How are they buried in a crematorium? How is human cremation performed? Crematoria

Of course, the loss of loved ones becomes a real psychological shock and severe stress for us. When a person dies, his relatives have to decide what type of burial to choose so that the soul of the deceased "finds eternal rest."

Currently, in our country, such a procedure as human cremation is becoming increasingly popular. Agencies specializing in the provision of funeral services are forced to solve a huge number of issues directly related to cremation. At the same time, many people who, for various reasons, are forced to organize funerals, do not have the slightest idea about the cremation of a person. The information below will be of great help to them.

So, what is this ritual and how expensive is it?

Cremation is one of the variations of burial, which involves burning a person's body in a special oven until ash is formed. After that, the ashes of the deceased are placed in a special container, which is given to the relatives and friends of the deceased so that they complete the burial procedure by one of the following methods: either they place the ashes in the grave, or they place the urn in the columbarium.

What is the price of the above procedure

It should be noted that the cost of cremation is not so high - it is about 4 thousand rubles.

Considering such a ritual as the cremation of a person, the price of which depends on one or another set of necessary services and accessories, it should be emphasized that even the purchase of a coffin for cremation is relatives of the deceased. One way or another, the cost estimate for cremation is based on their financial capabilities.

Currently, there are no problems with choosing a coffin for the deceased. The only requirement is that it be made from materials that are highly combustible.

What is the reason why human cremation as a type of burial is becoming more and more preferred? There are several. And they are individual.

Some experts say that over time, cremation will "crowd out" land burial, as it is a less costly procedure from a financial point of view.

Of great interest to many is not only the question of how a person is cremated, but also whether it is necessary to cremate him before burning the body. If the cremation point is located at a remote distance and must be reached long time or when the farewell procedure is scheduled immediately before the cremation of the deceased, it is recommended that the body be embalmed.

The church is very indifferent to the above procedure. There is a position according to which the burning of the body itself does not contradict church canons. However, a certain part of the clergy is extremely negative about cremation. Quite a bit of time has passed since the moment when the clergy began to bury the dead directly in the crematorium building.

Natalia Kravchuk

Natalia Kravchuk

How this place shrouded in myths actually functions is told and shown by the employees of the crematorium at the Baikove cemetery in the capital.

The gloomy and unusual building of the Kyiv crematorium - giant white concrete hemispheres - stands on a hill on the territory of the famous Baikovo cemetery, the oldest and most prestigious in the country. It is always crowded here, at times the processions go one by one, conveyor. We asked for a kind of excursion here to see how this mythical place functions. And they showed us the whole process - from the registration of the cremation procedure to the moment the ashes were handed over to relatives.

The head of the cremation shop, a calm, pleasant man of about 50, agrees to conduct a "tour" around the crematorium. He is sociable and willingly answers all questions, but immediately voices his demands: not to indicate his name, surname and not to photograph him personally. Almost all employees of the KP Kiev Crematorium will behave in the same way, and there are a little more than a hundred of them here. Not everyone here is ready to tell where they work and what they do. It is understandable: the work is not easy in every sense.

First of all, we are taken to the administrative building, where the cremation procedure is completed. Relatives come here to agree on dates, agree on conditions and pay for the service. The price list hangs on the website of the crematorium in open access. The total price tag here is a little more than 4 thousand UAH. Of these, the cremation procedure itself costs 445 UAH, the rest of the expenses include renting a hearse, providing a ritual hall, buying an urn, a funeral service, an orchestra, and applying text to the urn. All this varies in price. The most expensive urn, for example, costs about UAH 1.5 thousand, the cheapest - UAH 525.

More than 12,000 cremations are now taking place every year, and this number is increasing. This is more than it used to be: before it barely reached 10 thousand, - says our escort. He links it to two things. First, he says, more and more people during their lifetime choose this option for their own burial, considering it more environmentally friendly. And secondly, cemeteries are simply overcrowded in the capital.

On average, more than a thousand cremations take place here per month, but it all depends on the time of year: people die more often in summer, because chronic diseases worsen and the heart cannot withstand the heat.

There are several farewell halls in the crematorium at once: two small ones right there, in the administrative building, and two large ones a little further away, in that very famous building in the form of concrete hemispheres. First we go into the small ones - now they are just empty.

One room is considered ordinary, and the second one is ours as a VIP room. It is not so hot in summer and not so cold in winter, there are heaters. Previously, there was a small urn storage here, but now it has been reconstructed into a hall, - says the escort.

The VIP-hall is also distinguished by the fact that it organizes farewell procedures for representatives of different faiths. The walls here are almost bare, and all elements like crucifixes and icons can be easily dismantled if necessary.

VIP room

And in the first and second halls, unlike the other two in the next building, there are no elevators - after parting, the coffin is taken away manually. The second hall is decorated with colorful blue bas-relief - a unique monument Soviet architecture. It was created in 1975, when the building of the crematorium itself was being built. Its authors are artists Ada Rybachuk and Vladimir Melnichenko - 13 years worked on another mega-project, which was supposed to grow near unusual shape crematorium buildings - the Wall of Memory, 213 m long, 4 to 14 m high. Elements of a huge high relief, Walls, should have been painted in bright glaze, reflected in the water of the lake and symbolized Love, Motherhood, Spring, Creativity and other joys of life. But when the construction took 13 years and the Wall had only to be painted, the incredible happened: in 1981, city officials suddenly considered the building "alien to the principles of socialist realism." Either there were too few Soviet symbols on the Wall, or one of the functionaries was afraid of responsibility for a too free-thinking approach to the interpretation afterlife, but the epic structure was ordered to be destroyed. It took three months and 300 KAMAZ trucks of concrete. They filled them with Spring, Love and others like them, the same workers who helped the artists cast them.

The Wall of Remembrance was originally conceived as an element that should distract the attention of the mourners. Looking at the pictures embodied in concrete from famous myths, people could reflect on life and being or remember deceased relatives. Now none of the active workers of the crematorium even remembers what the drawings on the Wall looked like. Now it looks like a concrete rampart overgrown with ivy.

All that's left of the Memory Wall

While we are talking about all this, I notice how a young priest is looking at us from the backyard.

This is Father Vladimir, he is the only one who is constantly involved here. There is his parish, - our escort points to a small wooden temple on a hill.

All other priests come to the ceremonies from different churches.

While we are climbing the columbarium to the hill, to the large halls, our "guide" says that people often come to the Wall and the crematorium to take pictures.

Sometimes the Goths come too, they walk here at night. Homeless people sometimes come in and steal everything that can be sold or sold later, metal structures, for example, - he says.

Near the big halls - crowded. Here and there scattered groups of relatives and hearses - mostly black Mercedes. In one of them, in the front seat, a woman under 50 with a pocket mirror in her hand paints her lips. There is a badge on her chest that reveals that she is an employee of the ritual service. And in the first, and in the second halls there is a farewell. We look into the largest one, they are buried there young guy. On the back wall of the hall there is a panel of artificial flowers.

Once a young woman was buried, I think she was the director of a travel agency, - our interlocutor recalls. - It seems that she died in Turkey, or something. So they overlaid all the panels at their own expense with fresh flowers.

When the priest finishes the memorial service, the trumpeter gets down to business, playing a sad tune. He is also a full-time employee of the crematorium, but at the request of relatives, musicians with an orchestra from other companies can also be invited. When he finishes playing, the coffin is covered with a lid and lowered by an elevator down. Relatives split up. A local funeral worker, a lively black-haired woman in a blue down jacket, takes a portrait, collects everything that relatives have brought, and quickly exchanges it for a new one. Instead of a portrait of a guy, a photograph of an elderly woman appears.

Let's! - orders the ritualist somewhere in the distance. A man in black with a bandage on his sleeve, on command, unloads the next coffin from the hearse, he is brought onto the stage and proceed to a new farewell. This coffin is not even opened, everything goes faster. Several bouquets and a loaf of black bread are placed on the lid.

We go outside. The territory near the halls is paved with paving stones. Our guide says that this is the idea of ​​the architect Miletsky.

It was so conceived that the people who walk in the procession looked under their feet, and did not yawn, - the man explains.

