Today there are two choices to make when burying a loved one: purchase a casket and burial plot for the deceased or purchase cremation services and an urn or burial space. Sometimes these decisions are based on practicality, other times money, and to a certain degree, by religion. In fact, Catholic, Hindu and Japanese faiths all have slightly different rituals for their cremations.

In Catholicism, the remains are typically buried or entombed in a cemetery. Pope Paul VI lifted the ban on cremation services in 1963, which had essentially been in place from the Middle Ages until the Early 1900s. And up until 1997, direct cremation (without a mass first) was still forbidden because the body is believed to be sacred and Catholic theology states that the practice refutes the idea of resurrection.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, cremation services (or “antim-samskara” meaning “last rites”) are mandatory. It is believed that cremation detaches the fresh spirit from its earthly body and assists the passage to the next world. After a brief prayer service, the nearest male relative submerses the ashes in the holy Ganges River.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 12:44 pm and is filed under News & Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.