Burial ground losing ground

There is an article in Time magazine dated September 28, 1936, which, though its numbers I’m sure are no longer accurate, held information about the different types of burial that still seemed relevant today.

There have been a number of different kinds of burial techniques that have been employed since the first people died. Egyptians mummified their dead and embalmed their deceased bodies, burying them sometimes in pyramids. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians also used water burial, where the deceased were placed in a reed casket and cast out in the water. And there was also the usage of cremation, which is believed to have started in ancient times.

Each of these types of burials were devised because of the resources that were available to those people and because of the religious beliefs that these people had. But I would add that these people buried their dead also in a manner that may have shown what they thought of themselves and their place in the universe. While I am not in a position to provide proof of this claim, I would argue that those who cremated themselves did not want to take up more space after their death, realizing that there were people who came after them and also needed space to occupy on this earth. Currently though, arguably from inconsideration, we are running of a burial space to occupy.

Back then, I would argue that no one took into account that at some point the amount of burial space would run out. But that is the case, that in the immediate future, there will no longer be any free burial space left. Perhaps soon we will have to employ some of these previous methods, like the water burial, as opposed to burial in the ground which, because of the current system of burial where there is sometimes only one person buried in a plot, takes up a lot of space.

Cremations, despite any religious or other objections, may also need to become more of a reality with the decreasing number of plots available in cemeteries. Many cemeteries, including Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, are quickly running out of space to bury the dead and in fact are trying to find alternative methods to burying people in the ground. Cemeteries are beginning to create burial plots that can house several bodies above ground side by side in what look like larger cubby holes or shelves at a morgue, which are being used in the new portion of Maple Grove.

But while some cemetery directors are trying to study methods that would utilize their cemetery’s space more effectively, I think that this problem should not simply weigh down on these directors’ shoulders. First of all, as people who will eventually pass away and who should realize that there is only a limited space left in many cemeteries, we should make sure that we specify how we would like to be buried and hopefully in a way that is conscious of this lack of space reality. Secondly, as in the next 20 years burial space may become a serious problem, it would be interesting to see if there is legislation passed to mandate that people must have certain kinds of burials. I cannot personally imagine that burial could be legislated but perhaps for practical reasons this will need to happen.

While hopefully we will not have to let our families make this kind of decision for us, our method of burial is something that we should be more conscious of as we have the ability to be conscious of it.

I will include the article below for your review. Please feel free to comment on either the article itself or on my posting.

Parallel meetings of crematory and cemetery owners in Chicago last week revealed part of the big business which goes on behind the religious ritual of Death. Undertakers, florists and monument men do $500,000,000 worth of business a year in the U. S. Casket manufacturers do $65,000,000 gross. Crematists, a growing profession, take in $1,500,000. Priests and parsons make anywhere from $5 to $100 per funeral.

To dispose of a dead body decently costs for the undertaking $35 to $1,000; cremation, urn and a niche in a columbarium $50 to $10,000; a single grave lot, seldom more than $50; a modest headstone $50. A few crematists, to popularize their profession, are charging only $50 to perform all disposal functions from death bed to hole-in-the-wall. Cremation in a modern oil furnace takes only 90 minutes.

No. 1 U. S. crematist is Lawrence Frank (”Larry”) Moore of Oakland. Calif., whose $500,000 crematory and columbarium were designed by Julia Morgan. Founder of the Cremation Association of America and the man whom Mr. Moore salutes as “the leader of the philosophical cremation movement.” is Dr. Hugo Erichsen of Detroit, onetime neurologist, one-time medical director of Burroughs Adding Machine Co. Competition forced Dr. Erichsen to close his crematory in 1929. He still writes campaign material for the trade.

Strong objection to cremation on religious grounds comes from Orthodox Jews. The Roman Catholic Church also objects to cremation. Protestant denominations generally do not object. The Unitarian Church, however, is the only one which positively approves. Reads its new service book: “The growing practice of cremation is to be commended, especially in large cities. Not infrequently cremation takes place in advance of the funeral service. This usage helps to minimize the physical aspect of death and to centre the attention upon the spiritual message of the service.” Dr. Yon Ogden Vogt of Chicago’s First Unitarian Church, which sells niches for urns in its cellar walls, told the crematists in Chicago last week: ”Cremation . . . avoids the considerable expense of a headstone and still greater cost of a monument.”

Out of every Death dollar which they divide undertakers get 90¢, cemetery owners 10¢. Cemetery Owner J. M. Harbertson of Ogden, Utah last week showed his colleagues how to increase their share of Death’s dollar by going into the mortuary business himself. Because he saves double handling of the corpse and does not increase his overhead he has found that he can generally underbid local funeral parlors.

Another innovation is the memorial park which Hubert Eaton, a Los Angeles mining engineer, developed. Mr. Eaton’s 350-acre Forest Lawn Memorial Park, which has been copied far & wide, contains no tombstones. Graves are marked by $50 copper plates level with the ground above the body. Mr. Eaton, who operates a funeral parlor on his grounds, discourages ground burials, recommends incineration in his crematory, inurnment and safekeeping in his columbarium. Above all, he prefers interment in a crypt of his gorgeous, statue-decked mausoleum. A refined selling point: Before a casket is sealed into a Forest Lawn crypt its lid is raised and a current of conditioned air is perpetually circulated through the crypt.

Mr. Eaton, in whose property Cinema Producer Irving Thalberg was buried last week and who has a contract to put Mary Pickford away when the time comes, advertises his cemetery with neon signs. expensive advertising brochures. Last week one of his colleagues. Judge William Heston of Detroit, boasted that, with no expensive advertising expenditures, his Michigan Memorial Park ”has received more publicity week after week than any other Detroit institution with the exception of the Detroit Tigers.” Since Judge Heston built a loud organ in his cemetery, ”anyone driving within a radius of four or five miles of our Park hears this beautiful music floating through the air.”‘

~ by anz203 on September 14, 2007.