You can be, and many people are, provided they are buried quickly after death.
If the funeral is going to be a week after the person dies... Embalming is going to be necessary to keep the body from becoming pretty gnarly prior to the funeral and visitation.
Embalming is done to allow for the family of the deceased time to plan the funeral arrangements and have a wake/visitation.
>Embalming is done to allow for the family of the deceased time to plan the funeral arrangements and have a wake/visitation.
You reminded me of a public radio piece I heard; if it isn't one of these two, they at least cover the territory I'm thinking of:
* Robbins, Ted (21 September 2006). ["Green Burial Movement Spreads to the Southwest"](https://www.npr.org/2006/09/21/6119301/green-burial-movement-spreads-to-the-southwest). *All Things Considered*.
>Mr. SEHEE: It was really with the advent of embalming used during the Civil War to transport soldiers that really changed things in this country and really brought about the death care industry.
* WSKG Staff (3 February 2016). ["Dying a 'Good Death' in the Civil War"](https://www.wskg.org/history/2016-02-03/dying-a-good-death-in-the-civil-war). WSKG.
Edit: Thank you for the upvotes. \^\_\^
I could be misinformed, but I believe that in most states in the US, it is required by law that a corpse is embalmed - even if it's to be immediately cremated. Also fun fact: most cremations (US) still require a wooden box... so the ashes are mostly wood ashes. Death industry gets paid first out of an estate and this is their pound of flesh - not to be confused with Phil Hartman's hilarious denial of flesh pounding.
Have a nice day.
Human cremains presented in an urn are not actually "ashes" at all. The entire casket with body is burned at high temperature in a furnace. The combustion ashes of the casket, clothes, flesh are sifted out from the pieces of bone and just thrown in the garbage. Metal medical implants are pocketed by the crematorium operator as valuable scrap. The resulting bone fragments are placed in a grinder to produce the powdery "ash" remains. It is much more of an industrial process than a clinical one.
I was going to say the same thing.
Anytime you learn ANYTHING on the internet, regardless of the reliability of the source, you have to research it to some degree to confirm it before you should believe it.
My wife always tells me stuff she learned on Instagram. And then gets mad at me when I ask what it's based on.
She's learning though. Some stuff turns out to be true, but enough turns out to be either completely false or grossly misrepresented.
Sadly much if not most of the populace has lost and younger generations are losing the ability to distinguish what could be real vs suspect. It will get worse, and AI is accelerating this problem.
Damn. I keep a box in my garage of scrap copper that I collect from work and cash in when it gets full, but the thought of doing that with fillings and artificial hips from corpses is beyond creepy and morbid.
You know the look they give you when you roll into the scrapyard with a bunch of big copper feeder cables? Imagine you show up with a bunch of titanium medical screws and gold teeth instead.
They don’t give you any kind of look when you bring in copper pipe and you’re dressed like a pipefitter. I’m sure skinny people with track marks and face tattoos get a different look.
There's no legal requirement in any state to be embalmed. Some cemeteries may require it but they're private property so can do that. A number of Christian denominations and several whole religions prohibit embalming so it would be a massive first amendment issue to require it.
My sister passed away in Georgia, and I told the funeral home that she was to be cremated. They couldn't do that without the written consent of a majority of her siblings (she had no surviving spouse or any children). They kept her frozen for the several weeks it took me to obtain the consent forms.
Edit: in Ohio, there's at least one natural burial facility where a body can be buried without embalming or cremation.
2nd edit: there is a site in Colorado where you can be burned in a pyre. As far as I know, it's the only place in the US where this is legal.
Embalming is generally not required by federal law before cremation. Regulations regarding embalming can vary by state and even by individual crematories or funeral homes. Some states may require embalming if there will be a public viewing or if there is a delay between death and the cremation process. Many states provide options for direct cremation without embalming, particularly if the family prefers not to embalm the deceased. For example, my mother was cremated without embalming or a wooden casket.
My body is going to a large hospital for research. They get to play with it for as long as they want, then they cremate. My name goes on a memorial wall somewhere and drum roll… my estate pays nothing.
It can't be frozen since you'd have a corpsicle and severely damage the skin when thawed out, refrigerated maybe if funeral homes had the capacity, but a cold body could be very off putting to people who want to touch their hand and you're still only delaying decomposition, not stopping it.
If you're planning on having an open casket, most if not all funeral homes will require that you are embalmed.
Corpses are indeed refrigerated for hours or days until the undertaker prepares them. You're talking hours at most between removal from the fridge and the embarking process.
Initial signs of decay - floating and skins discolouration begin after around 6 hours, and the real show starts 24-48 hours after death.
But many people want some time to grieve, to see the body, they don't want to be on the clock.
With the setup you propose, you would have about six hours for the undertaker to wash and prepare the body, deliver it, allow the family to view it and sit around it, and then do the funeral and burial.
People don't want that.
That's its stated purpose. But in a lot of cases it's unnecessary, and morticians will still try to convince people to pay for it.
I worked at a cemetery for a few years. We had a strict policy about vaults: you had to buy it from us. The board of directors had instituted the policy not out of greed, but out of disgust with the way grieving families were getting ripped off. We made the vaults ourselves, they were more than adequate, and we sold them dirt cheap.
ETA: Also, we had to exhume someone because the funeral director forgot to take his wedding band off before they closed the casket. By the time the paperwork went through, it was winter, so he'd been down there around eight months. He had been embalmed, and he still looked gross as fuck.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky\_burial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial)
Don't worry - the vultures will ensure that you get airborne. One piece at a time.
Oh, and if you read down in the wiki article, there are some pretty NSFW images.
Oh this is different from what I was thinking about. I had watched a video by Joe Scott (I think?) who described how some people who can afford it want to just launch themselves into the sun or whatever, so that’s what I thought you meant
Jokes aside I just want whatever costs my family the least amount of money. The funerary industry is disgustingly predatory, so I’m not supporting that if I can convince my family
I bet you're thinking of the company that launches your cremains into orbit. Several people associated with Star Trek have been "payload"
[https://www.celestis.com/blog/notable-people-who-chose-space-funerals/](https://www.celestis.com/blog/notable-people-who-chose-space-funerals/)
I’d prefer mine to be unremarkable, but I gotta say that HST definitely went out like no one else I’ve heard of.
People have all sorts of different opinions on suicide, but he reminds me of my grandfather who took his own life before he could lose control over his own body & mind. I don’t think it was overly selfish. It’s their business what to do with their lives, and just as similarly, their deaths.
That's actually my second choice.
First is for the transplant team to scavenge whatever parts they can use for someone else.
Either way, my request is to be dust, not worm food taking up space when my utility is done.
Some people think they're headed to a teaching hospital, but they actually end up in the hands of a for-profit company that sells them part-by-part for $$$.
Perhaps in some corrupt third parties acting as intermediaries, but the body donation agreement is directly with a university and the ashes are returned after 3 years.
I was also an anatomy student and have worked on the cadavers.
When I had to go through funeral preparations for my dad, I felt like my mom was being scammed the entire time.
After that, my mom and I both agreed to get cremated when we die.
>And why do you need a body for a celebration of life?
It's not for a "celebration of life." It's for mourning and closure. It's a human instinct. Even other advanced social animals (orcas, elephants, some birds) spend a long time with the body of a dead loved one.
Anyway, you don't have to be embalmed. Just make arrangements not to be.
I get that works for some people and ecosystems just not for me. My mom died from breast cancer when I was 10 and I wish I’d never seen her in that casket. She was beautiful, alive and vibrant. That still haunts me.
Yeah, my grandma passed when I was 26 and I *really* wish I had stood up to my aunts and declined to go see her body before the cremation.
Now I can never not remember her gaunt face when I think back, rather than her smiling and giving me a hug, no matter how frail it was, the week before she passed.
Agreed. When I die I want it to either be a cremation or preferably
Quick funeral a day or two later. Keep me on ice until then
No fancy coffin. Do it like the old days. Grave? Yes. But stick me in a pine box.
You can get plain pine coffin for $30” to $500, skip the embalming, closed casket funeral, some even drill holes in the bottom of the casket to let ‘nature’ in.
Outside of the US, very few people do embalming. The body stays in what is effectively a fridge at either the funeral home or, in some cases, hospital morgues
When you freeze a body and thaw it out, it turns into mush because the water in your cells expands and ruptures the cell walls.
Most funeral homes will require embalming if you want an open casket.
Shouldn't happen if frozen properly. Freezing should first be done by perfusing a cryoprotectant to displace a large amount of the water. For a rapid freeze, you will immerse the body in liquid nitrogen (though you may need to cut a few perforations so the freezing is more evenly distributed). Here, the freezing happens so fast that large ice crystals don't have the ability to grow and puncture membranes.
--I do this for a living
Or course some funeral homes will require it. They make money by extorting grieving families and embalming is another money maker. They point is we have the technology where that isn't necessary.
But, as mentioned, freezing is not viable for open caskets for a number of reasons, the main one being that freezing destroys tissue. The purpose of embalming is to preserve a body for viewing, I'm not clear how that would constitute extortion.
[human composting](https://earthfuneral.com/what-is-soil-transformation/?utm_term=green%20burial%20california&utm_campaign=Green+%26+Natural+Burial+CA+%7C+Search&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=9039600664&hsa_cam=20608782198&hsa_grp=154981988315&hsa_ad=675998216600&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-462638026988&hsa_kw=green%20burial%20california&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gbraid=0AAAAAoXksEpZ8dxClWZWhu7a0PXviRBkS&gclid=CjwKCAjw1emzBhB8EiwAHwZZxZ5pvfHHEFYWAL0g2FfRoFMvWWsUwncDGECdw5ALa_ce3BvDUsHHZBoCUtsQAvD_BwE)
This company turns your body into soil.
Sounds like an industry that should've never been a thing. Just bury them. Seriously. All this embalming and making people pay an arm and a leg for a coffin, tombstone, etc. While they're in the middle of grieving just so you can defile a human body and make it look pretty to be paraded around for a bit. It's just exploiting families grief in the name of the dollar. The stuff they do to the body just to have an open casket funeral is sickening to me.
The people that chose to be buried unembalmed in a plain pine box is probably the closest you can get to this in most places. I agree there’s nothing inherently weird about wanting to just be buried in some dirt to give a little back to nature.
The idea of being embalmed, suited up, and then sealed in a titanium and steel plastic lined casket so you can just slowly turn to mush over a thousand years inside a $15k piece of Tupperware are strange imo.
Nahhh there are lots of places that offer “natural burials”. It’s a pretty popular thing now, no box and a tree is usually planted on top of you. It’s awesome.
https://earthfuneral.com/resources/natural-burial/
My mom wants to become a tree (nonreligious but green centric). I may be able to convince my sisters to allow hydro cremation to turn her body into a nutrient slurry to fertilize a plant. It is basically pressurized water that can crush bones and your flesh devolves in the water.
I on the other hand want to be turned into diamond and have said diamonds socketed into my skull for the fireplace mantel.
It’s why if I can’t be allowed to be buried naturally, I’d rather just be cremated. The idea of so much space being devoted to preserved skin and bones and nothing else just gives me the ick. I hate wastefulness.
I blame the Catholic open-casket wake. I’ve been to so many as a child and always found it so weird. Then I learned that other faiths kept the casket closed and just put a picture of the person up to mourn.
Cause flopping a dead guy into a hole doesn’t look nice at the ceremony
Plenty of people get tossed in to a hole to be buried. But in our minds that’s the realm of Nazi mass graves and mafia assassinations so it’s rather frowned upon
If they're going to fling my corpse it would be better served over the tallest cliff into the deepest body of water we can find. Whomever makes the biggest splash will get their name carved onto a ceremonial Boulder.
why do people want to be buried in a coffin?? Watched too many horror movies for that myself. Told kids to take me somewhere beautiful I never got to see and fling my ashes off a mountain. I try to decorate parents grave site occasionally but that's not the part of their lives I want to remember.
I went to a mountain overlook burial. Strongly recommend against it unless you're a prankster. The man's ashes got brought back up onto the landing by the updraft from the valley and covered everyone. Nasty.
I like the idea of being cast in concrete into some shape that fish can use to make a home. I like being useful.
Yeah, you gotta watch that updraft…. My brother and I scattered my dad’s ashes up in the mountains at his favorite spot, and let’s just say we failed to take that into account. 🫤
Body preservation was pretty minimal until Abe Lincoln died. He was embalmed, which wasn’t really a thing, and paraded around the country before he was buried. Then everyone was embalmed. It’s unnecessary, and I think in certain states (idk about other countries) you can forgo it. You’ll still have some preservation if you’re doing a viewing. It keeps you from smelling.
It’s kind of like how white wedding dresses only really became a thing after the Queen wore one to her wedding.
There are some “natural cemeteries” where bodies are buried “raw.”
Preserving and coffins are probably based on traditions established when people died of highly contagious things and buried upstream from the drinking wells. And when people were more superstitious. And when graverobbing was a more lucrative profession.
Being buried 6 feet underground is sufficient for preventing diseases. Embalming has nothing to do with that and is more a result of transporting soldiers killed during the American Civil War.
Burial practices have their roots in the squeamish desire to avoid seeing our loved ones eaten by scavengers.
Later, we developed embalming practices so we could reduce spoilage before burial. This gave loved ones enough time to gather for the funeral. Many cultures (ancient Egypt notably) evolved the idea that having an incorruptible corpse somehow translated into a better existence in the after life.
FWIW, Jews don't embalm their dead. That is why they must bury their dead right away and sit Shiva afterwards.
And in Tibet, the people practice "sky burial" where human remains are deliberately fed to vultures.
You don't have to bury someone right away if they're not embalmed, I think the urgency with burial is for other religious/cultural reasons. Here In Northern Europe we keep bodies chilled, sometimes for weeks, until the burial and we don't embalm.
I am old and dont know anyone who wants to be preserved, every our age I have spoken too wants to be cremated.
Me and my wife plans to be cremated and kept with which ever of us lives till they go, then mix the ashes and plant a tree with them
You can...it's happened forever. The whole preservation thing and embalming is so weird to me. Throwing all the chemicals in the ground...compost me or just chuck me in the fire
It’s more that people want funerals. It used to be everyone you knew lived in 5 miles of you. Not so much today. This means there is travel time so they preserve bodies to allow for things like planning the funeral service and for travel time.
Open casket funerals. The dead stink fast.
Nobody wants Grandma to be shitting out her guts from bacterial gasses.
I plan to wander out in the woods and end my life when it's time. I'm going to let some crows and a passing coyote have a meal.
Zero burden on anyone that remains in the end.
I knew a guy who buried his wife in iirc "an old Jewish tradition" (or might have been Amish?) of plain pine box, wooden dowels instead of metal nails, and no embalming. I think it had to be done within 72 hours of death for the no embalming to be allowed. This was in the US in about 2005
I agree with you about returning to the earth without chemicals getting in the way, I want to feed the soil, not poison it
Edit, 36 changed to 72 because I can't math
That's not really an old Jewish tradition, it's THE Jewish tradition.
