By Esta Pratt-Kielley. It’s a sunny February day as Cathie Murray walks up a trail in Fayette, Maine, snow crunching beneath her boots. She comes upon a grove of tall cathedral pines and oak trees. It’s silent except for the patters of squirrels and the wind rustling the tops of the trees. This is the […]
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The New Way to Return to Old Traditions: An Interview with Casper Creek Natural Cemetery
By Scott McAfee. Like any other industry, death care evolves and experiences shifts in how things are done over time. One of the last significant shifts occurred in the early 19th century when disease and overcrowding made it unsafe to continue churchyard burials. Since then, traditional cemetery burials have been the norm and there have […]
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Death Care Goes Green
By Sander Gusinow. On July 1, Oregon became the third state in the nation to allow a human body to be composted after death, following Washington and Colorado. The new allowance has already brought a human composting company to the state, and represents a growing trend toward sustainability in the death care industry. Distinct from […]
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Saving the Environment — and Cash — Through ‘Green’ Burials
By Lindsay Kalter. In 2017, Judy and Al Mowrer of Wooster, OH, decided they wanted to be “pushin’ up daisies” in the literal sense when they died – using their bodies to help the Earth prosper and give new life. So last year when Al died of multiple sclerosis at 74, he was wrapped in […]
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California Jews, enough with your green, grassy cemeteries
By Rob Eshman. Jewish law has a lot to say about what’s supposed to happen when you die: your lifeless body must be washed and buried quickly, with a simple headstone to mark your grave. But nowhere, in 4,000 years of Jewish law, custom or tradition does it say you need to rest eternally under […]
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Wreaths Across America Begins Annual Journey to Arlington National Cemetery
By Emily Molina. Wreaths Across America (WAA) commences its yearly journey to place wreaths upon every eligible marker at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. Dec. 11. The annual procession, initiated by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester almost 30 years ago, has become a holiday tradition. WAA’s mission is to “remember, honor, and teach” about the […]
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3,000 wreaths, destined for veterans’ headstones in Ottawa, stolen
By Peter Szperling. OTTAWA — Thousands of handmade wreaths, meant for a ceremony to honour fallen servicemen and servicewomen at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, have been stolen. 6,024 wreaths were to be placed on veterans’ headstones this upcoming Sunday. Approximately 3,000 were taken from a rural area just outside of Maxville, Ont. this past weekend. […]
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Conserving Jewish cemeteries, one stone at a time
By Kevin Riordan. On an otherwise quiet morning at Har Nebo, the venerable Jewish cemetery in Northeast Philadelphia, the clinking of Joe Ferrannini’s hammer and chisel was the sound of history being made to last. Ferrannini has been meticulously reassembling, resetting and cleaning the broken, sunken, fallen or discolored stones on 32 graves at Har […]
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Pioneer cemeteries say ‘enough’ to vandalism, hope to install cameras
By Kevin Harden. Volunteers who maintain two historic cemeteries in Newberg have had it with vandalism at the properties. They’re seeking more than $9,000 in a state grant to install security cameras they hope will reduce incidents. Newberg’s Fernwood Pioneer Cemetery Association applied for the state funds in early May as part of a $14,800 […]
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Huge cemetery with at least 250 rock-cut tombs discovered in Egypt
By Owen Jarus. About 250 tombs, some with fancy layouts and hieroglyphics, have been discovered cut into a hill at Al-Hamidiyah cemetery to the east of Sohag, in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, about 240 miles (386 kilometers) southeast of Cairo, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said. The tombs were constructed at different times in Egypt’s history, the archaeologists […]
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