Although the only thing that you can be certain of in life, as the famous saying goes, is death and taxes, we, as a society have a reluctance to talk about death. Many of us have attended or even had to arrange a funeral at some point, with the help of professionals such as these Essex funeral directors, but within society it seems we do not treat death as a subject that we are happy to speak about.
This leads people to wonder about it, and the different aspects of the processes surrounding it, and one of the most popular questions is ‘what happens during a cremation’.
Despite the fact that the majority of funerals are cremations rather than burials in the UK it seems that we do not know a lot about what happens with cremation. Sometimes we have images in our head that are far more disturbing than the reality – so briefly, how does a cremation service happen…
The same way as a traditional service, the coffin is brought into the crematorium. The ceremony itself can be religious based or not, depending on the individuals wishes. A service lasts around 40 minutes and is similar to a church service in how it is done.
The mourners then leave the crematorium, and a curtain is drawn around the coffin. This is the part that many people fear that they will see the coffin go into the furnace, but that is a very old-fashioned process and it is no longer done in the UK. However, if you ask in advance a maximum of two relatives can witness the coffin go in if they should wish to.
The cremation is done on the same day, and the process takes around an hour and a half. Any metals (such as metal hip replacements) are removed with a magnet and recycled, and the ashes are placed in an urn to be passed on to the family. You can then place them in an urn of your choosing, you may have a grave to bury them in or take them to a special place to scatter them.