Why Choose Cremation When Pre-Planning Your Funeral
Posted on: 25 February 2015
One of the most important decisions you'll make when pre-planning your funeral is how to deal with your physical body. That choice will affect the rest of the funeral arrangements. Cremation continues to grow in popularity with more than 43 percent of the people making that choice in 2012, reports the National Funeral Directors Association. Here are the major reasons people choose cremation over having their body buried.
1. Cost Factors
The cost of a funeral and all of the materials associated with it have gone up, so the cremation option is often selected to save the family money. During your pre-planning, the choice of cremation affects the cost because you won't need to purchase the following elements:
- Casket - This is more expensive than a cremation urn.
- Burial vault - This is required by some states and cemeteries.
- Cemetery plot - This is more expensive than a cremation plot.
- Monument - Large granite memorials are more expensive than a cremation plaque.
- Burial service - You will likely not have a grave-side service with your cremation.
In your pre-planning, you can still choose some of these traditional services and be cremated. For example, you can choose to purchase a full-sized cemetery plot and have your cremains buried there with a headstone. You can also choose a direct-to-cremation option with no services at all for the least expensive approach.
2. Convenience
With cremation, you are flexible in how the services are done. In a traditional body burial, you have a short window of time in which a viewing and services must be done. Check with your funeral home about state requirements for when a body must be buried. Some states also have regulations regarding when a body can be cremated.
Because the timing of services is more flexible with cremation, you can choose from a number of options for doing cremation services:
- simple funeral rites prior to the cremation
- a memorial service after the cremation
- a service during the cremation
- cremation with no formal services
A cremation gives family members a chance to travel in from long distances to attend the funeral service. It also gives the family time to handle the scattering or interment of your cremains.
3. Eco-Friendly
Some people choose cremation over burial as a green alternative. It has a lower impact on the planet in several ways:
- smaller final footprint
- avoids embalming chemicals
- uses little, if any, land resources
4. Easy to Set Up
With fewer arrangements to make, cremation becomes an easier alternative to traditional burial. One call to a cremation center takes care of most of the details.
One reason people do funeral pre-planning is to make life easier on the family after the person passes away. If that is your major concern, then cremation can take a lot of the burden of making decisions, and the expense, from your family.
For more information, contact J Allen Hooper Funeral Chapel or a similar location.
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