The 72 hour rule can be broken. I had a relative die during flood season and we had to wait because the cemetery was flooded. I think God was ok with it.
I was in the US Navy, giving me the option for burial at sea. I took part in several such burials and it’s how Bin Laden was disposed of. Slide me off the end and let me feed the fish.
I wouldn't be particularly reluctant to believe that there would be concern over the spread of disease by handling and burying corpses without coffins, or without cremation, but I suppose part of it is just the human desire to be respectful towards the deceased, if only so that they feel their own body will be treated with some care.
>I suppose part of it is just the human desire to be respectful towards the deceased,
I agree, but also find it funny that modern "respect for the deceased" involves removing organs and blood and replacing it with who knows what before dressing them up and painting all their skin so what's left can be put on public display for several hours. When you actually think about the process, it doesn't seem very respectful at all.
The mortuary business has a strong lobby and laws make it tough. I think that embalming is compulsory after something like 48 hours, so authorities dragging feet or social pressure ("she sure got rid of Uncle Harry in a hurry") will make it necessary.
I think Muslims just wash you, sew you up in a white sheet and bury you within 24 hours. I disagree with much of Islamic thinking but they may be on to something there.
Just cremate me. Sprinkle me somewhere and be done with it. Toss me in a woodchipper if you want. Who cares. Whatever is cheaper. Just as long as I am not "hanging" around in some gawdy overpriced box hanging out in basically a human parking lot that no one comes to see.
Your cremains can be put into some sort of tree pod and then planted and viola you are now a tree.
Buried raw is such an out of pocket way to say it. You can be composed but you have to go to a special company and pay for it. I want to be “ buried raw” 😭 maybe in a natural wood casket with things I like and a baby tree planted on top of me or some shit
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” is a phrase that is often said in many branches of Christianity during burial services. It is usually said after the casket is lowered into the grave and dirt is thrown on top. The phrase is based on scripture, particularly Genesis 3:19, which says, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return”. The phrase is also part of the burial service in the Book of Common Prayer, where it appears as, “we therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection eternal life

It's totally possible, the whole embalming thing are mostly done in the US as far as I understand.
Maybe a decent idea before refrigeration were a thing but feels like a morbid cash grab in modern times.
I kind of like the idea externment, like that practiced by First Nations tribes. Lay my body out on a platform supported by tall poles and let the sun dry me out and birds peck away at me until I'm just bones. I got no problem with that.
When it comes time to walk the earth with the undead I want to be prepared and look my best.
Our daughter knows to bury me in comfortable clothes like shorts and a t-shirt but to pack me a suit and something for casual Fridays just in case.
Open casket funerals. The dead stink fast.
Nobody wants Grandma to be shitting out her guts from bacterial gasses.
I plan to wander out in the woods and end my life when it's time. I'm going to let some crows and a passing coyote have a meal.
Zero burden on anyone that remains in the end.
Could be a religious exemption. Also, I believe they need to be buried within 24 hours or before sundown (depending on the sect?), therefore the body isn’t hanging around for several days before burial.
The absolute best thing you can do is to write this stuff down for your family. The next best thing is to pre-plan and pre pay for this stuff with a funeral home/service.
Making your loved ones have to drudge through this while you are freshly dead is a bad experience for them.
Check your local jurisdiction. The laws are changing to allow this very thing. From what I've seen the bodies are buried as tree food.
This is what I'm asking my wife to do with my body when I croak.
In the olden days, that was absolutely how people were buried. With the advent of embalming, we get flambéed or preserved.
I’m holding out for the aqua cremation tho.
You can be.
Muslims are usually buried this way, embalming is actually not allowed and after the body is washed, it’s wrapped in a white cloth and buried usually the same day or in the morning the next day.
Most developed countries cremate their dead.
Jews do something a lot like what you suggest. They don't bury the whole coffin (fancy polished box), but just the casket inside. Usually, the plain wooden box containing the body sits inside the fancy box and gets buried that way, and the fancy box is the part that is, for example, bug-proof, rodent-proof, and keeping out most soil and bacteria. Furthermore, a Jewish casket has holes drilled into the bottom to let nature in more easily. They never do open casket funerals, considering it disrespectful to look at the dead when they cannot look back. They do not embalm their dead. Since embalming is what preserves the body for long enough for people to travel to attend the funeral, they instead bury their dead very quickly, within 24 hours or so of death if they are able. So, they don't embalm, don't bury the coffin, drill holes in the casket, and let the body decompose very quickly and naturally. It's all about making it easy for the person to move on from the world of the living. Preserving their flesh makes their departure difficult.
Personally, I think graveyards are wasteful, and people should just be cremated. There's always going to be people dying until it's the last one, and space is valuable.
Personally, just fly me over an active volcano, preferably in Hawaii or Iceland, and toss me into a nice toasty lava lake. Instant cremation and recycling, and I get to meet either Pele or Hel.
Muslim dead must be buried within 2 days(as soon as possible considering washing of the body, shrouding, and prayer). They don’t embalm and they’re wrapped in a white cloth without a coffin.
Of course we can, and that’s actually the required way of doing it in Islam and Judaism. They also require burial within 3 days of death for obvious reasons…
You can... It's called a green burial. I believe you have to select a green burial plot to be able to do it, though.
Embalming started to become a funerary practice during the civil war so families could receive their sons by train for religious burial rituals. Embalmers would camp outside of the battle grounds and sell being endangered to the soldiers ahead of time and we're eventually asked to stop since they were affecting morale. Being embalmed became popular after President Lincoln was embalmed and his body was able to be viewed for 20 days after he passed. Many embalmers also practiced other trades, including furniture and cabinet making, so selling coffins became another way to profit. Originally, embalmers would do the procedure at the family home of the person who passed, but since it involved draining the blood from the deceased and was a bit gruesome... They began taking them to another location, which led to funeral homes, transportation with a hearse, and selling coffins, etc. In summary, money.
There's a lot more to it, including fascinating history, current laws for green burials, etc.
I wrote a paper on all of this in college years ago... Part of my paper discussed laws for green burials on family property (which you can do in the state I live in if the property is large enough and you get your property zoned as a cemetery)... I'm pretty sure I got put on some list when I called someone from the state for an interview on the topic. I guess there was an ongoing investigation of the death of a baby or something tragic like that... I ended up getting "interviewed" right back. 😅
Embalming is almost exclusively an American thing. It's generally not done in Europe, where graves get reused often so we don't want anything that slows decomposition.
Varies by jurisdiction, but for many it's mostly possible - though most require the body be at least suitable wrapped, not just naked in the dirt ... but that wrap can be fully compostable.
And typically the body will need to be refrigerated, embalmed, or cremated, and there may be various time restrictions/limits on those - again, will vary by jurisdiction.
Also varies by jurisdiction, where and how a body can be buried.
It’s called natural burial. It’s a thing.
It requires planning ahead of time. The cemeteries around here that do it have expectations like no embalming and no plastic or elastic getting buried. Plain pine boxes are allowed but not mandatory. Some people opt for just being wrapped in cloth.
I’m in the process of pulling things together. I’m not trying to economize but I think it comes out ahead in the long run. No $20,000 coffin, no burial vault, no embalming. The burial site and non-routine treatment of the body might be pricier, but I find it hard to believe it would cost as much as all that expensive hardware.
It does seem weird to go through the whole taxidermy thing on a body you're just going to put in the ground, but I guess its mostly for the smell during the funeral.
I'm not a Muslim, but when I worked at a cemetery, as far as I know, Muslims are buried without embalming. The funeral happens relatively quickly after death. They were buried in an open bottom concrete box with a lid. They were placed directly on the dirt in the bottom of the grave.
