Scattering of the ashes in Budapest cemetery

SCATTERING OF THE ASHES

Yenö Ladanyi – Fövárosi Temetkezési Részvénytársaság, Budapest (Hungary)

Man is the only living being, who is consciously concerned about his perished companions. Relationship between man and death is a matter which concerns humanity since it became conscious.

The funeral always meant more than burying a body. The funeral-forms and practices (habits), generally reflected the economical, emotional, technical state of the age, and its importance, respectively. Humanity had applied practically all possible funeral-forms. We buried in earth, in water, in the air, on trees, in caves, in casemates, in the ice of the glaciers, on mountain-peaks, in the stomach of the birds and animals. Supposedly we are preparing to bury in the space.

At present in the world they are two basic types of burying: in the earth and cremation.

The traditional in-land burying resulted in the appearance and the development of an aesthetically burying worship. The burying cult, the frequent visiting of the person buried is accompanied by a long-lasting (for years or even decades) and deep mourning. Preserving as long as possible the tomb, and the permanent maintenance of it is a matter of conscience. In other words the deceased, with this form of burying occurs to those left behind a permanent problem and occupation.

As a matter of fact the cremation is an artificially speeded-up, rationally spreading, which happens in a closed area (furnace), where usually the relatives are not present. From my experience I can say that bereavement at cremation is totally different from that in case of the funeral following the cremation. Expression of bereavement is psychically also strong, but lasting less.

I consider that the cause of this feeling is, when burying in the earth we are aware of the fact that, besides the permanent, terrible-looking process of decomposition, our relative is bodily still in the tomb. In turn, after cremation the deceased in the urn, in its finally condition could be hold in hand as well. This, of course doesn’t mean the absence of the mourn. I’ve noticed that, after cremation, from all feelings of the living relatives, the resignation and acceptance were the strongest.

As we’ve seen, actually the cremation is a technological activity, during its process we spread off the body. Placing of the ashes remained, the ending of the deceased person’s life, coming from the man-death relationship offers a lot of opportunities.

The ashes are spread away, buried in earth, placed in a construction, etc.

Placing the ashes is simplified and made easier by the fact that, the ashes are infection-free, do not contain hazardous waste. Cremation of a normal weight man, after grinding, shall result in approx. 2-2,5 kg of ash. This contains mostly protein-based materials, phosphor, lime (calcium) and magnesium. It is an interesting fact proved with experiences that plants with their roots can process all chemical components, with no exception.

In Europe they are known many methods to place the ash. Practically in all cases placing the ash happens not immediately after funeral-ceremony, but after days-weeks, generally behind closed doors, in the family, within friends.

On the other hand in Hungary (and many other countries) a totally different practice has been developed. We ourselves place the ashes in many ways, too.

We place the urns in most of the cases in the cemetery, in urn-plot, in underground urn-grave or in a wall-niche, above ground, during a funeral ceremony . Since 1983, based on the order given by the Ministries in charge and the city council, it became possible to spread the ashes or to take them at home.

We had never met such practices before, however I heard about uninteresting and unsuccessful tries. The literature and professional brochures I’ve read suggested simple, puritanical solutions. We had no experience from abroad to follow. At this time it was really hard to travel in Western Europe, we were left to our own.

The ash-spreading is accompanied by the fact that, when spreading it all physical and visual contact between deceased and mourners cease. One of its consequence is that the mourn-feeling relieves, which must be also promoted by a funeral-services providing organization. In the same time, we knew that spreading in its actual form is the method which requires the less place and materials. In other words is the cheapest funeral, consequently, is in the interest of the population. The new service cannot have an end in itself, but it must treated as a task which serves public interests.

At that time – at the beginning of the 80’s- I was the deputy technical-director of the institution. Prior to this I worked for near 30 years as planning-, executor- and investment engineer. It seems normally that the leaders of the city expected from me to solve this task. I think we successfully prepared the technical plan, since we work based on it at present, too. The choreography of the funeral, which was of the same importance, was planned by my formerly director, (as a teacher we could say it wasn’t skilled specially for a task like this), the urn was designed by a work-mate with technical skills. We entrusted a professional, technology constructor company to work out the plans, the conceptions and the technical developments.

