bookcase coffin

[abka]

I found this to be pretty interesting. I think the intimacy of doing those rituals as a family could be a good way to grieve. I'm also intrigued by the coffin that doubles as livingroom furniture. At first it seems a little creepy, but the idea of being buried in your bookcase (as opposed to the idea of your coffin in your livingroom) is pretty appealing.

Comments

[kass]

In Jewish tradition it's customary for members of the community to wash and prepare the body of someone who ha died for burial. We don't turn that over to undertakers, and we don't embalm. Jewish law stipulates that the coffin must be a simple pine box, and that everything in it must be biodegradable; instead of fancy silks and velvets, our coffins are cushioned with wood shavings or clean straw, and the body of the person who has died is dressed in a linen shroud.

I wrote about this for my Other Blog some years ago when I first started participating in this work. It was overwhelming at first, but I've come to see it as one of the most valuable things we can do for one another.

Of course, once the body is prepared and the coffin is closed, then we turn things over to the funeral home, and we bury in conventional cemetaries; I don't know anyone who's done a home burial, per se. But the early steps of the process that I'm familiar with sound pretty resonant with what's in this article...