Through the rows of the columbarium we go to the next point - the cremation shop. Where the coffins end up after saying goodbye. Everything is arranged like this: a 75 m long tunnel runs underground, through which the coffins are transported on a special electric car. Rather, this is what our interlocutor calls it, but later we will see that this type of transport resembles rather a large cart.

While we are going to the krem ​​shop, the guide talks about the columbarium. There are currently 16 lots here. There are new ones and old ones - in the hill and in the ground around. The ones in the ground are like family vaults. It holds four urns. It can be seen that on some tombstones remains empty place- that means they will still be buried here. Here you can also see a new area with empty cells for bins.

There are very few places left. Very, very, - the man sighs thoughtfully. - For a couple of years and all. Now in the spring they will go, they will go, and that's all they will take. In winter, rarely anyone buries - cold, frost.

Up on the hill - a separate area for " mass graves". Urns are buried here once a year, for which no one came. I walk along the site and see square concrete tablets with names on them. Above is the year of death. The oldest are dated 2003. It happens that relatives come for an urn and through several years, then she is found in common graves by her last name and confiscated.

We are approaching the cremation shop. Two dogs barking at us. The man hurries to assure that they are attached. Under the feet of one of them, a small black pot-bellied puppy gets confused. He tries to copy an adult and also barks, but he does it funny.

Look, he survived, - our escort nods at him. - Somebody put it up.

He hides for a couple of seconds behind the heavy metal gates in the workshop to warn the workers that the journalists have come, then leads us inside. There is nothing here but a long concrete tunnel - the same one that leads to large halls, metal racks for coffins and furnaces. Furnaces - there are eight of them, that is, four blocks of two furnaces each - were purchased during the construction of the crematorium.

There's a refrigerator over there, but it hasn't been working for a long time, - the man nods at the ajar green doors with the corresponding inscription. - And what to do if even in morgues they have not been working in some for a long time. But there is also a working refrigerator. True, in the administrative corps.

The workers of the shop come to us. A bell is heard somewhere in the tunnel: this is a signal that it is time to go to pick up another coffin from the hall. One of the men, Dmitry, jumps onto the stage of his vehicle and hides in the tunnel. I walk a little forward and see that there is a bowl of water and an empty plate near the wall.

Cats live here, our guide explains. - There are so many mice and rats - the tunnel is underground.

A few minutes later Dmitry appears, carrying two coffins in front of him at once. Apparently, these are the dead, the farewell to which we observed upstairs. Near one of them is a loaf of bread. The lids just lie on top, not screwed or nailed in any way, slightly beveled a couple of centimeters to the side. Dmitry takes a special metal hook, hooks the coffin under the lid and pulls it onto a cart. Then he shifts to the stage near the wall - to wait, because the furnaces are still busy.

On the lid of the coffin is a piece of paper with the data of the deceased. Inside is a metal token engraved with an individual number assigned to this deceased. When the remains are removed from the furnace, the token will be in them as proof of identity for identification.

We go around the ovens on the other side. Three men peek out from behind them - local workers. They also do not want to be called and photographed. The furnace has a round hole through which flames are visible. One of the workers opens the shutter so that we can see what's inside: flames and bones.

The burning process takes an hour and a half, depending on the size, they explain to us.

Sometimes they put everything in the coffin. Some boots or a bottle of moonshine. Moonshine is dangerous, it can explode, the men say.

I ask them where the rumors came from that here, in the crematorium, during the Maidan, the murdered protesters were burned. Our escort brushes aside, saying that after that scandal they were visited by the Prosecutor General's Office with a check, but nothing suspicious was found. The cremation shop, he explains, is equipped with meters that count gas consumption, and to understand whether there has been an overrun of fuel, you just need to double-check the figures.

Opposite the ovens separate room, in which the bones removed from the oven are crushed into dust on a special machine and given out in an urn. In the room - a table on which a table lamp is turned on, there is a journal with handwritten notes. The names of the dead are entered there - records are kept. Along the wall is a closet. On the glass is a black and red sticker of the Right Sector. Above the shelves is a wooden crucifix. On the floor there are iron cells, similar to covered scoops from shovels, in which there are bones that have not yet been ground, and the same metal buckets. On each - a piece of paper with data on the deceased, inside - the same metal token.

