Baluarte
05-16-2013, 05:27 PM
Hungary Considers Do-It-Yourself Funerals
By Emese Bartha
Fighting to reduce the cost of living, the Hungarian government may make dying a bit cheaper, too.
It aims to tackle the country’s sky-rocketing funeral costs by introducing a do-it-yourself version, where relatives or friends of the deceased would do some of the leg work funeral parlors currently charge for–including washing and dressing the body, digging the grave, carrying out the catafalque process, letting down the coffin or urn, and finally, filling the grave.
For its part, the state would provide a free grave plus coffin or urn and grave marker in a specially assigned part of a cemetery.
The idea is part of a plan to cut the overall cost of funerals and dissuade people from the increasingly popular practice of taking a deceased person’s ashes home and storing them there. This has been on the rise since increasing Hungarian funeral costs have begun weighing on household expenditure. For many people, conventional funerals are simply unaffordable.
Taking home the ashes might be cheap but it potentially limits other family members’ opportunities to pay their respects to the deceased as and when they wish to.
But some Hungarians believe the government plan won’t catch on. Akos Toth, a 57-year-old teacher in Budapest, said that “very few people would choose this, even in financial need.”
“An elderly person having lost his partner won’t be able to do it physically and emotionally, while younger members of the family will hardly be able to do it due to their pain in grief,” he said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2013/05/16/hungary-considers-do-it-yourself-funerals/
I had no idea this was happening. I'm glad to see at least the government is addressing the issue.
Every Hungarian has the right to a proper burial :thumb001:
By Emese Bartha
Fighting to reduce the cost of living, the Hungarian government may make dying a bit cheaper, too.
It aims to tackle the country’s sky-rocketing funeral costs by introducing a do-it-yourself version, where relatives or friends of the deceased would do some of the leg work funeral parlors currently charge for–including washing and dressing the body, digging the grave, carrying out the catafalque process, letting down the coffin or urn, and finally, filling the grave.
For its part, the state would provide a free grave plus coffin or urn and grave marker in a specially assigned part of a cemetery.
The idea is part of a plan to cut the overall cost of funerals and dissuade people from the increasingly popular practice of taking a deceased person’s ashes home and storing them there. This has been on the rise since increasing Hungarian funeral costs have begun weighing on household expenditure. For many people, conventional funerals are simply unaffordable.
Taking home the ashes might be cheap but it potentially limits other family members’ opportunities to pay their respects to the deceased as and when they wish to.
But some Hungarians believe the government plan won’t catch on. Akos Toth, a 57-year-old teacher in Budapest, said that “very few people would choose this, even in financial need.”
“An elderly person having lost his partner won’t be able to do it physically and emotionally, while younger members of the family will hardly be able to do it due to their pain in grief,” he said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2013/05/16/hungary-considers-do-it-yourself-funerals/
I had no idea this was happening. I'm glad to see at least the government is addressing the issue.
Every Hungarian has the right to a proper burial :thumb001: