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Britain will be the first to promote "water burial"! I wonder what kind of scene will come to the minds of readers when they hear the news?
It is reported that this innovative method, called "water burial", is actually by soaking the body in boiling water for about 4 minutes, with the aim of completely melting it.
Although more environmentally conscious than traditional cremation, the sight can't help but be terrifying.
Many people were shocked, and many more thought it was incredible, but whatever one might think about "water burial", it is undoubtedly impacting traditional notions of funeral rites like never before.
The introduction of this concept will undoubtedly trigger people's thinking and discussion on funeral customs.
Is "water burial" the future funeral trend? Or is it a complete farce? Today, let's explore this unique and eye-catching new concept of funeral and see what it really is.
The origin of water burial
"Water burial", a unique form of funeral, actually originated from a plague.
But the plague is not endemic among humans, but among cattle. This plague is the mad cow disease that was widespread worldwide in the eighties and nineties of the 20th century.
During mad cow disease, it was discovered that burying the carcasses of sick and dead cows in the ground did not stop the spread of the virus, and even the rotting carcasses became a breeding ground for the virus.
However, it has gradually been discovered that if the carcass is cooked at high temperatures and then processed, it can effectively stop the spread of the virus. Subsequently, the practice of sterilizing cattle carcasses at high temperatures soon became popular among pastures around the world.
Since then, with the increase in funeral costs, more and more countries around the world have begun to promote water burial instead of traditional burial and cremation in society, and people in many places have also supported it and responded to the government's call.
But why is the British government prohibiting the practice of "water burial"?
It turns out that the implementation of water burial also comes with a problem - wastewater treatment.
The water burial process of the funeral company is roughly as follows: first put the body of the deceased into an environmentally friendly bag made of plant fibers, then put the bag into the dissolving bin, and then pour high-concentration alkaline water into it, and then heat it.
Eventually, the body degrades, along with the bag, into human tissue fluid and calcium powder, known as ashes.
This process has obvious advantages over traditional cremation: first, it is less expensive, and second, it produces very little harmful gases and carbon dioxide during the process of disposing of human remains.
But at the same time, the disadvantages are obvious: it produces human tissue fluids that are difficult to handle.
It is also for this reason that although the United States has implemented a water burial policy for more than ten years, the United Kingdom has not followed up.
On the one hand, the UK is a small maritime country, with scarce freshwater resources and poor renewable capacity. On the other hand, it is psychologically difficult for the British government and people to accept the discharge of "corpse water" into rivers and polluting tap water.
So what is the reason why the British government, which has always rejected water burial, finally chose to implement this funeral method?
Traditional British funeral customs
As we all know, Britain is a country that has been deeply influenced by Christianity.
Traditional funerals in the UK have a lot of particulars, with strict requirements for dress, process, and even the words and deeds of the participants, and their funerals are usually held in churches, hoping that the deceased will be able to go to heaven with God's blessing.
At the same time, the British also paid special attention to the "preservation" of the remains of the deceased.
For example, in the Victorian era in England, the way of braiding the hair of the deceased into souvenirs was more popular in society. Many family members of the deceased often carry these souvenirs with them to express their condolences to their loved ones.
In addition, under the influence of Christianity, the traditional British people are very reluctant to cremation and pay attention to "burial". This can be seen from the "witch hunting" period in medieval England, and the use of burning at the stake to deal with the "witches" at that time.
In modern times, as people have become more open-minded, many complex processes have been simplified.
However, traditional customs such as burial and funeral in churches have been preserved. In the eyes of the more traditional-minded British, the "water burial" method is simply a desecration of the deceased.
Although the current high price of cemetery land, in 2019, about 80% of Britons have chosen cremation.
But to this day, when conditions permit, most Britons still prefer to choose traditional burial methods when choosing funeral methods.
Although the British government and many people were reluctant to water burial, they gradually found themselves having to accept the practice.
The most fundamental reason is the limitation of land area.
As mentioned earlier, the UK is a small country, but at the same time, the UK has a large population.
In addition, in recent years, the population of the United Kingdom has become more and more serious, and the existing idle land in the United Kingdom has been stretched, and there is no doubt that it is facing serious land shortage pressure to implement burial.
In addition, ecological and environmental problems in the United Kingdom have also contributed to the popularization of water burials.
As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Britain has a long history of air pollution. London, the capital of the United Kingdom, is known as the "fog capital" due to the perennial industrial smog, and there are very few days of the year when the sun is seen.
In recent years, a laboratory in the United States has issued a detailed report, proving that the human tissue fluid produced by water burial actually has no effect on the quality of tap water, which can be said to be a "reassuring pill" for the government and the people.
As a result, in the United Kingdom, where environmentalism is prevalent, the promotion of water burial finally began.
On July 3, 2023, the British national newspaper "Metropolis" published a report that the first "water burial" will be implemented in the United Kingdom. In this report, the advantages of water burial over other funeral methods are also elaborated.
According to reports, compared with cremation, water burial can save more than 90% of natural gas and 66% of electricity, greatly reducing funeral costs. In addition, the process of water burial will not produce any harmful gases and pollute water, which is worth vigorously promoting.
After the publication of this report, it achieved unexpected results - according to interviews afterwards, more than one-third of British people said that they might consider water burial in the future, and today, the number of British people receiving water burial is gradually increasing.
Perhaps in the future, more economical and environmentally friendly water burial may indeed replace burial and cremation and become the mainstream funeral method in the UK.
Write at the end
With the gradual popularization of the new funeral method of "water burial" around the world, people's thinking about the traditional concept of funeral has gradually deepened. Whether we support water burial or not, we can't deny the environmental protection concept behind water burial.
With the further promotion of "water burial", this innovative funeral method will bring us more discussions about life and death, environmental protection and human dignity, and will inevitably lead people to treat the reform and innovation of funeral culture with a more open and inclusive attitude.
As for the future, we can only wait and see whether "water burial" will become the mainstream of modern funeral or just a short-lived trend. However, behind this topic, the conflict between traditional and modern thinking, the contradiction between human dignity and environmental protection, is still worth pondering.
Resources:
- For the first time, water burial will be practiced in the UK, which is more environmentally friendly than cremation. China Youth Network,2023-07-03.
- The UK will be the first to recommend "water burial": the body is boiled at a high temperature of 160 degrees Celsius and the fat and tissue are dissolved within 4 hours. Guangming.com, 2023-07