Sometimes they put everything in the coffin. Some boots, or a bottle of moonshine. Moonshine is dangerous, it can explode

There are two such granite balls inside - a local worker, a man in blue overalls, opens a round door in one of the cars. - These balls grind the bones into dust, before placing the bones there, I take such a large magnet and pull all the metal elements onto it. We put them in a special container.

He waves his hand in the direction of the container - there are melted nails from coffins, a watch strap and a metal denture frame are visible.

The ground ashes are placed in a bag, a token is placed on top, all this is put in an urn. Usually its capacity is about 2.8 kg. A metal token is also placed here, which was with the body of the deceased during cremation. So relatives will be able to make sure that they were given the one they need.

In addition to the cremation of human bodies, animals are sometimes cremated here: the owners can order such a procedure, for example, for their beloved dog. Also, the KP Kiev Crematorium has a license for the cremation of biological waste, which, as a rule, is brought from medical institutions.

The room where the remains are ground to dust and poured into urns

Then we go to the urn storage, where they come to get an urn with ashes. At the entrance to the vault itself there is a window for issuing. The woman checks the document and gives out the ashes. There are also examples of tombstones, slabs and monuments that can be purchased for the burial of ashes.

We pass by the woman and get inside. There are dozens of racks with trash cans here. They all different shapes, there are made of stone, wood and even ceramics, the vast majority are black. Each rack is marked with an A4 sheet with a printed letter - the one that begins the name of the deceased. But they are scattered randomly, not alphabetically.

A woman walks between the rows with a piece of paper in her hands and looks for the right thing to take to the issue. A man helps her - in overalls, a cap and glasses. Represented by Alexander. From the photo does not refuse and even poses a little. He does his work methodically, it shows that he has been doing this business for a long time. He is looking for urns that will be needed for issuance and burial tomorrow. I ask him about the strange order of the letters on the shelves.

Yes, we have already got used to it for many years, - the man says. His position sounds like the head of the urn, but emphasizes that he is not in charge here - "there is still a woman above him." I'm trying to calculate the capacity of the urn, at least in approximate numbers. 12-13 urns are placed on one shelf of the rack, five shelves in the rack. It turns out about 70 bins per rack.

To find the right urn on the rack with the letter, one has to read each engraving: there is no photograph or any other marker.

When the relatives take the urn, they themselves decide what to do next: bury it here, in the columbarium, take it with them, take it to another city or country, or scatter the ashes where the deceased wished in his will.

The purpose of this publication is to expand the understanding of cremation as a modern method of burial, which is rapidly developing almost all over the world. Greatest development it received in Japan, UK, France, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Among the many rational considerations leading to the cremation of the dead, the priority is precisely the hygienic aspect, primarily the protection of sources of drinking water and the lack of land for classical burial. The harmful effects of cemeteries on The groundwater much more than society assumes. It is not only about the environment, but also about the economy. The costs of burials in crematoria are 20-25 percent cheaper compared to burials in the ground.

We asked the General Director of the Novosibirsk Crematorium to tell us how the cremation process is carried out. A.M. Kravchuk.

For Russia, the process of cremation is not yet the usual way of burial. That is why certain knowledge is needed about the essence of the processes taking place in a cremation oven, as well as an understanding of the entire procedure for this new type of burial for Russians.

I confess that I myself had to work hard in order to comprehend the basics of cremation processes in all the subtleties. When I first saw the stove, which is half the size of an ordinary metal garage, I thought that I could quickly understand the technology and focus on the ceremony, the organization of the farewell ritual itself. It was there, in the spiritual sorrow of people, as it seemed to me then, that my main worries would be. But when I began to delve into it, I saw the most complex computer stuffing, I realized that it was only in appearance that the oven looked small.

The history of modern cremation is over 100 years old. Many scientists around the world have worked on this problem. Despite the seeming simplicity of the furnace design, cremation itself as a technology appeared to me as a capacious, high-tech biological engineering process, sequentially controlled by electronics.

