Cremation and burial

But wait a minute before heaven, where I am told there is endless happiness, one has to die. But then again, I don’t want to die — at least for now. How many times have we heard people discussing their death? Many say they want to die when they are reasonably old but not too old. For many it is a wish that may come to pass and for many others it may remain a mirage. Only one person though knows when our expiry date is and how we are going to expire.
It means therefore that, we must live a good Chri-stian/Moslem/Hindu etc life so that come D-Day, we hope that our spirit will go up the garden path that is paved in gold as we are told.
When our spirit is strolling up  and down the golden path as the scriptures tell us, our body has to find some resting place.
Resurrection is coming, so we have been told. But before that comes, our bodies must be lying somewhere. Since the beginning of recorded history, all cultures have personified and glorified death as a way of trying to cope with it.
The reality of death has had substantial influence on the human psyche that people try their best to respect and honour someone who has passed on in some ways even greater than the respect they might have accorded them when alive.
Historically two methods of human disposal have been used. — burial and cremation.
Cremation and burial
In virtually all cultures, before the onset of significant decay, the body undergoes some type of ritual disposal, usually either cremation or interment in a tomb (burial).
Cremation is a very old practice invented in the Stone Age era. It is believed to have been first in used in Europe or the Near East. It became the most common method of disposal of bodies by 800 BC in Greece and 600BC in Rome but started dying down when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and the followers of other religions were exiled or exterminated.
In the aftermath burial became the main method of body disposal in Europe and the world over until today. Cremation is again resurfacing at a large scale in the Western countries. The most common modes of body disposal today are burial in graves and cremation.
Tibet
In Tibet, one method of corpse disposal is sky burial, which involves placing the body of the deceased on high ground like a mountain and leaving it for birds of prey to dispose of.  Sometimes this is because some religions view birds of prey as carriers of the soul to the heavens, but at times this is because the ground becomes too hard to dig. There are also very few trees to burn and the local religion — Buddhism — believes that after death the body is only an empty shell and therefore the more practical way of disposing the body is leaving it for animals to consume.
Mummification and embalming
In other cultures, such as in Egypt, efforts are made to retard the process of decomposition before and after burial as in mummification and embalming. This happens in most cases during funerals or even after.
In ancient Egypt, oils, herbs and special body preparations were used to help preserve the bodies of the dead. However, no process or products have been devised to preserve the body in the grave indefinitely. Embalming today is used for two primary reasons; (a) to allow adequate time between death and burial to observe social customs of body viewing at funeral services, and (b) to prevent the spread of infections.
Other methods
In some fishing or naval communities, bodies are sent into the water, in what they call burial at sea. Several mountain villages have a tradition of hanging the coffin in the woods. Other methods of body disposal used today are; sarcophagus, crypt, sepulchre or ossuary and monumental structure such as the Pyramids.
Modern methods
Ecological burial
The most up-to-date burial option is ecological burial. This is a sequence of deep-freezing, pulverisation by vibration, freeze drying, removing metals and burying the resulting powder, which is 30 percent less than the original body mass.
Cryonics
It is the process of cryopreservation (cooling and storing bodies at very low temperatures to maintain viability and thawing at a later stage).
The body is kept in storage tanks of liquid nitrogen to stop the natural decay that occurs after death. Those practicing cryonics hope that future technology will allow the deceased person to be restored to life when and if science is able to cure all diseases, rejuvenate people to youthful condition and repair damage from the cryopreservation itself.
Space burial
Space burial uses a rocket to launch the cremated remains of the body into the orbit and this has been done at least 150 times.
Cemetery and funerals
Graves are usually grouped together in a plot of land called cemetery or graveyard. Burials can be arranged by a family, funeral home, mortuary or an undertaker. Most funerals so arranged are commercial activities. Funerals can also be arranged by a religious body such as a church or the community burial society, as a charitable or voluntary activity.
In our future articles we look at cremation and burial which are the popular options.

– Philip Mataranyika is the chief executive officer of Nyaradzo Funeral Assurance Company. He can be contacted at mavmat67@hotmail.com