Home Funerals and Green Burial

Home Funerals It’s legal … it’s green

A hundred years ago home funerals, like home births, were the norm. Slowly the care of our loved ones was turned over to professionals. Now there is a remembering of the power and sacredness of this final act of love . . . as more and more families choose a home funeral.

A traditional Swiss wake

Workshop in after-death care

Workshop

Decorating a Cremation Coffin

The following slides honor Harriett

Washing and blessing

Moving the body

Harriett’s “Hope Chest” (coffin)

Memorial

Casket personalized for Harriett

The following slides honor John

Guest book

Memorial

The following slides honor Catherine

Granddaughter painted the coffin

Family carries coffin into crematory

Web Resources

Web page with general information and resources www.homefuneral.info

Web page with video about how to do a home funeral, $15 www.passingthroughourhands.com

Web page of home funeral practitioners and resources www.HomeFuneralDirectory.com

Growing Awareness & Interest
Green burial
Personalization
Cremation
No embalming
Shroud burial

Funeral Trends
57% pre-planned their funeral or intended to pre-plan
62% adults want personalization at their funeral
50% of these want a friend/s to tell stories about the deceased
13% want a traditional funeral with visitation and religious content/approach
Source: National Funeral Directors’ Association Survey, Harris Interactive

Shades of Green
Whichever way you make your transition greener, whatever shade of green you choose for your End-of-Life ceremony, the decisions you make will be precious legacies that will move us towards truly life affirming and honoring ourselves, our beautiful blue planet, and all of life

Each year in the U.S. we bury
827,060 gallons of formaldehyde-based embalming fluid
90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
30-plus million board feet of timber including tropical hardwoods (caskets)
1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)

Green Burial Does NOT Require
Formaldehyde-based embalming
Concrete Burial Vaults
Metal caskets
Beloved - 18 Gauge Steel Casket List Price: $3,395.00 Our Price: $1,195.00 You Save $2,200.00!

Wood Casket

Biodegradable Coffins

Shroud

Recycled Paper “Ecopod”

Goal of Green Burial
Reduce toxins, waste, and carbon emissions associated with conventional deathcare
Utilize burial as a strategy for acquiring, restoring and stewarding natural areas

Process Through Time

Family Directed Burial Our Lady of the Rosary Cemetery, Georgetown, Tx

Our Lady of the Rosary Cemetery, Georgetown, Tx

Planting the Grave Our Lady of the Rosary Cemetery, Georgetown, Tx

Chapel Hill, NC

Metamora, Michigan

Open Grave

Ceremony at Green Cemetery Preserve

Gravestone

Buried in Shroud

Resources
www.Homefuneral.info
www.Homefuneraldirectory.com
www.Crossingscircle.org

Home Funerals and Green Burial

by Donna Belk on May 12, 2009

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Home Funerals and Green Burial — Presentation Transcript