But everything is in order. The cremation process returns to nature the bodies of the deceased after preliminary burning in a cremation oven. To turn a human corpse into a handful of burnt white bones that easily turn into ashes requires a very high temperature, 860-1100 degrees Celsius. Such a temperature is easier to achieve by burning not solid fuel, but gas, which can provide the temperature necessary for burning a corpse. It is not enough to achieve a high temperature, one must also achieve that the corpse is burned not in a flame of fire, but in a stream of hot air. In this case, there will be a guarantee that the remains will not mix with the combustion products of the fuel.

The combustion chamber is made of refractory bricks; it is larger in size than the largest coffin. In order to explore and comprehend the structural details, I myself repeatedly climbed into this very combustion chamber. Being in the oven, represented everything physical processes that occur during combustion: how is the supply of gas, air; what creates pressure; from which nozzles and at what moment hot air is injected; due to which the fiery whirlwind occurs; where do the combustion gases go? how the afterburning of the remains is carried out with the help of an additional burner.

The process of cremation should be carried out until the complete mineralization of the organic mass, subject to strict separation of the ashes of the individual deceased. It is completely unacceptable to speed up the process by exposure to higher temperatures, by dividing the bodies, or by raking hot residues.

Dead bodies differ from the point of view of cremation by the age of the deceased, by the time elapsed between death and cremation, by the drugs used for long-term illnesses leading to death, and by weight.

A classic example of the effect of prolonged treatment on the cremation process is the difficult burning of the calcified tissues of those who died of tuberculosis. During my acquaintance with the work of crematoria in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Milan, Cologne, Rome, in many Czech crematoria, the staff frankly shared their experience with me. For example, the oven workers told me about their observations: the cremation of the fatter dead proceeds very quickly, like matches flare up the bodies of drug addicts. Conversely, the bodies of those who die of cancer burn 20-35 minutes longer. I myself have repeatedly watched the cremation of cancer patients through the peephole of the furnace. It is interesting that the tissues affected by the tumor do not actually burn, or burn, but with a completely different one - with a blue, radiant flame, as if it is not a body, not an organic tissue that is burning, but something completely different. It is not for nothing that doctors today are increasingly talking about the informational nature of cancer and other systemic diseases.

There is a special hole in the wall of the chamber to drain the liquid evaporating from the corpse. Organs human body have a lot of fluid in them: lungs - 79%, liver - 74%, kidneys - 81%, brain - also 81%, etc. All this liquid at high temperatures of the furnace turns into steam, which is why from an adult weighing 60-65 kg after burning only 2-2.5 kg of ash and burnt bones remain. In addition to the bodies of the dead, coffins, their equipment and clothes of the deceased are also burned.

An inseparable operation of the technological process in crematoria is the processing of ashes before laying in the urn. Ash pans with ash removed are cooled in the furnace space. Traditionally, urns are made in the form of a goblet, a vase with a lid, caskets, bowls, made of marble, granite and other natural stone, ceramics, synthetic materials, have religious symbols, are decorated with floral or geometric ornaments.

You can bury the urn with the ashes the very next day after cremation, if the place has already been determined. But the relatives and friends of the deceased have the opportunity after cremation without haste to find the best place and convenient time of the year for burying the urn with ashes. For eleven months, it can be left for storage in the crematorium, and only on the twelfth, if it has not yet been received, is the responsible person from the relatives and friends of the deceased reminded of the need for her burial.

The advantages of the columbar type of burial include the low cost of the niche and the memorial plate covering the urn placed in it. In addition to open columbariums, there are also closed ones. The indoor columbarium is convenient for visiting the burial place in any weather at any time of the year. However, in Lately more often they resort to burying urns with ashes in cemeteries in the graves of relatives, which is also inexpensive.

After the end of the ceremony, the coffin is moved to a mobile platform and, with the help of a special device, is fed into the burning chamber. There is a small hole in the door of the chamber, a “peephole”, through which you can monitor the combustion process, which is controlled by a computer. In order to avoid any possibility of mixing the remains, each deceased who was brought to the crematorium is registered, and a firebrick number or a metal plate with a number is placed on the coffin. When the burning ends, the number is found with the ashes, so it is impossible to mix the remains of different deceased.

