As much as people may want to avoid it, at some point death will come. There are two ways in which your remains are stored: in a cemetery or an urn. The advantage of cremating your body and placing it in a small urn for ashes is that your family members can place it in a special place in their home or take it to a place where you have always wanted to rest for eternity. It is common to see people take the ashes of a family member to the beach or a mountain. The same happens with pet urns, where people decide to create an altar for a pet that positively influenced their lives. The decision to cremate their bodies is personal, and family members should respect it even after the relative has died.
The problem with cemeteries
For many years, people have been buried in a cemetery, inside wooden coffins. Usually, families create beautiful tombstones, with original designs, on which they place the name of the deceased and a special phrase. The problem is that the cemeteries are filling up and the oldest spaces are reused. That is to say, the relative you bury today will share that space with another person in 10, 20, or 30 years. Also, if the tombstone is very nice, you run the risk that it will be vandalized or, worse, that the remains of your relative will be dug up to be used in rituals or to steal their clothes. With an urn, you don’t have this problem because you can keep it in a place where no one will ruin it. If one day you decide to take care of the ashes, you can dispose of them in a place that is symbolic for you and your deceased relative.
Conflicts with religion
Some religions are against cremation because they relate the grave to that negative place where people “who have misbehaved” go. However, following the same approach of religions, the Bible says that “people come from ashes, and in ashes, they shall return”. The decision to cremate a loved one is not related to fire or religion. It is a method that allows people to feel that they have their loved ones close to them, through their ashes. When people see the urn, they do not think that there are ashes inside but that the urn creates a kind of “connection” with their loved ones. It is normal for people to talk to the urn as if it were their family member.