Funeral
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German does not believe in life after death
Only a fraction of the German population still believes that there is life after death. The majority of Germans indicated in a survey that they think that death is the end of everything. Only 38 per cent said to believe that life continues after death, a survey by the German…
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Northern Europe
Church of Sweden wants to open their own funeral parlours
The next church meeting of the Church of Sweden will decide whether the Church of Sweden can open their own funeral parlours. The plan is disputed. Opening up funeral parlours is the only way to keep alive the ecclesiastical funeral traditions, pastor Henrik Rydberg says to Dagen. “We can do…
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Northern Europe
Norwegian church considers water cremation
Norway's burial grounds are getting full. Therefore, a local church wants to explore a new burying method: water cremation. Earlier this year, the Storting passed an amendment to the Funeral Act. The change means experiments with new forms of burial, such as water cremation, are allowed. Now the Trondheim church…
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Central Europe
Mobile café for mourners on German cemetery
At some German cemeteries, mourners who visit the grave of a loved one can sit down and drink a cup of coffee in a mobile café. The mobile cemetery cafés are specifically placed to comfort the living amid the dead. Recently, the Protestant cemetery in Augsburg started to offer its…
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Eastern Europe
Since the Corona pandemic, more Latvians choose for cremation
More Latvians chose cremation instead of a funeral. And fewer organise feasts afterwards. The Covid pandemic marks a change in Latvian funeral traditions. According to Edmunds streihfelds, president of the Latvian Association of Undertakers, the limits of the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years and the available funds for…
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Eastern Europe
Russian Patriarch honours nationalist Zhirinovsky at funeral
No one less than the Russian Patriarch himself led the funeral service of the ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky on Friday. Remarkable is that Kirill, by doing this, gives Zhirinovsky the highest honours.Patriarch Kirill himself requested to lead the funeral service of the politician. The offer to lead the service means…
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Northern Europe
Only three per cent of Norwegians buried from church because lacking alternative
Last year, the claim that there were too few alternative non-Christian alternatives for funerals drew much attention. A new survey, however, shows that this seems a problem for only three per cent of the Norwegians. According to Vårt Land, about 80 per cent of the people that die in Norway,…
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Eastern Europe
Bulgarian diocese organises petition against cremation
A diocese of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is taking a stand against the un-Orthodox practice of cremation. Website Orthodox Christianity reports on this. A message on the official website of the Metropolis of Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city, states: “The Holy Metropolis of Plovdiv is organising in Plovdiv churches a petition…
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Northern Europe
Swede steals mother's dead body
A 55-year-old Swedish man was fined for stealing his mother’s body. “It is beyond my mind that someone would want to do this.” The man, who lives in southern Sweden, had cared for his mother until her death. After she passed, in the winter of last year, he had difficulty…
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Northern Europe
How to bury a non-Christian? Norwegians differ
Half of Norway’s population wants to have a church funeral. Yet, 90 per cent of the Norwegians still end up in a church after they have died. That is a problem, according to some. Many funerals do not turn out the way relatives had intended. And that hurts, writes the…