In conclusion, I would like to add that I recently returned from my third trip abroad to the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, where I did an internship, got acquainted with the experience of European crematoria, and learned to work with TAVO equipment, which will be delivered to Novosibirsk in June. I was present at the laying of the Novosibirsk furnace. Today it has already taken on a finished shape, the lining of the walls has been completed. The Czechs promise to finish its production by mid-June.

V.A. Tolokonsky, head of administration of the Novosibirsk region:

Back in my time as mayor, I carefully studied the issues of cremation. I was obligated to do this by the status of a giant city, which has accumulated many problems in the field of burial over a century of history. The city budget neither then nor now has reserves for significant multimillion-dollar investments. Fortunately, private investors have now appeared. As a basis, we took the cheapest and most effective cremation technology based on European experience. When I was mayor, we received an offer from the Franco-Dutch company TAVO to supply cremation equipment. At our request, a business project for a crematorium was then developed. The budget did not allow it to be implemented.

To be honest, we considered many proposals from foreign and domestic manufacturers - there were more than ten of them. At the request of the consumer market department, these plans were collected by Siberian Fair, the organizer of the only funeral exhibition in Russia, Necropolis. They have a large database, extensive contacts with the whole world in this area.

Investors promise to open a crematorium at the end of 2001. Of course, it will not replace traditional forms of burial. One of the most important arguments in favor of cremation is its low cost, as well as environmental friendliness.

Novosibirsk - a city with a population of one and a half million - should have had a crematorium long ago, and Novosibirsk should have a choice: burial in the ground or cremation.

It is the duty of the living not only to take good care of their dead, but also to provide such environment so that the living can live safely.

S.B. Yakushin, President of the Exhibition Society "Siberian Fair":

I had the bitter experience of saying goodbye to a loved one more than twenty years ago, when my father died while visiting his eldest son in Leningrad. Mom, brother, sister - we all decided together then that we would cremate the father's body in order to bury the urn at the Pervomaisky cemetery in Novosibirsk. My father was a famous person in the area, he did a lot for Pervomayka. We were given a place on the main alley for the burial of the ashes. Then it was a "new", little-known form of burial.

I still cannot forget the details of the solemn ritual in the Leningrad crematorium. My father is a veteran. Mom three times during the war years received a funeral for him, but never - in her soul - did not bury him, she believed that he was alive. And all three times he was reborn. The host of the ceremony, a professional artist-orator, began short story about the life of his father in simple and at the same time solemn words: “Today we say goodbye to the citizen of the USSR Boris Ivanovich Yakushin, an order bearer ..., a front-line soldier whom the enemy’s bullet could not defeat ...” Everyone sobbed quietly. They spoke with restraint, penetratingly, the atmosphere was reverent. We said goodbye to the father under the anthem Soviet Union. For some reason, my heart was light.

Before the coffin descended from the mourning hall into the hall of furnaces, the leader asked all those present to go around the pedestal in a circle and touch the head of the coffin with their right hand.

My brother and sister and I were worried about my mother, we didn’t know how her heart would “handle” in the crematorium. But the ritual was planned and carried out in such a way that there was no place for loud crying, frantic howls, "throws on the coffin". Quiet, solemn, dignified, respectful. Largely due to the ceremony itself, my mother was able to calmly endure the farewell to her father in a Christian way.

Since then I have been an ardent supporter of cremation. At our exhibitions - first "RitualSib", and then "Necropolis" (for the past five years the exhibition has been held in Moscow) - we tried to promote the idea of ​​cremation as widely as possible. We collected cremators from all over the world. Today we know more than 20 manufacturers of cremation equipment. All of them exhibited their projects at exhibitions. It is no coincidence that a few years ago the Novokuznetsk mayor's office turned to us with a request to help them hold a tender for the best crematorium. Then the experts recognized the equipment of the Franco-Dutch company TABO as the best, which has a large production facility in the Czech Republic. The crematorium in Novokuznetsk is already in operation.

