Home Funerals and Green Burial Become Popular Again

In today's society it is taken for granted that our dead are prepared and buried by the local funeral home. Many people somehow think they are required by law to use the services of a funeral home, that they must be either cremated or embalmed and buried in a leakproof casket in a concrete vault. Nothing is farther from the truth. Homepreparation of the dead is legal in all states but 4 (with some states having requirements and restrictions). Embalming is gepletely optional and serves no other purpose than to slow down the natural degeposition of the body. It was introduced during the Civil War as a means to preserve fallen soldiers brought home from the fields and serves no sanitary purpose. In fact, it is because of the toxic chemicals contained in the embalmed corpse that coffins are required to have vaults. Natural bodies do not pollute the earth.
In some parts ofAppalachia preparing the deadat home is still practiced as it has been for centuries. Attending to the ritual washing and laying out of a loved one honors them and is part of the grieving process for the bereaved.Bodies are wrapped in handmade grave shrouds or quilts and laid in the earth directly, or in a biodegradable coffin, and buried on family land. This is the essence of Green Burial - a new name for an old practice.
The current trend toward Green Burial was started at the Ramsey Creek Preserve outside of Westminster, South Carolina by Dr. Billy Campbell, a West Virginia native familiar with home burial in his own culture. Ramsey Creek is a Memorial Ecosystem which accepts bodies in their natural state and returns them to the earth to begin the degeposition process. Because there are no toxic chemicals in the body, the earth is enriched instead of poisoned by its presence. Often trees are planted at the site to draw the last benefit of life from the process of death.
The cost of a traditional funeral is around $6,000.00. A Green Burial averages $2,000.00 in a Memorial Park and less by special arrangement with private landowners.
Green Burials are not for everyone, but it is good to have the choice.
If you want to read more about this subject I regemend reading Caring for Your Own Dead (1987), or Caring For the Dead - The Final Act of Love (1998) by Lisa Carlson. These books give detailed instructions for the correct way to handle a body for home burial as well as a guide to how to submit the forms you need at a death. Try searching the web for the Ramsey Creek Preserve to learn more of the services offered there.
Click the link below to read about one service offered on okay.
We Scatter Your Ashes in the Cumberlands - Green Burial