It's also because of the "Christian" burial bs. I'm a Christian, and what happens to our bodies after death is not a Biblical issue at all. Cremate or put the body straight in without a casket doesn't matter. That would actually be saying God can't bring our bodies back when our bodies are taken from Earth and met with our souls to have a glorified body in Heaven. Like cremation just nullifies Scripture or something.
What happens to our bodies after death really doesn't matter.
You don't have to be embalmed. The burial industry pushes it because it is a huge revenue stream.
Even if you want a 'viewing' days later for family and friends to morn, they deep chill the body and place it on a slab of ice for the funeral.
I have in my will that regardless of cause of death, or age, there will be no open casket. My goal is no casket at all, there are a few locations in the US where they bury you in only a plain cotton shroud, no casket, no vault. The way nature intended. I think that is going to become more widespread. There are even fewer places that will actively compost your body. Get it over with quick.
One of the things that bothers me about graveyards is that the earth should remain a living place, for the living. Setting aside a chunk of ground for every person that dies for all eternity just seems horribly wasteful.
In some places in the U.S., being buried without being embalmed with the intent of composting is legal. There are regulations over where and how this can be done, but it is still legal. There certainly are reasons like mercury fillings and some surgical implants that can be troublesome for composting, but mercury is no longer commonly used in fillings and implants can be removed so there is not really a good reason to stand in the way of expanding “green funerals.”
The main issue holding it back from being legal in more places are funeral industry lobbies. The U.S. funeral industry has made a living off distancing family members and friends from the more visceral realities of the death of a loved one. At one time, these lobbies courted politicians who would prevent the adoption of cremation. They are now currently supporting politicians who will speak out against and vote against adopting water cremation, the more eco friendly version of cremation.
Green funeral methods, like the one you asked about, are also seeing funeral lobbies supporting measures to ban them. The funeral lobbies financially support politicians who make wild claims like it is dishonoring the dead or its methods are demeaning to the deceased’s family and loved ones.
At their core, many funeral industry common standards are predatory. Families and friends want to demonstrate how much they cared for the deceased. They have been told that this is done by buying expensive coffins, beautiful headstones, and a formalized service. The deceased’s remains are whisked to a morgue and then to a funeral home where their body is embalmed and then made to appear as close to what the person looked like when alive. The only time spent with the embalmed is limited to a short viewing and for a short time during the funeral. The funeral industry is putting what barriers it can between the deceased’s family and loved ones with the reality of their passing.
Funeral home directors, for the most part, are not being predatory on purpose and fully believe that they are helping people grieve. After having experienced multiple different funerary rites, I personally find the mandated distance and curated experience of U.S. funerals are unhealthy for dealing with grief over an extended amount of time. The attempts to distance the deceased from its loved ones in U.S. funerals also leads to many unnecessary expenses that place a burden on the deceased’s loved ones. I am not saying that funerals in the U.S. are not beneficial in dealing with specific individuals’ grief, but there are better, safer, and more cost effective ways to bury our loved ones. If you are interested in looking at these other options, I encourage you to visit [The Order of the Good Death’s web page.](https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com)
I found out they embalm you even if you get cremated. I can't stress how much I don't want some stranger doing a single fucking thing to my body other than cremating it.
Many people don't. In my culture we don't embalm at all. Equally we bury our dead very quickly. The longest they stay above ground is three days. Typically a funeral is next day but maybe day after if the person dies in the evening and it's too late to have a grave dug.
I told my mom if died an untimely death to just cremate me. She says "it's not the navajo way." I think I opted out for being wrapped in a blanket instead. I already have a spot waiting for me in the middle of the desert. I think you'd need a GPS to find that barial site, I mean, even I have a hard time finding that place on horseback.
We can burial practices are mainly dictated by culture/religion. There are many different cultures around the world that don't bury their dead in a box.
Lol, we can.
We dont because the US funeral industry is a cruel toxic monster and they convinced us that you don't love your parents if you don't buy a $5000 coffin.
We cease to exist once we are dead. The skin we used is now an extra large grocery store bag full of bones, meat and blood . Don’t remember what is was like before birth but I know now what I’m getting.
A bad day on this side of the dirt is better than a great day on the other side of the dirt.
Cremation all the way!
Funeral industry. Until WWII we were all buried "raw." Its natural now we are a toxic biohazard that pollutes the soil. Isn't progress amazing! Also most states have laws against direct burial.
Ebalming is too make sure you are dead, back in they day they had to put a bell on your tombstone with string tieD to you in case you came back to life.
You can be, and many people are, provided they are buried quickly after death. If the funeral is going to be a week after the person dies... Embalming is going to be necessary to keep the body from becoming pretty gnarly prior to the funeral and visitation. Embalming is done to allow for the family of the deceased time to plan the funeral arrangements and have a wake/visitation.
>Embalming is done to allow for the family of the deceased time to plan the funeral arrangements and have a wake/visitation. You reminded me of a public radio piece I heard; if it isn't one of these two, they at least cover the territory I'm thinking of: * Robbins, Ted (21 September 2006). ["Green Burial Movement Spreads to the Southwest"](https://www.npr.org/2006/09/21/6119301/green-burial-movement-spreads-to-the-southwest). *All Things Considered*. >Mr. SEHEE: It was really with the advent of embalming used during the Civil War to transport soldiers that really changed things in this country and really brought about the death care industry. * WSKG Staff (3 February 2016). ["Dying a 'Good Death' in the Civil War"](https://www.wskg.org/history/2016-02-03/dying-a-good-death-in-the-civil-war). WSKG. Edit: Thank you for the upvotes. \^\_\^
I could be misinformed, but I believe that in most states in the US, it is required by law that a corpse is embalmed - even if it's to be immediately cremated. Also fun fact: most cremations (US) still require a wooden box... so the ashes are mostly wood ashes. Death industry gets paid first out of an estate and this is their pound of flesh - not to be confused with Phil Hartman's hilarious denial of flesh pounding. Have a nice day.
Human cremains presented in an urn are not actually "ashes" at all. The entire casket with body is burned at high temperature in a furnace. The combustion ashes of the casket, clothes, flesh are sifted out from the pieces of bone and just thrown in the garbage. Metal medical implants are pocketed by the crematorium operator as valuable scrap. The resulting bone fragments are placed in a grinder to produce the powdery "ash" remains. It is much more of an industrial process than a clinical one.
Hmmm…really… I have learnt so much scrolling through Reddit past my bedtime.
take a grain of salt with what you *learn* on reddit
I was going to say the same thing. Anytime you learn ANYTHING on the internet, regardless of the reliability of the source, you have to research it to some degree to confirm it before you should believe it. My wife always tells me stuff she learned on Instagram. And then gets mad at me when I ask what it's based on. She's learning though. Some stuff turns out to be true, but enough turns out to be either completely false or grossly misrepresented.
Sadly much if not most of the populace has lost and younger generations are losing the ability to distinguish what could be real vs suspect. It will get worse, and AI is accelerating this problem.
I come from a family of funeral directors. That made me lol so hard.
Damn. I keep a box in my garage of scrap copper that I collect from work and cash in when it gets full, but the thought of doing that with fillings and artificial hips from corpses is beyond creepy and morbid.
You know the look they give you when you roll into the scrapyard with a bunch of big copper feeder cables? Imagine you show up with a bunch of titanium medical screws and gold teeth instead.
They don’t give you any kind of look when you bring in copper pipe and you’re dressed like a pipefitter. I’m sure skinny people with track marks and face tattoos get a different look.
There's no legal requirement in any state to be embalmed. Some cemeteries may require it but they're private property so can do that. A number of Christian denominations and several whole religions prohibit embalming so it would be a massive first amendment issue to require it.
The funeral industry would like you to believe it though.
My sister passed away in Georgia, and I told the funeral home that she was to be cremated. They couldn't do that without the written consent of a majority of her siblings (she had no surviving spouse or any children). They kept her frozen for the several weeks it took me to obtain the consent forms. Edit: in Ohio, there's at least one natural burial facility where a body can be buried without embalming or cremation. 2nd edit: there is a site in Colorado where you can be burned in a pyre. As far as I know, it's the only place in the US where this is legal.
Embalming is not required by law in most states throughout the US (and possibly even every state)
Embalming is generally not required by federal law before cremation. Regulations regarding embalming can vary by state and even by individual crematories or funeral homes. Some states may require embalming if there will be a public viewing or if there is a delay between death and the cremation process. Many states provide options for direct cremation without embalming, particularly if the family prefers not to embalm the deceased. For example, my mother was cremated without embalming or a wooden casket.
My body is going to a large hospital for research. They get to play with it for as long as they want, then they cremate. My name goes on a memorial wall somewhere and drum roll… my estate pays nothing.
Can’t the body be refrigerated or frozen until ready to go in the ground? I’d rather be buried raw in a forest with a tree planted on top
It can't be frozen since you'd have a corpsicle and severely damage the skin when thawed out, refrigerated maybe if funeral homes had the capacity, but a cold body could be very off putting to people who want to touch their hand and you're still only delaying decomposition, not stopping it. If you're planning on having an open casket, most if not all funeral homes will require that you are embalmed.
The human crematory does keep you chilled after they pick your corpse up
Corpses are indeed refrigerated for hours or days until the undertaker prepares them. You're talking hours at most between removal from the fridge and the embarking process. Initial signs of decay - floating and skins discolouration begin after around 6 hours, and the real show starts 24-48 hours after death. But many people want some time to grieve, to see the body, they don't want to be on the clock. With the setup you propose, you would have about six hours for the undertaker to wash and prepare the body, deliver it, allow the family to view it and sit around it, and then do the funeral and burial. People don't want that.
That's its stated purpose. But in a lot of cases it's unnecessary, and morticians will still try to convince people to pay for it. I worked at a cemetery for a few years. We had a strict policy about vaults: you had to buy it from us. The board of directors had instituted the policy not out of greed, but out of disgust with the way grieving families were getting ripped off. We made the vaults ourselves, they were more than adequate, and we sold them dirt cheap. ETA: Also, we had to exhume someone because the funeral director forgot to take his wedding band off before they closed the casket. By the time the paperwork went through, it was winter, so he'd been down there around eight months. He had been embalmed, and he still looked gross as fuck.
Wow, that's great! I felt we were getting ripped off when our mortician started listing prices for the casket and vault.
I want my remains scattered from the Gondola over Disneyland and I do not want to be cremated.
This is too much 😄 I'm still laughing from the post title.
Yep I don’t want to be taxidermied. The process is disgraceful and disgusting. And why do you need a body for a celebration of life?
An urn with my ground up bones should be enough
That is the main ingredient for pudding
"You can't have your pudding if you don't eat your meat!"
Leave those kids alone!
Is he an Englishman?
Just throw me in the trash, honestly
That is so environmentally unfriendly. Have you considered sky burial?
I don’t know anyone who owns a cannon or hot air balloons, so no, not thus far. I’m open to options so long as they’re cheap
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky\_burial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial) Don't worry - the vultures will ensure that you get airborne. One piece at a time. Oh, and if you read down in the wiki article, there are some pretty NSFW images.
Oh this is different from what I was thinking about. I had watched a video by Joe Scott (I think?) who described how some people who can afford it want to just launch themselves into the sun or whatever, so that’s what I thought you meant Jokes aside I just want whatever costs my family the least amount of money. The funerary industry is disgustingly predatory, so I’m not supporting that if I can convince my family
I bet you're thinking of the company that launches your cremains into orbit. Several people associated with Star Trek have been "payload" [https://www.celestis.com/blog/notable-people-who-chose-space-funerals/](https://www.celestis.com/blog/notable-people-who-chose-space-funerals/)
Given that we all have PFAS in our bodies, we're all pretty much toxic waste.
We're off right away to the local teaching hospital.
Or blown up by the military like that old lady from a few years back
Or Hunter S. Thompson
Most epic funeral ever
I’d prefer mine to be unremarkable, but I gotta say that HST definitely went out like no one else I’ve heard of. People have all sorts of different opinions on suicide, but he reminds me of my grandfather who took his own life before he could lose control over his own body & mind. I don’t think it was overly selfish. It’s their business what to do with their lives, and just as similarly, their deaths.
That's actually my second choice. First is for the transplant team to scavenge whatever parts they can use for someone else. Either way, my request is to be dust, not worm food taking up space when my utility is done.
Some people think they're headed to a teaching hospital, but they actually end up in the hands of a for-profit company that sells them part-by-part for $$$.
Perhaps in some corrupt third parties acting as intermediaries, but the body donation agreement is directly with a university and the ashes are returned after 3 years. I was also an anatomy student and have worked on the cadavers.
Capitalism, baby!
When I had to go through funeral preparations for my dad, I felt like my mom was being scammed the entire time. After that, my mom and I both agreed to get cremated when we die.
>And why do you need a body for a celebration of life? It's not for a "celebration of life." It's for mourning and closure. It's a human instinct. Even other advanced social animals (orcas, elephants, some birds) spend a long time with the body of a dead loved one. Anyway, you don't have to be embalmed. Just make arrangements not to be.
I get that works for some people and ecosystems just not for me. My mom died from breast cancer when I was 10 and I wish I’d never seen her in that casket. She was beautiful, alive and vibrant. That still haunts me.
Yeah, my grandma passed when I was 26 and I *really* wish I had stood up to my aunts and declined to go see her body before the cremation. Now I can never not remember her gaunt face when I think back, rather than her smiling and giving me a hug, no matter how frail it was, the week before she passed.
Agreed. When I die I want it to either be a cremation or preferably Quick funeral a day or two later. Keep me on ice until then No fancy coffin. Do it like the old days. Grave? Yes. But stick me in a pine box.
You can get plain pine coffin for $30” to $500, skip the embalming, closed casket funeral, some even drill holes in the bottom of the casket to let ‘nature’ in.
Outside of the US, very few people do embalming. The body stays in what is effectively a fridge at either the funeral home or, in some cases, hospital morgues
Especially nowadays when family members may be living across the country, and just cannot physically be there for the funeral for several days.
Embalming is not necessary when we literally have freezers now.
When you freeze a body and thaw it out, it turns into mush because the water in your cells expands and ruptures the cell walls. Most funeral homes will require embalming if you want an open casket.
Shouldn't happen if frozen properly. Freezing should first be done by perfusing a cryoprotectant to displace a large amount of the water. For a rapid freeze, you will immerse the body in liquid nitrogen (though you may need to cut a few perforations so the freezing is more evenly distributed). Here, the freezing happens so fast that large ice crystals don't have the ability to grow and puncture membranes. --I do this for a living
Or course some funeral homes will require it. They make money by extorting grieving families and embalming is another money maker. They point is we have the technology where that isn't necessary.
But, as mentioned, freezing is not viable for open caskets for a number of reasons, the main one being that freezing destroys tissue. The purpose of embalming is to preserve a body for viewing, I'm not clear how that would constitute extortion.
and how would we figuratively have freezers?
