our communities, our homes, our dead…
In recent decades, a movement to revive the traditional ways around death and dying has been slowly, quietly, and sweetly growing in many communities throughout America and beyond. While the funeral industry has been integral to most of our experiences of after-death care, it has not always been this way, nor must it be.
In Vermont, and in 40 other states, you are not required to purchase services from a funeral professional after your loved one has died. Rather, it is within your legal rights to bring your dead home (if they died elsewhere), care for them yourself or with assistance from a home funeral guide, and keep vigil or host visitations, for up to a few days if you wish.
The skills required are basic. The greatest challenge for many is simply squeamishness: facing fears of the unknown and the unfamiliar, since for several generations, we’ve been taught to sanitize death and to distance ourselves from it.
Stepping out of regular time to remain with the deceased after death helps the grieving process to ebb and flow in its natural way. Creating and participating in rituals throughout the post-death time engages friends and family, and helps make room for joy and gratitude to blossom in the terrain of death and grief.
a natural rest in the earth
Until just over a century ago in America, after someone died and a home vigil had occurred, they laid their loved one’s body in a simple wooden coffin, processed to the cemetery or homesite burial plot, and laid them to rest in a hand-dug grave.
Over just a handful of generations, the funeral industry gradually supplanted families’ simple, caring acts of love at the time of death. Recently, however, more people are reclaiming rituals that have been ours all along, and with each passing season, more green burial lands become available in Vermont and beyond.
The choice of a green, or natural burial:
… avoids toxic chemicals involved in embalming and casket manufacturing. Instead, a plain wood coffin or natural fabric shroud serve to hold the body.
… is far more affordable than “lawn cemetery” burial, and is comparable in cost to cremation. It is also simpler, and reduces or eliminates the business transaction required for funeral directors’ services.
… avoids the significant carbon footprint of a cremation. Fossil fuels burn at a very high temp for several hours to transform a human body to ash, as compared to the quieter, slower process in the ground.
… feeds the micro-organisms in the soil of the burial site. All that comprises us finds new life as our bodies decay, which occurs at a depth of 3 1/2 - 4 feet rather than the familiar 6.
… affords hands-on participation of family and friends, which enriches the grieving process, allowing space for gratitude and even joy in the midst of grief. This contrasts with the brief, time-bound expectations of most professionals who enter our lives following a typical death.
Green burial can happen in cemeteries exclusively designed for it; in traditional cemeteries of a hybrid nature that accommodate green burials; or in conservation burial grounds which leverage green burial opportunities to support natural land conservation in perpetuity.
Vermont Celebrants deeply affirms the values and spirit of the sister movements of home funerals and green burials. We’re engaged in education and advocacy towards natural death ways and would be honored to help you prepare for the death choices you envision.
CURATED RESOURCE SHEETS
Martha has created tips & resource sheets to guide your green deathways plans:
EXTERNAL resources
We’ve curated a concise selection of the most informative and reputable resources concerned with this topic.
The Vermont Funeral Resources, Education, and Advocacy was developed by Lee Webster, a mentor of Martha’s, and a matriarch in this movement. It is the most comprehensive resource of its kind for Vermonters. Its goal is to empower individuals, families, friends, communities, and professionals to make funeral decisions based on knowledge, not fear.
Leading the green burial movement is The Green Burial Council, whose mission is to inspire and advocate for environmentally sustainable, natural death care through education and certification.
For more general information about home funerals, we highly recommend The National Home Funeral Alliance, whose mission is to educate families and communities to care for their own loved ones after death. Vermont Celebrants is a proud member.
A related resource and advocacy organization is the Funeral Consumers Alliance. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting a consumer’s right to a meaningful, dignified, affordable home funeral.