The burial process also takes a toll on the funeral workers. They’re prone to many potential hazards as they have direct involvement in the rituals. Maintenance of the memorial plots or cemeteries also places a lot of stress on land and water. As a result, more eco-friendly alternatives are becoming popular today. People are increasingly realizing how harmful the typical burial services are.

Embalming of a dead body is quite common across most parts of the United States. Most of us have grown up watching the burial process and having a nice casket and stone marker. However, these are the very things that make burials expensive. Besides, they don’t help the environment in any way.

Toxic chemicals in conventional burials

A slowdown in the process of a dead body’s decay is possible through embalming. The idea of preserving the body for a ‘viewing’ service is not bad. The real cause of concern is the use of chemicals for this purpose. These chemicals are usually very strong and toxic.

Some of the toxic chemicals used in the process are menthol, formaldehyde, glycerin, and phenol. As a result of conventional burials, about 800,000 gallons of formaldehyde are released into the environment.

People use many valuable resources for conventional burials

In just a year, the amount of casket wood that goes under the earth equals 4 million acres of forest. This fact is enough for people to stay away from the burials. The materials in caskets are usually wood, bronze, steel, copper, and other resources that can be quite useful. There are people who end up spending enormous amounts on caskets. Once they’re placed in the ground, they’ll never be used again.

Conventional burial occupies too much space

When you are going past a local cemetery, you’ll notice that it always looks full. According to research, the total area of all the cemeteries in America put together is 1 million acres. This must raise a concern among people about the destruction of lands, especially forests. One wonders whether there’s still room to bury more people.

Natural burial is the best

More number of individuals are getting to know the negative effects of conventional burials today. This is why most of them are opting for cremation. Although it’s still not the best choice, it’s definitely better for the environment than a burial. There are reasons why cremation is still not the best choice for the environment. The burning of bodies releases gases like sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Many other heavy chemicals are also released into the air by the burning bodies. The most eco-friendly way to be buried, therefore, is natural burial. This would be an upcoming trend in the process of burials. It is the best way to make sure that the body is decomposed in nature. It gets the nutrients back to the earth and the environment benefits from it to a great extent.

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1. Funerals of the Viking

An Arab explorer named Ahmad ibn Fadlan spent some time observing the Volga Vikings. He lived in the 10th century. According to his writings, the Viking funerals were exceptionally brutal. The dead chieftains of the Vikings were temporarily buried while the clothes were prepared for the new funeral.

One of the slave girls of the chief would agree to join him in the afterlife. She would then indulge in a sexual encounter with each male in the Viking camp. After this, the matriarch of the village would stab her to death. Then, placing her alongside her chief on a wooden ship, it was set on fire.

2. Famadihana

This ritual is known as ‘the turning of the bones’. It is performed by the Malagasy people residing in Madagascar. According to the ritual, they exhume the bodies of the deceased from their ancestral crypts every seven years. Then, after wrapping the bodies again in fresh cloth, a lively celebration follows. This celebration involves a huge feast and music.

The living members dance with their dead ancestors and pass on the news from their family to them. The living members also seek blessings from the deceased. When all of these strange things are over, they bury the bodies again. Famadihana is a way of maintaining a bond between the living and the dead.

3. Sky burials

This ritual is based on the belief that the soul of the dead immediately leaves the body. It involves feeding of the remains to vultures. One can witness the sky burials in parts of Tibet and Mongolia. They consider this as the last act of charity to the earth. This practice of the Vajrayana Buddhists has been given the term ‘jhator’ in the local language.

They dissect the body of the dead and place the pieces on the top of a mountain. The purpose is to feed these pieces to the vultures. This ritual has been in practice in these parts of the world since ages. Nearly 80 percent of Tibetans choose sky burial even today.

4. The hanging coffins

In the Chinese province of Sichuan, one can find hundreds of hanging coffins. They belong to the Bo people. These members of the Bo people are believed to have died around 400 years ago. This practice also exists among ethnic groups in Indonesia and the Philippines. In the mountain town of Sagada in the Philippines, the logrot people practice this tradition.

Many such hanging coffins dot the faces of the cliff in the Echo Valley. These people believe that the ritual protects the dead from animals and flooding. In the Igorot culture, there’s also a belief that this ritual grants an easier passage to the afterlife.

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