Cremation Services Misconceptions

Cremation services in Glade Hill, VA are an increasingly popular funeral option. There are many reasons for this. One of the main reasons is that many people are more mobile, so they may be somewhere else when they die, but they want to return here to family or to be buried in a cemetery where other family members are buried.

However, despite the sharp rise in the number of cremation services being help, there are still some very common misconceptions about what happens during cremation services.

One of the most prevalent misconceptions about cremation services is that they are done using fire. Many people have a fear of being burned, and because they think cremation services are done with a real fire, they don’t want to consider them as a funeral option.

Cremation services began in their earliest days with the use of fire. However, like everything else that has been around for a long time, engineering and technology have made modern cremation services very different from what they were in centuries past.

No fire is used at all in cremation services. Instead, very high heat and pressure is used during the cremation process, which leaves nothing of the body except for bones. The bones are finely ground after cremation and these, which many people refer to as ashes, are returned to the family in a cremation container or the urn they have chosen for their loved one’s cremation remains.

Another very common misconception about cremation services is that a funeral service cannot be held before the cremation is done. While some people do choose cremation services for their loved ones without a funeral (this is known as a simple or direct cremation), other people decide to have a funeral for their loved one before cremation services occur.

This may include a visitation and/or viewing followed by a traditional funeral service for the deceased loved one. By integrating traditional funeral rituals with cremation services, some families find that it gives them the support, comfort, and closure that traditional funerals provide immediately after a loved one dies.

However, it’s important to know that it’s perfectly fine to hold a memorial service or a celebration of life after a loved one’s cremation as well, and that these ceremonies, too, can give a bereaved family a strong sense of ongoing support, comfort, and closure.

The point is that no matter whether a funeral service is held before the cremation or a celebration of life or memorial service is held after cremation, the needs of the grieving family are always at the center and they will be met, even if the process happens in different ways.

The role of religious beliefs in cremation services fuels another misconception that many people have about cremation. Although most religious denominations accept cremation services as an acceptable funeral option, many people still believe that the majority of religions prohibit cremation.

It is true, that in the more distant past, especially among Christian denominations in the West, cremations were, if not outright banned, at least frowned upon as a funeral option. The genesis of this was that cremations became associated with pagan religions, so when the West made Christianity the official religion, burials were a clear way to distinguish between Christian and pagan religious customs.

However, there are very few religions, Christian or non-Christian, now that prohibit their members from being cremated.

Cremation services can be just as full of familiar rituals and significant meaning as funeral services, and you can find out all you need to know about cremation services in Glade Hill, VA from our caring and knowledgeable staff at Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory.