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Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
The funeral landscape in the UK is becoming more diverse by the day. Where before we only really had a choice between a fully attended burial funeral, or a fully attended cremation funeral, we now have a large range of options to suit every kind of need. Increasingly, we can say the same thing for how we choose to keep and use the ashes of our loved one.
In this article, we are going to ask the question, “What is interment of ashes?”. We will consider the different ways in which people can do this, discuss legal and cost aspects, as well as ways in which we can personalise an interment ceremony.
We’d also just like to say, whatever has brought you to this article — whether you have recently lost someone and are wondering how best to respect their remains, or whether you’re thinking about your own future funeral — you have come to the right place. We’d like to acknowledge the potential difficulty of your situation, and hopefully provide you with some useful information that can help you.
Key Takeaways
After a loved one of ours has been cremated, as part of the cremation process, we usually receive their cremated remains (ashes) in a vessel of some kind. However, often, families prefer to simply have the ashes scattered on their behalf at the Garden of Remembrance of the crematorium in question. Indeed Aura offers this service free of charge as part of its own direct cremation services, whether for funeral plans or funerals arranged for a more immediate time frame.
When ashes are returned to the family, they can be returned in a variety of different vessels. Throughout the whole of the history of cremation, the design of ashes urns hasn’t actually changed all that much; those recovered at Roman ruins look remarkably similar to those we use today. With that said, there is now a greater diversity of design, theme and materials used altogether, and perhaps more creativity in the ideas we have for scattering or burial. At Aura, we return ashes to families in our convenient scatter tubes, making it as easy as possible for families to scatter the ashes of their loved one in a place special to them.
Among the many cremation ashes ideas out there, from making keepsakes to ash scattering, is the practice of burying them. This is what’s known as the interment of ashes. Many people prefer to do this, as they want to have a sense of permanency in the way they remember their loved one. Others engage in this practice because it aligns more closely with their religious or cultural beliefs on death and funerals.
There are a number things to consider with the process for the interment of ashes: you will need to select an appropriate location, consider the act of burial itself, and the cost and legal implications.
In theory, the same sorts of places in which you can arrange a traditional burial (i.e., of the coffin, without cremating it), will also work for the interment of ashes. That means that cemeteries and burial grounds should be open to you for this purpose. However, there are also other options available which only apply to cremated remains. For example, you could opt to inter the ashes at a columbarium (a structure designed to hold cremation urns), whether within a niche or a mausoleum; or at private land; or a memorial garden.
Naturally, when making a decision about where to inter ashes, you will always need to secure the permission of the landowner. At specific locations, such as cemeteries and columbaria, in all likelihood, there will be a fee to pay for the plot too.
You can bury a cremation urn in a cemetery with permission from the owners. You can even bury it in an existing grave, for instance where another urn is already interred, as long as you can prove that you have the rights to that plot. This is normally what happens, for instance, with a family niche or mausoleum at a columbarium. Ashes can be interred in a shallower grave than a coffin; normally, the grave is as deep as the urn is tall plus an extra six inches on top for good coverage.
With all of this being said, many families opt to bury the ashes as they are –– that is, poured directly into the grave that has been dug, out of their container. Others inter them within an urn which will biodegrade over time. This is a good option for those who want to be more environmentally conscious with their burial choices. Sometimes, in accordance with the growth in alternative funerals people want to infuse the ashes of a loved one with a tree, by burying them with the planting of a sapling. For the health of the tree, any materials an ashes container is made of need to be biodegradable.
The cost of interment will largely depend on where you want to inter the ashes. Cemeteries and burial grounds will charge a fee for burial, and you may also opt to commission and purchase a headstone to adorn the plot, which will add cost. Whether or not you are a local in the parish within which the burial / church ground sits could also impact the fee you pay. Churches will often attempt to make it easier for local parishioners to make use of the territory by charging them less. Over all, depending on where you want to inter ashes; whether you want to mark the spot (and what with); and whether the plot you have in mind is a larger, family one, your cost could range from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds.