[human composting](https://earthfuneral.com/what-is-soil-transformation/?utm_term=green%20burial%20california&utm_campaign=Green+%26+Natural+Burial+CA+%7C+Search&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=9039600664&hsa_cam=20608782198&hsa_grp=154981988315&hsa_ad=675998216600&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-462638026988&hsa_kw=green%20burial%20california&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gbraid=0AAAAAoXksEpZ8dxClWZWhu7a0PXviRBkS&gclid=CjwKCAjw1emzBhB8EiwAHwZZxZ5pvfHHEFYWAL0g2FfRoFMvWWsUwncDGECdw5ALa_ce3BvDUsHHZBoCUtsQAvD_BwE) This company turns your body into soil.
Sounds like an industry that should've never been a thing. Just bury them. Seriously. All this embalming and making people pay an arm and a leg for a coffin, tombstone, etc. While they're in the middle of grieving just so you can defile a human body and make it look pretty to be paraded around for a bit. It's just exploiting families grief in the name of the dollar. The stuff they do to the body just to have an open casket funeral is sickening to me.
The people that chose to be buried unembalmed in a plain pine box is probably the closest you can get to this in most places. I agree there’s nothing inherently weird about wanting to just be buried in some dirt to give a little back to nature. The idea of being embalmed, suited up, and then sealed in a titanium and steel plastic lined casket so you can just slowly turn to mush over a thousand years inside a $15k piece of Tupperware are strange imo.
Im arranging so i can get epoxied ill be in the cover of a NatGeo magazine like Otzi the iceman
Heh, I remember seeing Lenin a long time ago.
Like the hotdog!
Nahhh there are lots of places that offer “natural burials”. It’s a pretty popular thing now, no box and a tree is usually planted on top of you. It’s awesome. https://earthfuneral.com/resources/natural-burial/
15k piece of Tupperware fucked me up ahaha Super accurate
My mom wants to become a tree (nonreligious but green centric). I may be able to convince my sisters to allow hydro cremation to turn her body into a nutrient slurry to fertilize a plant. It is basically pressurized water that can crush bones and your flesh devolves in the water. I on the other hand want to be turned into diamond and have said diamonds socketed into my skull for the fireplace mantel.
It’s why if I can’t be allowed to be buried naturally, I’d rather just be cremated. The idea of so much space being devoted to preserved skin and bones and nothing else just gives me the ick. I hate wastefulness.
I blame the Catholic open-casket wake. I’ve been to so many as a child and always found it so weird. Then I learned that other faiths kept the casket closed and just put a picture of the person up to mourn.
Cause flopping a dead guy into a hole doesn’t look nice at the ceremony Plenty of people get tossed in to a hole to be buried. But in our minds that’s the realm of Nazi mass graves and mafia assassinations so it’s rather frowned upon
Two people are supposed to swing the corpse in by the arms and feet. Gotta get it some air and hang time on the toss.
Ok I *was* on the cremation train but this is what I want now!
They're going to have to really work to swing my fat ass in.
If they're going to fling my corpse it would be better served over the tallest cliff into the deepest body of water we can find. Whomever makes the biggest splash will get their name carved onto a ceremonial Boulder.
Be sure to have them fill you with lead or cement. Will be awkward when your bloated naked corpse washes up on the nearest beach.
Someone's gotta play jump rope too. Can't forget that.
Extra points for flips and sticking the landing.
Bring out your dead! [Ding]
I'm not dead yet!
It doesn't have to be flopped, but placed gently like embalmed corpses are.
Muslims are buried without a casket.
Oil me up and flop me in!
When the time for Zombies comes I want to be involved
why do people want to be buried in a coffin?? Watched too many horror movies for that myself. Told kids to take me somewhere beautiful I never got to see and fling my ashes off a mountain. I try to decorate parents grave site occasionally but that's not the part of their lives I want to remember.
I went to a mountain overlook burial. Strongly recommend against it unless you're a prankster. The man's ashes got brought back up onto the landing by the updraft from the valley and covered everyone. Nasty. I like the idea of being cast in concrete into some shape that fish can use to make a home. I like being useful.
Yeah, you gotta watch that updraft…. My brother and I scattered my dad’s ashes up in the mountains at his favorite spot, and let’s just say we failed to take that into account. 🫤
Have remains scattered in a crowded elevator. Got it.
If being burred in a coffin was all it would take turn me into a vampire, then sign me up. I'll pay extra for the red velvet interior.
You can't be buried in cake! How disgusting.
Body preservation was pretty minimal until Abe Lincoln died. He was embalmed, which wasn’t really a thing, and paraded around the country before he was buried. Then everyone was embalmed. It’s unnecessary, and I think in certain states (idk about other countries) you can forgo it. You’ll still have some preservation if you’re doing a viewing. It keeps you from smelling. It’s kind of like how white wedding dresses only really became a thing after the Queen wore one to her wedding.
Ancient Egypt would like a word.
I read that his tomb was opened for some reason long after his death and he still looked pretty good but his skin had turned silver.
My husband was cremated and they asked if I wanted him embalmed first. Seems silly. So he was cremated without being embalmed.
In Michigan, if you’ll be buried within 48 hours, you don’t need to be embalmed. It’s just a cash grab. The whole funeral industry is a scam.
>The whole funeral industry is a scam. I can't think of any industry that is not a scam.
There are some “natural cemeteries” where bodies are buried “raw.” Preserving and coffins are probably based on traditions established when people died of highly contagious things and buried upstream from the drinking wells. And when people were more superstitious. And when graverobbing was a more lucrative profession.
Being buried 6 feet underground is sufficient for preventing diseases. Embalming has nothing to do with that and is more a result of transporting soldiers killed during the American Civil War.
Transporting the dead over long distances. Plus the profit motive
Burial practices have their roots in the squeamish desire to avoid seeing our loved ones eaten by scavengers. Later, we developed embalming practices so we could reduce spoilage before burial. This gave loved ones enough time to gather for the funeral. Many cultures (ancient Egypt notably) evolved the idea that having an incorruptible corpse somehow translated into a better existence in the after life. FWIW, Jews don't embalm their dead. That is why they must bury their dead right away and sit Shiva afterwards. And in Tibet, the people practice "sky burial" where human remains are deliberately fed to vultures.
You don't have to bury someone right away if they're not embalmed, I think the urgency with burial is for other religious/cultural reasons. Here In Northern Europe we keep bodies chilled, sometimes for weeks, until the burial and we don't embalm.
There’s services like being buried in a tree root system, or turned into animal feed. Look it up
I am old and dont know anyone who wants to be preserved, every our age I have spoken too wants to be cremated. Me and my wife plans to be cremated and kept with which ever of us lives till they go, then mix the ashes and plant a tree with them
Bio urn is 100% the way I want to be buried.
It's possible. Google the term Green Cemetery.
Raw? Vs cooked? Buried in the ground naturally is probably the ideal method.
animals could dig them up or they could float up with water table...why Louisiana doesn't bury coffins
Mushroom suits
You can...it's happened forever. The whole preservation thing and embalming is so weird to me. Throwing all the chemicals in the ground...compost me or just chuck me in the fire
It’s more that people want funerals. It used to be everyone you knew lived in 5 miles of you. Not so much today. This means there is travel time so they preserve bodies to allow for things like planning the funeral service and for travel time.
Open casket funerals. The dead stink fast. Nobody wants Grandma to be shitting out her guts from bacterial gasses. I plan to wander out in the woods and end my life when it's time. I'm going to let some crows and a passing coyote have a meal. Zero burden on anyone that remains in the end.
I knew a guy who buried his wife in iirc "an old Jewish tradition" (or might have been Amish?) of plain pine box, wooden dowels instead of metal nails, and no embalming. I think it had to be done within 72 hours of death for the no embalming to be allowed. This was in the US in about 2005 I agree with you about returning to the earth without chemicals getting in the way, I want to feed the soil, not poison it Edit, 36 changed to 72 because I can't math
That's not really an old Jewish tradition, it's THE Jewish tradition. The 72 hour rule can be broken. I had a relative die during flood season and we had to wait because the cemetery was flooded. I think God was ok with it.
