Prepare for a Green Burial
Though we are not operating a natural burial ground yet, there are several things you can do to prepare for when the cemetery is open. Check out the steps below that encourage you to think things through and share them with family, friends, and those who will be carrying out your wishes.
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Step 1: Tour the Cemetery
The first step to approaching a green burial is to tour the grounds, getting feel for the want things are laid out and learning about how it is operated. Be sure to ask for written rules and regulations that explain what is allowed in the cemetery to share with family and friends.
Step 2: Discuss Your Plans with Family or Designated Agent
Once you have made your decision, discuss your plans with the person you designate to make your arrangements. This can be the person Maine state law recognizes as the next-of-kin or a person you designate in a signed and witnessed form that identifies an agent to take on that role instead. If you have more than one child who will share responsibility, make sure you speak to all of them.
Step 3: Purchase a Right to Interment
Natural burial grounds, like conventional cemeteries, actually sell the right to be buried on the property, not a piece of real estate for eternity. Ask what the cemetery's policy is regarding promising specific burial locations as opposed to following their own burial plan or contingency winter burial spaces.
Step 4: Obtain a Container
This can be a shroud make of cotton, linen, hemp, or wool, or a softwood casket, preferably made of pine. The burial ground will require that your container be made of biodegradable material without manmade fillers or metal parts. The cemetery will also have allowable dimensions for caskets if you choose to make your own. To find locally made containers, go to Funerary Artisans Collective, or find casket plans at Last Things. You cannot be penalized for providing your own container if you hire a funeral home to assist with the funeral.
Step 5: Educate Your Funeral Arranger
In Maine, your next-of-kin is legally allowed to retain custody and control of the body in the home for the funeral period in preparation for burial. Sometimes it works best to hire a funeral home to do some or all of the details. Discuss your wishes with your funeral arranger/designated agent or next-of-kin to be sure there is a clear blueprint for what they are expected to do. Some tasks that are required are filing the death certificate, obtaining a burial/transit permit, and transporting to the cemetery. To learn more about home and blended funerals in Maine, go to Last Things.
Step 6: Design Your Final Affair
You can design a service yourself by choosing music, writings, stories, verses, and images that you can organize yourself or provide to celebrants, clergy, or family and friends to polish. To learn more about creating meaningful and authentic ceremonies, check out Create Ceremony.
From the book William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism by Robert D. Richardson.
James’ description of a burial, in 1885, of his toddler son:
“…Alice (his wife) and I…gathered pine, oak, and young birch leaves, wild flowers, ferns, and grasses to deck his little coffin withal. We had got a wicker basket, made for a cradle, which was just the right size and shape. We draped white canton flannel around it, laid him in with the tree sprigs round his head, the flowers in the middle, the ferns and grasses at his feet, and it was as lovely and touching a little sight as you ever looked on” (Richardson 256).
The first step to approaching a green burial is to tour the grounds, getting feel for the want things are laid out and learning about how it is operated. Be sure to ask for written rules and regulations that explain what is allowed in the cemetery to share with family and friends.
Step 2: Discuss Your Plans with Family or Designated Agent
Once you have made your decision, discuss your plans with the person you designate to make your arrangements. This can be the person Maine state law recognizes as the next-of-kin or a person you designate in a signed and witnessed form that identifies an agent to take on that role instead. If you have more than one child who will share responsibility, make sure you speak to all of them.
Step 3: Purchase a Right to Interment
Natural burial grounds, like conventional cemeteries, actually sell the right to be buried on the property, not a piece of real estate for eternity. Ask what the cemetery's policy is regarding promising specific burial locations as opposed to following their own burial plan or contingency winter burial spaces.
Step 4: Obtain a Container
This can be a shroud make of cotton, linen, hemp, or wool, or a softwood casket, preferably made of pine. The burial ground will require that your container be made of biodegradable material without manmade fillers or metal parts. The cemetery will also have allowable dimensions for caskets if you choose to make your own. To find locally made containers, go to Funerary Artisans Collective, or find casket plans at Last Things. You cannot be penalized for providing your own container if you hire a funeral home to assist with the funeral.
Step 5: Educate Your Funeral Arranger
In Maine, your next-of-kin is legally allowed to retain custody and control of the body in the home for the funeral period in preparation for burial. Sometimes it works best to hire a funeral home to do some or all of the details. Discuss your wishes with your funeral arranger/designated agent or next-of-kin to be sure there is a clear blueprint for what they are expected to do. Some tasks that are required are filing the death certificate, obtaining a burial/transit permit, and transporting to the cemetery. To learn more about home and blended funerals in Maine, go to Last Things.
Step 6: Design Your Final Affair
You can design a service yourself by choosing music, writings, stories, verses, and images that you can organize yourself or provide to celebrants, clergy, or family and friends to polish. To learn more about creating meaningful and authentic ceremonies, check out Create Ceremony.
From the book William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism by Robert D. Richardson.
James’ description of a burial, in 1885, of his toddler son:
“…Alice (his wife) and I…gathered pine, oak, and young birch leaves, wild flowers, ferns, and grasses to deck his little coffin withal. We had got a wicker basket, made for a cradle, which was just the right size and shape. We draped white canton flannel around it, laid him in with the tree sprigs round his head, the flowers in the middle, the ferns and grasses at his feet, and it was as lovely and touching a little sight as you ever looked on” (Richardson 256).