As noted, you may have to legally prove (with documentation) that you are entitled to add further remains to a family grave or plot by showing you have the right to it before you will be allowed to make an interment. You should always, as a rule of thumb, secure the landowner’s permission if you want inter ashes somewhere public, or on land that you don’t own. Many people want to inter or scatter ashes in local beauty spots that meant a lot to the person who died when they were alive. Whilst it’s a popular cremation myth that cremation ashes are a harmful substance, they can disrupt the ecology of the natural world if scattered in too great a quantity. For that reason, it is sometimes forbidden to scatter ashes in certain locations.
When we are interring the ashes of a loved one somewhere special to them, we may wish to mark the occasion with a ceremony or a service.
There is a great deal of flexibility when it comes to the ceremony of an ashes interment; it will largely depend on the views, tastes, and beliefs of the person who has died. If they were religious and wanted their cremated remains to be buried at a churchyard, then perhaps a religious minister would lead the ceremony. But it could also be arranged much more like an end-of-life celebration or even like a memorial service, especially if the person’s funeral didn’t have any attendees, such as with a direct cremation. The family could arrange to have a funeral celebrant lead the ceremony, or they could lead it themselves by delivering a eulogy and other words.
What kind of ceremony occurs will depend on where the ashes are to be interred. Of course, what happens on private land — especially that owned by the family — is entirely up to the family. Elsewhere, such as at a churchyard or columbarium, there may be rules for attendance and conduct which will need to be observed, and the limitations of the location could curtail any ideas around multimedia approaches to memorial ceremonies.
There are a whole range of ways in which we can personalise a service. As noted above, the location will naturally place certain limits on what can be done (it would be tough to screen video tributes in the grounds of Snowdonia National Park, for instance). But in terms of how to theme matters, the possibilities are endless. Ceremonies can be personalised with some of their favourite music, whether or not from among the best funeral songs or most popular UK funeral hymns.
The words which are used can also be drawn from a variety of sources, whether from religious scripture, or otherwise. Stories about death can be powerful sources of inspiration for meaningful words when we want to say goodbye to a loved one with words that they treasured. The same can be said for ancient myths and legends about death. Naturally, the dress-code and colours used can follow the interests, loves and hobbies of the person who has died too.
If using an urn to inter the ashes, the main part of the ceremony will be the moment at which it is placed into the ground and covered over. It can be decorated in-keeping with the theme of the ceremony, and can perhaps be adorned with words and images that are meaningful to the person who has died. It may be appropriate to bury sentimental items along with the urn (assuming they won’t damage the environment).
Once again, this really depends on the location and type of the ceremony that is being held. Despite the decline of religion in the UK, and the growth of interest in non-religious funeral services, having a traditional interment ceremony is still fairly popular. At such a ceremony, depending on what the family has asked for, it may be preferable to wear formal, sombre attire befitting the day and the ceremony.
With that said, now more than ever people are looking for alternatives to that traditional format, and the dress code is prime territory for personalisation. As always, make sure (if the ceremony is outdoors) your clothing is weather appropriate, and, if you’d like to theme your clothing in a way that pays respect to the person who has died, perhaps make sure with the organiser of the ceremony that it won’t clash with their wider ideas, or go against their wishes.
There are a huge array of different things that we can now do with cremation ashes. Aside from traditional interment, it’s possible to have a natural burial at a site in woodland; to scatter ashes at sea (within certain limits); to convert ashes into jewellery or keepsakes, such as paperweights and household items; and even to put a loved one’s cremation ashes into a tattoo on our own body.
Others like to display the urn itself at home somewhere prominent, such as on the mantlepiece, or in a cabinet in the main room of the house.
If you were asking yourself the question, “what is interment of ashes?” before, we hope that this article has answered it for you, and helped you to feel more reassured. Whether you are considering the interment of ashes for someone close to you who has very recently died, or for yourself in the future, Aura is able to cater to your funeral needs. We are the top-rated, national ‘Cremation Services’ provider on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.9/5 stars, and we offer our services to those in need now, as well as those looking to the future via our prepaid funeral plans.
We are a family-run company with a family ethos. Our industry-leading Aura Angels will be there to help you or your family organise a funeral every step of the way, bringing their uniquely compassionate approach to every family in their care.
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