The population accepted soon this form of funeral, due to its aesthetically and economically advantages. At present we perform nearly 3000 spreading/year. For this reason, now we build-up in the cemetery placed in the centre of the city our third spreading-plot (in accordance with the previous technology).

Let me to introduce and briefly present the spreading-plot, its equipment and the services. Meanwhile You can watch on a videotape an equipment at work during a funeral with spreading. The film to be seen is not in synchrony with my presentation, however it wasn’t my intention at all.

Nevertheless, I consider that visual presentation makes easier understanding my exposure. The spreading plot is a parking look-like developed area.

Its mechanism can be divided in two units:

· spreading places, placed on spreading hummocks

· engine room serving the spreading places

We develop the spreading places on the spreading hummocks, slightly lifted up from environment, due to terrain correction. Here works the real (effective) technology, the spreading of the ashes and their inwash. In the middle of the spreading hummock we build the spreading obelisk, which shall serve the spreading ritual, and where the urn shall be placed. In the obelisk we build-in an installation, powered by an electrical machine, the spreading urn containing the ash shall connect to this equipment. The ritual of spreading starts, with the accompaniment of the music. The stop of the music and grout curtain falling indicates the end of the spreading.

Under the spreading hummocks, for a fast grinding off of the ashes, we form a 15-20 m3 hole, after that we filled it up with high grading material. In accordance with a quality requirement the ashes must be washed in the soil. For this reason the diameter of the ash grains must be less than 2 millimetres. We build the spreading hummock on the area filled-up. On the lees (sides) of the spreading hummock we place (in concrete catch-gutter) two steel or plastic pipes, on this pipes shell be mounted the nozzles. We mount the nozzles of the grout curtain on the closed circular line. This is necessary to prevent the spreading of the ashes outside the hummock in case of wind squall or other unexpected event. In front of each nozzle there is a ball valve mounted, with it, it can be adjusted the height of water curtain coming out from nozzles. By the way, the nozzle can be adjusted on a range within 15 degrees.

From the closed circular ducts placed outside the concrete catch-gutter mentioned above the ash is washed in after spreading. The nozzles are adjusted in such way, to spread the water towards the centre of the spreading hummock. With a 30-45-60 degree adjustment they can wash in the entire inner area.

On our newest spreading place 8 light shall illuminate the water curtain. Due to this we can extend the daily spreading time. If required – we have been already noticed – we can work out spreading ritual even at a late time, in the evening. We plan to place further lights on the spreading plots already functioning.

It is practical to build the machine room servicing the spreading equipment in a layer vat, developed in the ground. The ritual and the entire technical process can be followed from the access holes, generally the whole ritual is hand-controlled from this point. In the machine room we placed the pumps providing water to the installation, the piping, the sound and music equipment, etc.

The most important part of the technology-equipment is the pump. It must be suitable to deliver 800-850 l. of water/minute, at 20 m high-lifting. The pumps are serving a line-distributor, from here the water is sent to the spreading hummocks. Due to the ball valves mounted on the pipes it can be controlled the spreading hummock where the water is to be directed. When placing the external pipes, they must descend towards the machine room, namely they must empty here. This solves the problems arisen from the winter freezing, so the system can be used near 0° degree as well.

The water necessary to the spreading technology is collected in a sink-reservoir, from the city’s public network. This reservoir can be a steel barrel or made of concrete. The pipes connecting must be equipped with cleaning door, in case of repairs or when cleaning the pipes and the reservoir. For the scope of entire safety we placed in the machine room a compressor, due to it the water from the piping can be flushed-out with compressed-air. The water from the tank and filling-water from the network must not reach each other. It must be ensured the dischargeability of the tank. In accordance with a strict demand, the entire installation must be empty during winter. The water must be pumped out from the daily reservoir prior to bleeding out the system. Electrical part of the system must be switched off with the main switch.

