminish their significant benefits. However, these locations are simply not frequented.

Modern Cemeteries are Rich in History

Modern cemeteries are rich, historical repositories that have the power to incorporate elements of fun, entertainment, and educational experiences to their visitors. They can transform their conveniently located and gloriously maintained parks into interactive biographical and historical time capsules for families and the public to enjoy.

Technology Brings History to Life

There are so many ways to improve and expand upon these existing cemeteries and memorial parks, yet we do not see the technology face lift taking place. The memorial park can and should be the center of activity in the community. If land is for the living, why not bring these already dedicated parks to life? New technology will improve and reinvigorate the modern cemetery and protect our rich history.

Green Cemeteries = land preservation.  

Modern Cemeteries = history preservation.

We can imagine a rewarding divide taking place between the green burial grounds and modern cemeteries. Let’s consider the purpose of each type of cemetery. While green burial parks will function to preserve green spaces for future generations our modern cemeteries will preserve our local legends, folklore and history. While green burial parks will be the place to go when we want to be reabsorbed back into the earth, our modern cemetery is where we will go to hear the stories of our family, friends and neighbors. Each type of cemetery deserves to function in its strongest capacity. Let’s not dilute the integrity for which each was originally intended.

Our Video on Livening Up Our Cemeteries

Please share your thoughts on natural burial and our modern cemeteries. Can we preserve land and history at the same time? How can we improve our local cemeteries and encourage generations to take an interest in the local history in our cemeteries?

What is Green Burial?

What is Green Burial?

Green burial incarnates the pure nature of allowing the body to return naturally to the earth. When one opts for a natural green burial, he or she is contributing to the preservation of the land. Green burials are a practical alternative to both traditional burials and cremation. There is either no embalming or embalming with non-toxic, formaldehyde-free fluids, no headstones and no grave liners. (Grave liners are concrete boxes that line the inside of the grave, like an open-ended box with no lid, used to keep regular cemeteries flat for grass to be mowed easily). The container that holds the body (coffin, casket, or shroud) must be 100% biodegradable.

Green burial grounds adopt principles of restoration ecology, to eventually become natural wilderness preserves. Restoration ecologists study the land to learn what is native, what had invaded the land, what wildlife existed, and plan to encourage the restoration and preservation of the grounds. Land is maintained without chemicals or non-native plantings.

Although many consider green burial a new choice in burial options, green burials have been in existence for many years. Families used to care for their own deceased loved ones, and usually buried them on their own property. Although they weren’t called green burials then, we now understand the wisdom of these practices.

Why choose green burial?

Those who choose Green Burial oppose the chemicals used in the traditional embalming process. However, the funeral industry is working to reduce and eliminate these issues. New environmentally friendly embalming fluids and chemicals are now available by some of the leading funerary chemical manufacturers.

To help further reduce waste, green burial supporters choose biodegradable, sustainable solutions for their end-of-life plans. This includes burial choices of sustainably grown woods, woven baskets, natural pottery urns, and other earth friendly materials. However, there is no need to purchase a product to ensure a green departure. Sustainable products include the reuse of retired objects that could be good for the purposes of burial or cremains.

Benefits of Green Burial

• Environmentally friendly, low impact burials. 
• Land stewardship and restoration planning. 
• Sustainable burial methods.
• Restrictions to keep the grounds exclusively as green cemetery. 
• Some use naturally flat stones or native trees used for grave markers with GIS coordinates recorded. Others have no grave-markers. 
• Oftentimes, it is purely forest and meadows 

Green Burial Facts

Enriches Soil. Adds organic material, Improves fertility and productivity. Suppresses plant diseases, discourages insects, increases water retention, inoculates soil with beneficial microorganisms, reduces or eliminates fertilizer needs, moderates soil temperature.

Prevents Pollution. Reduces methane production in landfills, reduces or eliminates organic garbage, reduces or eliminates sewage.

Fights Existing Pollution. Degrades toxic chemicals, binds heavy metals, cleans contaminated air, cleans storm-water runoff.

Aids in reforestation, helps restore wildlife habitats, helps reclaim mined lands, helps restore damaged wetlands, helps prevent erosion on flood plains.

Destroys Pathogens. Can destroy human disease organisms, plant pathogens, and livestock pathogens.

Eliminates waste disposal costs. Reduces the need for water, fertilizers, and pesticides. Extends landfill life by diverting materials and is a less costly bioremediation technique.

Our Video Supporting the Need for Green Burial 

Please share your thoughts about Green Burial. 
Have you known anyone who has chosen a green burial or have you visited a green burial cemetery? If so, what did you find different/like about the cemetery? 
Will you choose green burial for yourself? Why or why not?

Green Departures

“Americans put 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete, 104,272 tons of steel [for caskets and vaults], 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, and 30 million board feet of hardwoods into the ground each year...the concrete alone…[is] enough to build 13,573 American houses.”
A growing trend is the practice green or natural burial, which compassionately cares for the deceased and protects the earth. However, this natural and safe method has been practiced for centuries.

Muslims wrap their dead in “white wrappings” and bury them directly onto the dirt of the grave (Jonker, 2006, p. 158). As Jonker (2006) explains, “No coffin is needed or wanted” (p. 158). The body is lowered into the grave “with shawls or lengths of cloth” and is “positioned as if sleeping” (Jonker, 2006, p. 158) with either a stone or pile of mud placed under the head for support (p. 158). The natural burial of the body in Islam (wrappings of just a shroud, no embalming and being placed directly in contact with the earth) allows for a more natural return to the earth. There is no use of unnecessary embalming fluid and coffin to slow the recycling of the body to the soil.

The Jews also bury directly in the ground, and do not allow interment in mausoleums “as this is not returning the body to the dust from whence it came” (Levine, 1997, p. 107). Additionally, like Islam, Judaism prohibits both cremation and embalming (Levine, 1997, p. 107). This law was designed to prevent destruction and or altering of the body, however it is also done for the compassion of the surviving loved ones (Levine, 1997, p. 107). Because “embalming…creates an illusion of life…[it] may hinder the bereaved from acknowledging the death of their loved one” (Levine, 1997, p. 108). These compassionate Jewish values honor the deceased, assist in the healing of loved ones and protect the planet.

Ecohumanist beliefs also support natural burial for the preservation of the planet. One of the principles shared on the Council for Secular Humanist (2009) is to “protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.” When one considers all the pollution and waste from common contemporary burials (embalmed body in casket), one cannot ignore the significant and devastating effects upon the earth. Cullen (2006) presents some very startling statistics on contemporary burials.

“Americans put 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete, 104,272 tons of steel [for caskets and vaults], 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, and 30 million board feet of hardwoods into the ground each year...the concrete alone…[is] enough to build 13,573 American houses” (p. 52).

“Like the contents of any landfill, the embalmed body’s toxic cache escapes its host and eventually leaches into the environment, tainting surrounding soil and groundwaters” (Harris, 2007, p. 38). This happens because coffins are not leak-proof. Harris (2007) explains that the “combined body fluids, liquefied tissue, formaldehyde, bacteria, and corporeal acids…collect at the lowest spot of the casket, pooling in a…toxic soup” (p. 37). Wood caskets are porous offering minimal resistance to such toxic liquids, which can easily leak out (Harris, 2007, p. 37). While “metal caskets are more resilient…acids work to breach them as well” (Harris, 2007, p. 37). Cullen (2006) notes that green (natural) burials can “cut that waste [and pollution] dramatically” (p. 52).

Embalming and caskets are not only unnecessary, they are wasteful and harmful to the planet. Obviously the pollution of the earth and the waste of precious resources do not help to protect the purity or safety of our planet. Natural or green burials, as supported by Ecohumanists, are clearly the most ethical and compassionate methods of burial. They help protect the planet for future generations.

References:
Cullen, L. T. (2006). Remember Me. New York: Harper Collins.

Harris, M. (2007). Grave Matters. A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. New York: Scribner.

Jonker, G. (2006). The many facets of Islam: Death, dying and disposal between orthodox rule and historical conventon, in, C.M. Parkes, P. Laungani, & B. Young (Ed.), Death and Bereavement Across Cultures (pp. 98-130) London: Routledge.

Levine, E. (2006). Jewish Views and Customs on Death, in, C.M. Parkes, P. Laungani, & B. Young (Ed.), Death and Bereavement Across Cultures (pp. 98-130) London: Routledge.

The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles. (2009). Council for Secular Humanism. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from: http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=affirmations
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