I have long wanted to build a crematorium in our city. I remember, for a long time I convinced the mayor I.I. Indina in the need for cremation in the Novosibirsk metropolis, where almost half a million hectares are occupied by cemeteries. Ivan Ivanovich is a deeply religious person, and Orthodoxy at that time took a tougher stance on the issue of cremation. Once we were together in London. I persuaded him to visit the oldest crematorium in Europe, which is over a century old. The trip to the crematorium made a deep impression on our mayor. We approached the urn with the ashes of the Russian ballerina A. Pavlova. Next to the urn is a small figurine of a ballerina. From the touchingness of the moment, which was expressed primarily in the dignity and respect for the memory of the departed, Ivan Ivanovich burst into tears. The comparison was not in our favor. “We bury industrially, we store them in the ground, as in an industrial base, we don’t save memory, we separate families in cemeteries. A crematorium in Novosibirsk must be built. Lost time! - said I.I. Indinok.

The infringed budget of the city did not allow construction to begin. But preparatory work a big one was held. New mayor V.A. Tolokonsky investigated this problem in all subtleties. In absentia, we held two tenders for the best cremation equipment at the mayor's office. Due to financial constraints and other greater social priorities, the crematorium project was shelved.

Attempts by the "Siberian Fair" at the exhibitions "Necropolis" to attract the attention of private capital to this project did not bring success. Private business reluctant to invest in projects with a payback period of 8-10 years. In addition, the funeral sphere is not very capacious - the entire turnover of the Novosibirsk funeral does not exceed 50-70 million rubles a year. This is a big illusion that the funeral is a rich area where you can get super profits. For big business, this is relatively little money to single out a crematorium as a priority project. In addition, the refund is extended in time. And a small and medium-sized entrepreneur - there are 15 firms on the funeral market of Novosibirsk - does not have free funds for large investments.

Today Novosibirsk has a unique chance to build a crematorium with the help of a foreign investor. It would be an unforgivable mistake not to take advantage of this.

Recently I talked on the subject of cremation with Bishop Tikhon of Novosibirsk and Berdsk. Orthodoxy, like Catholics, has noticeably softened its attitude towards cremation. Vladyka Tikhon, for example, does not see mockery of the body during cremation. “And if the drowned submariners were eaten by fish? Or people died in a fire? Won't their souls be resurrected?" Vladyka Tikhon answered my question about his attitude to cremation succinctly and simply.

Several years ago, the Orthodox and Catholic synods decided not to interfere in the affairs of the state: if for reasons of economic, sanitary and epidemiological expediency and taking into account the will of citizens, cremation is necessary, both christian churches decided to perform a funeral service for the dead before cremation. With the blessing of the Patriarch of Russia Orthodox Church Alexy II, Orthodox priests serve in all Russian crematoria.

There is no doubt that the opening of the crematorium is a new cultural, aesthetic, spiritual level in the funeral business of Novosibirsk. The opportunity for many families to remain together after death, in one family crypt - columbarium, and not be buried in different cemeteries, in different cities according to the prescription. It's a decision and overdue social problem- removal of funerals from high-rise buildings that pose a danger to the physical and psychological health of neighbors by transferring the farewell ritual to special rooms in the crematorium.

I cannot help but recall other words of I.I. Indinka: “It would be necessary to build the House of Farewells on Red Avenue. A man lived in this city, multiplied its development with his work. Every Novosibirsk citizen has the right to count on the fact that on his last day the city will say goodbye to him on its main street.

I would like to hope that by the end of this year a crematorium complex with a columbar park and two farewell halls will be built in Novosibirsk.

Cremation - the burning of the body of the deceased in a special oven in the crematorium. It's complicated technological process, in which there are many subtleties and nuances. To understand whether it is needed, you need to understand the technology, take into account all the pros and cons.

So, let's figure it out.

Cremation Technology

In order to cremate the deceased, first of all, a crematorium is needed. The crematorium has a simple-looking brick oven covered with iron. At first glance, it seems that there is nothing complicated in its design, but it is not.

A cremator is a high-tech device filled with computer-controlled electronics.

The computer controls all the processes in the furnace - the temperature, it should be in the range of 860-1100 degrees Celsius, the removal of liquids and vapors, the supply of gas and air to the combustion chamber, the swirl of the flame, an additional burner that burns the body to the end.

Cremation takes up to several hours. The process of cremation occurs until the complete transformation of the body of the deceased into ashes.

Depending on the age, weight, and illness of the deceased, the burning time varies. So, for a person whose weight is from 90 kilograms, it takes less time than for someone who weighs 50.

People who had cancer are cremated for a long time - cancerous tumors burn very badly.

Cremation of people with tuberculosis also takes a long time - calcified lungs prevent the body from being burned quickly.

In no case should the process be accelerated by increasing the temperature or in other ways. Burning should be natural.

Cremation usually takes place in a coffin, which must be made of natural wood.

After burning, the ash pans are taken out, the ashes are cooled and collected. Then the ashes are laid out in a traditional urn or casket, and it is given to the relatives of the deceased.

Now they have time to think about where and how to bury the deceased, prepare for the funeral.

When is cremation performed?

Cremation is carried out in the following cases:

When there is no free space at the cemetery intended for burial.
When the features of the area do not allow traditional burial. A simple example is the city of Norilsk in Russia. Due to the characteristics of the soil, the coffins are "squeezed out" from the ground to the surface.
When people can't decide where to bury the body for a long time.
When cemeteries are closed to new burials. There is a shortage of free places in the cemetery.
They are also cremated based on the beliefs of the deceased. Many people during their lifetime ask relatives to be cremated. They cannot bear the very thought of being buried in a coffin under a layer of earth.
What to do with the ashes
The deceased is cremated, and the question arises: what to do with the ashes?

An urn with ashes can be buried in a cemetery, while making a place in any cemetery will be easier.

In many cities of the CIS, there are columbariums - special places for the burial of urns with ashes. They are both open - under the sky, and closed - under the roof. The indoor columbarium is convenient to visit in any weather. It is worth noting that the cost of a niche in a columbarium and a memorial plate covering the niche is much cheaper than a grave with a monument.

What religions say about cremation.

Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Shinto, offshoots of ancient and modern paganism are all religions that allow cremation.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not opposed to cremation.

Catholic and Orthodox clergy are ambivalent about burning. They strongly advise to bury a person traditionally, in a coffin, and the burial should be below ground level.

But, even despite such a categorical statement, the churches understand that in a modern densely populated city, there is physically nowhere to bury the deceased.

Quote from Wikipedia:

Currently, major Christian denominations allow cremation, based in part on the words of the early Christian ecclesiastical writer Marcus Minucius Felix: "We do not fear any harm in any manner of burial, but adhere to the old and better custom of burying the body." At the same time, Orthodox and Catholic clergy advise, if it is possible to choose a method of burial, to bury the body in a coffin, as it is “more humane, more intense biblical symbolism and generally more instructive and comforting for loved ones.
The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church did not recognize cremation as the norm of burial, however, the church will not deprive the commemoration of Christians, “according to various reasons those who have not been honored with a burial in accordance with church tradition,” the draft document “On the Christian Burial of the Dead” says. The Holy Synod in May 2015, in a special memorandum "On the Christian burial of the dead", recommended that priests treat cremation as an undesirable phenomenon, but show indulgence to such facts.

Outcome

So, cremation is permissible for Christians and impossible for Muslims.

How to conduct a cremation in Almaty
If you, for some reason, decide to be cremated, be prepared for the fact that Kazakhstan does not have its own crematorium. Cremation will have to be in Novosibirsk, and it will not be cheap. But later you can save on burial.

Body preparation

The body must be embalmed. The process is detailed in

Cargo clearance 200

In order to carry the body to the crematorium, the following supplies will be needed:

The coffin in which the deceased will be cremated.
Zinc box. Only in it is it allowed to transport the deceased abroad.
Hearse, plane or train, for the delivery of cargo-200 to the crematorium.
Collection and execution of documents

To cross the border between Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as for the cremation itself, the following documents will be required:

• Stamp death certificate
• Help with SES
• Information about embalming
• Certificate of absence of extraneous attachments

All this is included in our list of funeral services. Ritual agency in Almaty “ Everlasting memory” will consult you free of charge at any time of the day. We will help you arrange all the necessary documents for cremation and transportation.