As we’ve seen, the spreading technology that we applied requires a technically modern and expensive investment. In turn this investment can be recovered quickly, since on a small area several thousands of spreadings can be accomplished. In case of traditional placement of the ashes, the territory required is many times larger, consequently more expensive, to say nothing about the fact that it must be permanently improved and maintained.

We consider also modern the choreography of the ritual.

Our institution entrust the director working off the funeral to direct and supervise it. He receives those arriving at the funeral. On the scene of the funeral he indicates the place of the relatives and the mourners, helps in placing the wreaths and flowers.

Furthermore he assures all desires and expectations of the relatives, related to the funeral. Generally he is responsible for the entire, undisturbed process of the funeral.

If an open-air funeral is to be kept, the use of traditional candelabras gives a frame of spirit (atmosphere). Of course, when the ceremony is kept in the funeral parlour, the candelabras are not necessary. In this case the traditional urn-funeral is desirable.

Accordingly with the local traditions, an integral part of the ceremony are the civilian and church last honours. Of course, if required, it can be ordered choir and artistic presentation.

When the spreading ends, the director of the funeral expresses his condolence.

We had an interesting experience when looked after the reasons, why is extending so fast the spreading funeral-form. In the beginning we expected that the poor citizens shall require this type of funeral, because at present it is still the cheapest one. The main reason is, it doesn’t require accessories, and in fact has no territorial demand. We considered it as a typical social-policy service. We were wrong. In most cases those rich peoples demand it, whom bid a final farewell to their deceased through a “spectacular” and nice ceremony. They cannot afford the permanent coming in the cemetery, the maintenance of the grave, eventually the elongation of the grave-place reservation. They visit the place of the spreading or the cemetery 1-2 times/year. On the common candlestick they leave a burning candle and run on ward.

It is also a frequent case when the last member of a large family collects the deceased relatives buried in the different cemeteries of the city and spread them at the same time. Of course in his testimony he can choose either this place for final resting.

On the place where spreading funerals are kept we are not naming the deceased persons. We mention the spreading-process in a memorial book. Normally we keep uniform official records about all deceased persons, and take care of it.

It is permitted by authorities the spreading of the ashes in the Danube from a plane or from a ship. Both ceremony are interesting and spectacular, however the demand for such ritual is quite low. On the plane, a priest of the catholic church conducts the ceremony (he drives the plane, too). Spreading from ship is worked out by an entrepreneur. In both cases the ashes are prepared for spreading by the Budapest Institution for Funerals.

It is an interesting practice experienced in the last years, namely taking home the ashes. At present in Budapest 1500-1600 urns are taken home. In the beginnings we heard mainly about placing the urns in the houses, in places transformed in small chapels. Later, as a more frequent solution they place the urns in the courtyard or in the walls of the house. Since the press mentioned the chemical composition of the ashes, it extended a new way of spreading them. Many people sustain, more than them are convinced, that the roots of the plants are able to achieve and process the chemical components of the ashes. These people do not make a secret of the fact that, the roots build in the ashes in the plant. They believe that, this way the person deceased lives further on in the form a plant, and is still present among us. We heard about cases when, after opening the urn, the relatives living in different parts of the world, were given the ashes, this way those formerly far from each other are together again.

Taking into consideration the climate conditions of Hungary, we cannot provide spreading services in the period between November 15 and March 15. The high probability of ground freezing impedes the ashes to be spread in the soil. Technically there are no significant problems to solve it, but for financial reasons we didn’t applied it up to the present. We can afford the demands arrived within this period after March 15.

The cremation-form of funeral is applied in Budapest for 15 years. In the past years in some cities entrepreneurs are “testing” the demands. After my personal opinion this form of funeral shall extend. Why? Because in my view it is modern, rational, aesthetically, spectacular, and especially cost-saver.

Our service presented has been observed by many specialists from abroad. I would be glad if the number of those watching my presentation would increase.