cemeteries- are they outdated

[Piss Poor]

I know its a dark topic but been thinking about this and wondering how long can they just keep burying people in the ground before one day some bloke stops and says- "shit, were running out of land, theirs cemeteries everywhere".

I don't know but seems like it could become a problem for the future, I'm talking 100's of years from now. so it wont effect our lifetime.

Not really our problem, the future generations can fix it, but still I'm interested to know what peoples thoughts are on this topic.

 

[Messenger]

I reckon we need to think about cemeteries as a marker for those departed rather than simply a repository for remains.

I visit a couple semi regularly (perhaps annually) and I take great comfort from knowing where these loved ones "are".

 

[Andre]

It's become more commercial already as time goes by, costs of burial to some extent reflect where a person is buried. As land become scarcer / more valued, that will just continue to force the cost up and more people would choose (For themselves or their families choose for them) cremation or burial on a family property or the like.

 

[Andre]

I reckon we need to think about cemeteries as a marker for those departed rather than simply a repository for remains.

I visit a couple semi regularly (perhaps annually) and I take great comfort from knowing where these loved ones "are".

I'd agree with this. Like is not the right word, but probably the closest, visiting where my younger brother and my Nana's urn's are buried a few times a year. I'm not religious, so I don't believe they are there any more than elsewhere 'post-death', but there's still a sense of closeness to them there that I don't get anywhere else.

 

[GeeUUess]

I'd say a lot of people in cemetries are outdated but I wouldn't say cemetries themselves are outdated.

 

[Northworth]

Vic Market is the site of the original melb cemetery.... at some point in our history we realised the value of real estate over cemetery

Think about the (now, current) Melb cemetery in the middle of carlton... imagine a 6-8 lane connecting-road between the eastern fwy and tulla fwy

harsh i know but it would be awesome

 

[THRILLHO]

Yeah, but modern society with its focus on the shrill vocal minority and a completely risk averse government will never allow such a situation to occur. We're constantly exposed to death on TV, but shy away from it in our reality. Melbourne desperately needs an east-west link and the current cemetery is in the perfect spot for it.

Will NEVER happen in my lifetime.

 

[treefingers]

Well once no one remembers anyone who's buried in the Carlton cemetery it might become a possibility

 

[Silent Alarm]

Don't you only have a 'lease' on a spot? After a few decades, doesn't someone else take your place? My pop died this year and I remember my old man talking about something like that. Maybe I'm gravely mistaken...

Cemeteries are becoming more and more useless, I think. Western society is probably more comfortable with death, or something. We all know how people die, and atheism is really prevalent.

 

[woopedazz]

Cemeteries will not take over our cities. I haven't seen any cemeteries expanding in Adelaide for years and there is a very good reason for that; the graves are not owned, instead they are leased.

When you bury someone in a cemetery you lease the lot for a certain period of time. Mausoleums come with a 99 year lease; graves in the ground used to come with 10, 25 or 50 year leases and after that point I believe you pay for 5+ year extensions.

The thing is, when your lease runs out they don't just stop tending to the grave and let it fall into disrepair. They remove the headstone, dig up the body and bury someone new in its place.

I reckon as society shifts away from traditional "Christian values" and we have better records and memory devices in a digital age the need for a physical reminder will decrease. I think cremation will increase as it is cheaper.

 

[Andre]

Don't you only have a 'lease' on a spot? After a few decades, doesn't someone else take your place? My pop died this year and I remember my old man talking about something like that. Maybe I'm gravely mistaken...

 

[HurlsMeister18]

If they started burying people vertically it would save a heap more land.

Horizontally is just not practical anymore , more comfortable though.

 

[Tulip]

The Jewish tradition, and I'm sure others, are remains in a bare wooden box.

After a while, the ground engulfs you and the coffin - and it becomes soil and weathered bones.

Its the lavish graves that never really disintegrate.

I think cemetery's are important. They'll never knock down Westminster Abbey, and why should we become more archaic with royalty entitled to basic things humans are not.

This is, of course, all under the presumption that the human race will grow exponentially and on a curve. Far more likely something will stunt our growth. The earth is a lot smarter than us.

 

[Caesar]

My dad's family has a mausoleum. It causes all kinds of angst about who is supposed to be buried there, who isn't but wants to be, who doesn't want to and should be, and so forth.