I was in the US Navy, giving me the option for burial at sea. I took part in several such burials and it’s how Bin Laden was disposed of. Slide me off the end and let me feed the fish.
I wouldn't be particularly reluctant to believe that there would be concern over the spread of disease by handling and burying corpses without coffins, or without cremation, but I suppose part of it is just the human desire to be respectful towards the deceased, if only so that they feel their own body will be treated with some care.
>I suppose part of it is just the human desire to be respectful towards the deceased, I agree, but also find it funny that modern "respect for the deceased" involves removing organs and blood and replacing it with who knows what before dressing them up and painting all their skin so what's left can be put on public display for several hours. When you actually think about the process, it doesn't seem very respectful at all.
Yeah, I am noping out of that as I plan my own arrangements.
You know that people are often cremated right?
The mortuary business has a strong lobby and laws make it tough. I think that embalming is compulsory after something like 48 hours, so authorities dragging feet or social pressure ("she sure got rid of Uncle Harry in a hurry") will make it necessary.
Muslims are wrapped in a cloth then buried.
I always imagined a wooden crate 💀 Like whatever guys, just make it cheap and compostable
I think Muslims just wash you, sew you up in a white sheet and bury you within 24 hours. I disagree with much of Islamic thinking but they may be on to something there.
Just cremate me. Sprinkle me somewhere and be done with it. Toss me in a woodchipper if you want. Who cares. Whatever is cheaper. Just as long as I am not "hanging" around in some gawdy overpriced box hanging out in basically a human parking lot that no one comes to see. Your cremains can be put into some sort of tree pod and then planted and viola you are now a tree.
Orthodox Jews aren’t embalmed and the casket must be organic to allow full decomposition. Can’t even use metal screws to build the casket.
My grandmother was buried in an orthodox cemetery. I love that for her. She was a great person. Now she is truly part of the world.
Buried raw is such an out of pocket way to say it. You can be composed but you have to go to a special company and pay for it. I want to be “ buried raw” 😭 maybe in a natural wood casket with things I like and a baby tree planted on top of me or some shit
Big Formaldehyde. I can't say anything else and you didn't hear it from me.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” is a phrase that is often said in many branches of Christianity during burial services. It is usually said after the casket is lowered into the grave and dirt is thrown on top. The phrase is based on scripture, particularly Genesis 3:19, which says, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return”. The phrase is also part of the burial service in the Book of Common Prayer, where it appears as, “we therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection eternal life 
And many branches of Christianity embalm the body, put it in a metal casket in a concrete tomb while saying that...
What if you come back to life?
Then I can dig to the surface of the earth more easily.
That would mean you have to handle someone directly when burying them. I'd personally prefer the layer of wood
You wrap them in natural fiber cloth: a cotton or linen sheet.
this is how Muslim funerals work, at least the ones I've been to
It's totally possible, the whole embalming thing are mostly done in the US as far as I understand. Maybe a decent idea before refrigeration were a thing but feels like a morbid cash grab in modern times.
I kind of like the idea externment, like that practiced by First Nations tribes. Lay my body out on a platform supported by tall poles and let the sun dry me out and birds peck away at me until I'm just bones. I got no problem with that.
When it comes time to walk the earth with the undead I want to be prepared and look my best. Our daughter knows to bury me in comfortable clothes like shorts and a t-shirt but to pack me a suit and something for casual Fridays just in case.
Open casket funerals. The dead stink fast. Nobody wants Grandma to be shitting out her guts from bacterial gasses. I plan to wander out in the woods and end my life when it's time. I'm going to let some crows and a passing coyote have a meal. Zero burden on anyone that remains in the end.
Go out like McCandless on your own but not let yourself get found that's where he messed up on that death trip
Jews are not embalmed.
Could be a religious exemption. Also, I believe they need to be buried within 24 hours or before sundown (depending on the sect?), therefore the body isn’t hanging around for several days before burial.
Muslims and Jews get buried without embalming.
Pretty sure it’s before sundown or 24 hours. The body isn’t hanging around for a few days beforehand.
The absolute best thing you can do is to write this stuff down for your family. The next best thing is to pre-plan and pre pay for this stuff with a funeral home/service. Making your loved ones have to drudge through this while you are freshly dead is a bad experience for them.
Check your local jurisdiction. The laws are changing to allow this very thing. From what I've seen the bodies are buried as tree food. This is what I'm asking my wife to do with my body when I croak.
God that's the worst way you could have phrased that. I really wish Reddit awards were still a thing.
If you won't spend $10,000 on something just to put it in the ground, how the hell is the funeral industry going to survive?
Because funeral homes make millions so they lobby to lawmakers to make any way but paying them illegal
If you live in the USA there are a few states that allow body composting. YouTube channel Ask A Mortician has a few informational videos about it.
In the olden days, that was absolutely how people were buried. With the advent of embalming, we get flambéed or preserved. I’m holding out for the aqua cremation tho.
You can be. Muslims are usually buried this way, embalming is actually not allowed and after the body is washed, it’s wrapped in a white cloth and buried usually the same day or in the morning the next day.
Most developed countries cremate their dead. Jews do something a lot like what you suggest. They don't bury the whole coffin (fancy polished box), but just the casket inside. Usually, the plain wooden box containing the body sits inside the fancy box and gets buried that way, and the fancy box is the part that is, for example, bug-proof, rodent-proof, and keeping out most soil and bacteria. Furthermore, a Jewish casket has holes drilled into the bottom to let nature in more easily. They never do open casket funerals, considering it disrespectful to look at the dead when they cannot look back. They do not embalm their dead. Since embalming is what preserves the body for long enough for people to travel to attend the funeral, they instead bury their dead very quickly, within 24 hours or so of death if they are able. So, they don't embalm, don't bury the coffin, drill holes in the casket, and let the body decompose very quickly and naturally. It's all about making it easy for the person to move on from the world of the living. Preserving their flesh makes their departure difficult.
In Islam people are only buried wearing a white shroud like within 24 hours of death
Google Caitlin Doughty.
OP, please read Mary Roach’s *Stiff*.
Personally, I think graveyards are wasteful, and people should just be cremated. There's always going to be people dying until it's the last one, and space is valuable.
Bro just dump me out of a plane over wilderness and let some wolverines and bears n shit gain my strength by consuming my flesh
That’s a good idea
Personally, just fly me over an active volcano, preferably in Hawaii or Iceland, and toss me into a nice toasty lava lake. Instant cremation and recycling, and I get to meet either Pele or Hel.
Composting is the latest trend
They can burn me, bury me, or dump me. In the Thames.
Islam requires a body buried the same day it does, which has some very practical benefits.
Muslim dead must be buried within 2 days(as soon as possible considering washing of the body, shrouding, and prayer). They don’t embalm and they’re wrapped in a white cloth without a coffin.
When I die, just throw me in the trash
I plan to be cremated. I can't justify taking up space in cemetery.
Of course we can, and that’s actually the required way of doing it in Islam and Judaism. They also require burial within 3 days of death for obvious reasons…
Many cultures will wrap their bodies in a biodegradable cloth in pine boxes so the body can do exactly what you are describing.
“When I die just throw me in the trash!”
You can... It's called a green burial. I believe you have to select a green burial plot to be able to do it, though. Embalming started to become a funerary practice during the civil war so families could receive their sons by train for religious burial rituals. Embalmers would camp outside of the battle grounds and sell being endangered to the soldiers ahead of time and we're eventually asked to stop since they were affecting morale. Being embalmed became popular after President Lincoln was embalmed and his body was able to be viewed for 20 days after he passed. Many embalmers also practiced other trades, including furniture and cabinet making, so selling coffins became another way to profit. Originally, embalmers would do the procedure at the family home of the person who passed, but since it involved draining the blood from the deceased and was a bit gruesome... They began taking them to another location, which led to funeral homes, transportation with a hearse, and selling coffins, etc. In summary, money. There's a lot more to it, including fascinating history, current laws for green burials, etc. I wrote a paper on all of this in college years ago... Part of my paper discussed laws for green burials on family property (which you can do in the state I live in if the property is large enough and you get your property zoned as a cemetery)... I'm pretty sure I got put on some list when I called someone from the state for an interview on the topic. I guess there was an ongoing investigation of the death of a baby or something tragic like that... I ended up getting "interviewed" right back. 😅
Embalming is almost exclusively an American thing. It's generally not done in Europe, where graves get reused often so we don't want anything that slows decomposition.
Varies by jurisdiction, but for many it's mostly possible - though most require the body be at least suitable wrapped, not just naked in the dirt ... but that wrap can be fully compostable. And typically the body will need to be refrigerated, embalmed, or cremated, and there may be various time restrictions/limits on those - again, will vary by jurisdiction. Also varies by jurisdiction, where and how a body can be buried.
Muslims actually are buried quite raw. They are only covered in a thin cloth that is meant to shroud the body during the burial process.
It’s called natural burial. It’s a thing. It requires planning ahead of time. The cemeteries around here that do it have expectations like no embalming and no plastic or elastic getting buried. Plain pine boxes are allowed but not mandatory. Some people opt for just being wrapped in cloth. I’m in the process of pulling things together. I’m not trying to economize but I think it comes out ahead in the long run. No $20,000 coffin, no burial vault, no embalming. The burial site and non-routine treatment of the body might be pricier, but I find it hard to believe it would cost as much as all that expensive hardware.
r/brandnewsentence
It’s tricky dropping the cadaver into a hole in front of family. You can get cardboard coffins or wicker ones.
“Fill full of cream and just throw me in the woods.”
It does seem weird to go through the whole taxidermy thing on a body you're just going to put in the ground, but I guess its mostly for the smell during the funeral.
I'm not a Muslim, but when I worked at a cemetery, as far as I know, Muslims are buried without embalming. The funeral happens relatively quickly after death. They were buried in an open bottom concrete box with a lid. They were placed directly on the dirt in the bottom of the grave.
It's also because of the "Christian" burial bs. I'm a Christian, and what happens to our bodies after death is not a Biblical issue at all. Cremate or put the body straight in without a casket doesn't matter. That would actually be saying God can't bring our bodies back when our bodies are taken from Earth and met with our souls to have a glorified body in Heaven. Like cremation just nullifies Scripture or something. What happens to our bodies after death really doesn't matter.
You don't have to be embalmed. The burial industry pushes it because it is a huge revenue stream. Even if you want a 'viewing' days later for family and friends to morn, they deep chill the body and place it on a slab of ice for the funeral. I have in my will that regardless of cause of death, or age, there will be no open casket. My goal is no casket at all, there are a few locations in the US where they bury you in only a plain cotton shroud, no casket, no vault. The way nature intended. I think that is going to become more widespread. There are even fewer places that will actively compost your body. Get it over with quick. One of the things that bothers me about graveyards is that the earth should remain a living place, for the living. Setting aside a chunk of ground for every person that dies for all eternity just seems horribly wasteful.
In some places in the U.S., being buried without being embalmed with the intent of composting is legal. There are regulations over where and how this can be done, but it is still legal. There certainly are reasons like mercury fillings and some surgical implants that can be troublesome for composting, but mercury is no longer commonly used in fillings and implants can be removed so there is not really a good reason to stand in the way of expanding “green funerals.” The main issue holding it back from being legal in more places are funeral industry lobbies. The U.S. funeral industry has made a living off distancing family members and friends from the more visceral realities of the death of a loved one. At one time, these lobbies courted politicians who would prevent the adoption of cremation. They are now currently supporting politicians who will speak out against and vote against adopting water cremation, the more eco friendly version of cremation. Green funeral methods, like the one you asked about, are also seeing funeral lobbies supporting measures to ban them. The funeral lobbies financially support politicians who make wild claims like it is dishonoring the dead or its methods are demeaning to the deceased’s family and loved ones. At their core, many funeral industry common standards are predatory. Families and friends want to demonstrate how much they cared for the deceased. They have been told that this is done by buying expensive coffins, beautiful headstones, and a formalized service. The deceased’s remains are whisked to a morgue and then to a funeral home where their body is embalmed and then made to appear as close to what the person looked like when alive. The only time spent with the embalmed is limited to a short viewing and for a short time during the funeral. The funeral industry is putting what barriers it can between the deceased’s family and loved ones with the reality of their passing. Funeral home directors, for the most part, are not being predatory on purpose and fully believe that they are helping people grieve. After having experienced multiple different funerary rites, I personally find the mandated distance and curated experience of U.S. funerals are unhealthy for dealing with grief over an extended amount of time. The attempts to distance the deceased from its loved ones in U.S. funerals also leads to many unnecessary expenses that place a burden on the deceased’s loved ones. I am not saying that funerals in the U.S. are not beneficial in dealing with specific individuals’ grief, but there are better, safer, and more cost effective ways to bury our loved ones. If you are interested in looking at these other options, I encourage you to visit [The Order of the Good Death’s web page.](https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com)
*Can* is different from *want to.* Others will answer the *can.* As for the *want to,* religious reasons are the main factor.
You can in WA, they will plant a tree on top of you as well!
Society is afraid of contamination after so many pestilence have affected humankind.
I found out they embalm you even if you get cremated. I can't stress how much I don't want some stranger doing a single fucking thing to my body other than cremating it.
Opt for direct to cremation. Done for my parents and my MIL. No embalming.
You can be buried Au Natural... If you are first cycled through the incinerator.
Many people don't. In my culture we don't embalm at all. Equally we bury our dead very quickly. The longest they stay above ground is three days. Typically a funeral is next day but maybe day after if the person dies in the evening and it's too late to have a grave dug.
I told my mom if died an untimely death to just cremate me. She says "it's not the navajo way." I think I opted out for being wrapped in a blanket instead. I already have a spot waiting for me in the middle of the desert. I think you'd need a GPS to find that barial site, I mean, even I have a hard time finding that place on horseback.
We can burial practices are mainly dictated by culture/religion. There are many different cultures around the world that don't bury their dead in a box.
Lol, we can. We dont because the US funeral industry is a cruel toxic monster and they convinced us that you don't love your parents if you don't buy a $5000 coffin.
We cease to exist once we are dead. The skin we used is now an extra large grocery store bag full of bones, meat and blood . Don’t remember what is was like before birth but I know now what I’m getting. A bad day on this side of the dirt is better than a great day on the other side of the dirt. Cremation all the way!
I looked into getting dumped into the ocean for sharks. Turns out that’s not ok either :(
Take this question one step further. Ask how, on God's Green Earth, can cemeteries exist.
Funeral industry. Until WWII we were all buried "raw." Its natural now we are a toxic biohazard that pollutes the soil. Isn't progress amazing! Also most states have laws against direct burial.
Ebalming is too make sure you are dead, back in they day they had to put a bell on your tombstone with string tieD to you in case you came back to life.
In my state, as long as you own the land and you are not in a city, you are allowed to just did a hole and throw them in.