Hundreds attend funeral of family burned alive in Russian drone attack
Kharkiv, Ukraine Reuters Hundreds of mourners, many sobbing uncontrollably, gathered on Monday at the funeral of a family of five, including three small children, burned alive in a Russian drone attack in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. “Why did young children have to die?” Tetiana Putyatina wept before collapsing as she embraced the coffins […]
Vatican eases rules on the ashes of the dead
Vatican CityReuters A small part of a dead person’s cremated ashes may be stored in a place that was dear to them rather than in a church or cemetery, the Vatican said on Tuesday, softening its previous stance on the issue. In previous guidance from 2016, the Vatican said the ashes must be kept in […]
The Interview: Ukrainian priest on funerals, food aid and prayers for victory
MARIKA PROCTOR, of Religion News Service, speaks with Rev Oleksiy Zavada, a Greek Catholic priest living in Lviv, about about the many funerals he’s presided over, how the life of the church has changed – and stayed the same – since the war started, and why he plans to stay…
“So many bodies piled up”: Hong Kong funeral services overwhelmed by COVID
Hong Kong, ChinaReuters Traditional wooden coffins are running short in Hong Kong as authorities scramble to add mortuary space in the global financial hub’s battle on COVID-19, which is swamping funeral parlours. “I have never seen so many bodies piled up together,” said funeral director Lok Chung, 37, who has been working round the clock, […]
A Sustainable Life: Funerals will hit 100 million a year by 2060 – here’s how to make them more sustainable
JULIE RUGG, a researcher at the University of York, says – in an article published on The Conversation – that the way we deal with human remains means balancing three major principles…
Postcards: As India’s COVID-19 deaths rise, grief goes online
ANURADHA NAGARAJ, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how, with funeral access restricted in India, the bereaved are going online to mourn…
After death: First human-composting funeral home in US is now open in the state of Washington
ALEJANDRA MOLINA, of Religion News Service, reports on the opening of the first human-composting funeral home in Washington and the push for the practice, controversial for some, to be legalised in California…
Death in a pandemic: US funeral directors survive “surreal” year with creativity and faith
ELIZABETH E EVANS, in an article published by Religion News Service, speaks with representatives of the funeral industry about how they’ve weathered the COVID-19 pandemic…
Lower-caste Indian villagers given cremation ground after funeral stopped
Lucknow, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation A low-caste Indian community prevented from holding a funeral by their upper-caste neighbours in a case that triggered widespread outrage have been given their own cremation ground, authorities said on Thursday. About 200 men intervened to stop the cremation last week, removing the body of a woman from a funeral pyre […]
Anger in India after lower-caste woman’s body taken off funeral pyre
Lucknow, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation The body of a lower-caste Dalit woman was taken off a funeral pyre in India by a group of upper-caste men who said she could not be cremated on communal land, police said on Tuesday, a case that prompted angry calls for an end to caste discrimination. The funeral was being […]