Burial is a nice tradition but it is growing less relevant with the mobility of populations. Time was that generations of families would be buried together and their successors would use it as a marshalling place to remember and pay their respects.

People simply don't have multigenerational ties to an area any more. My father and his brother have made their lives in different cities, neither of which is the one that their parents are buried in. Their wives are from different cities again. Despite paying for their maintenance they haven't visited their parents' gravesite in decades and have no particular desire to be interred there.

What's the point of a memorial if nobody pays any attention to it?

 

[MrNatural]

I've told the mrs that when i die, i don't want to be buried or cremated, i want to be preserved and left sitting on the couch.
That way i can keep an eye on her forever

 

[FootyJunkie]

I've told the mrs that when i die, i don't want to be buried or cremated, i want to be preserved and left sitting on the couch.
That way i can keep an eye on her forever

tell her to buy lots of air freshener

 

[JuddsABlue]

I feel like the growing trend is cremation

The last 5 funerals I have been to, all the deceased was cremated.

I imagine in the future this would be the standard, and burial and expensive luxury for those interested

 

[Marns]

Yes, they are outdated, but I don't see them being a thing of the past any time soon. As far as I'm concerned, once you've carked it, it doesn't matter where you remains are. Just fling me out into the ocean for all I care.
I do understand the need for them, especially for the elderly man or woman who has lost practically the last remaining person in his/her life. Having a cemetery gives them somewhere to be/something to do, and a place to "be" with their loved one. But it certainly does seem like a strange concept, especially if you're not religious.
It'd make more sense to just have a field of trees, and you plant a tree with a plaque in memory of the person that's died. That way something good can come out of it, something can grow. Instead, we leave picked flowers at a concrete slab to die.

 

[courtjester]

My great great great grandfather is buried 5 minutes drive from where I live, but I've visited his grave only once in my life. I doubt anyone else visits (but I could be wrong).

Maybe I should visit more, but really, if they were to dig him up and cremate him (if there's anything left) to make space no one would really care. Perhaps a permanent memorial in the cemetery of people who have been buried there, 50 or 75 years ago. Maybe they do that already and I don't know!

Off topic, but cemetery records are a gold mine if you're in to genealogy.

 

[Duffman95]

When I'm dead just throw me in the trash.

I got a question about you morticians. You bang the dead bodies? I imagine stuff like that goes on all the time. I mean I don't give a shit. If I was dead you could bang me all you want. I mean who cares? A dead body is like a piece of trash. I mean shove as much shit in there as you want. Fill me up with cream, make a stew out of my ass. What's the big deal? Bang me, eat me, grind me up into little pieces, throw me in the river. Who gives a shit? You're dead, you're dead! Oh Shit! Is my mike on?

 

[Tyleranderson2]

I'd say a lot of people in cemetries are outdated but I wouldn't say cemetries themselves are outdated.

I'd say a lot of people in cemetries are outdated but I wouldn't say cemetries themselves are outdated.

Hope they never go outdated. How else will we get cool cemetery features like

via news.com.au

via Astral Stone

 

[Doss]

It's always amazed me that cemeteries don't fill up more quickly.

Does anyone know what the breakdown is of people who get cremated as opposed to buried? Because one thing is certain- the former eats up the space exponentionally quicker than the other.

 

[Quivorir]

My mother in law was cremated...Then buried. :S


I plan on having an awesome tombstone. My kids when I have them better do me proud

 

[JD-Roo]

Went to a friend's grandmothers funeral recently. It was a deeply religious service but she was being cremated, which seemed odd-ish.

At the service it all winds up, extremely sad and they LOWER her coffin into a pit to cremate her.

Since it was crowded and we were standing, it was a lot less obvious for my wife to stand hard on my foot as they did so to stop me from making any sarcastic comment about "fiery pits" or the like.

 

[JUBJUB]

Went to a friend's grandmothers funeral recently. It was a deeply religious service but she was being cremated, which seemed odd-ish.

At the service it all winds up, extremely sad and they LOWER her coffin into a pit to cremate her.

Since it was crowded and we were standing, it was a lot less obvious for my wife to stand hard on my foot as they did so to stop me from making any sarcastic comment about "fiery pits" or the like.

Funeral homes should offer cremations like a T20 game - play an appt song.Perhaps "Beds Are Burning","This Sex Is On Fire","Hot In The City" or "Burn For You"