All lit up in love
From a story in the Times of India: BHOPAL: Marriages are said to be arranged in heaven. But this one was solemnized inside a crematorium amid beating of drums, music and dance. Vinod tied the nuptial knot with Vinita, daughter of Amar Rai, on Saturday here at the Anand Nagar crematorium on Raisen Road. […]
Quote of the day
“I think it is a great shame because the cross was etched into the glass when it was first built and what was special about it was that if you looked at it, it gave the effect of being on a hill in the distance. “We have people of all different beliefs using the crem […]
Cremnivores
Gloucester crematorium’s Arbor restaurant is now offering Sunday lunch. Observes one Gloucester resident wryly: “It seems a bit odd – and perhaps even slightly macabre – for them to be offering roast meat to people, given that their main business is to cremate bodies. I’m not sure I’d like to eat my Sunday roast in […]
Let’s make the case for funerals
Guest post by Rupert Callender, owner of The Green Funeral Company. Often this blog can trot nicely along with the usual suspects commenting dryly from the sidelines, a good natured conversation amongst friends. It’s easy to forget it has a wide, international readership, easy that is, until a seemingly innocuous post unleashes a Bay of […]
Crematoria need to offer a drop-off service. Will they?
We can speculate why it is that, in so-called advanced societies, the conventional funeral as an event is something dead people are increasingly bypassing. The point is that it’s happening, and demand for direct cremation (deathbed to incinerator) is growing. It is growing especially among educated liberal thinkers, precisely the constituency which was the first […]
Now with streaming video
Posted by Vale The Lancashire Telegraph reported last week that it is planning to put a video streaming service into it’s Burnley Crematorium. The chapel proved too small on over 50 occasions last year and, with the video service, people would be able to watch the ceremony on a big screen or over (a […]
She went to glory!
Some reflections here by Guardian commenter StoPeriyali on the way we do cremation in the UK: Having been to several (far too many) crematorium services, I have always felt the moment when the curtain closes and they start to hoosh you all out ready for the next one, is utterly dismal, flat, anti-climactic, unsatisfying. You have […]
Publishing event of the year!
The Natural Death Handbook, Fifth Edition A thoroughly updated and revised edition of the Natural Death Centre‘s celebrated handbook. Now presented alongside a new collection of essays on death, dying and funeral practices by doctors, historians, authors, poets, theologians and artists including Richard Barnett, David Jay Brown, Dr Sheila Cassidy, Charles Cowling, Bill Drummond, Stephen Grasso, […]
Battersea reborn
Since it went offline in 1983 a number of developers have strategised and sunk under the burden of putting Battersea Power Station to profitable use. It can’t be knocked down because it’s Grade 2 listed. Given its rapid rate of deterioration it’ll fall down of its own accord soon anyway. A robust proposal for life […]
Never cut a mourner a bit of slack
From This Is Bristol: I WANT to share a distressing experience with your readers. Last Monday(12th) was my Mum’s funeral it was at 12.30 at Canford Crematorium. We were waiting for the hearse to come to our house and at about 12.10 it had still not arrived I rang the funeral company in case they […]
