Sea burial isWater burialIt is also divided into two types: directly sinking the dead in the sea, or burning the dead body into ashes (cremation treatment first) and scattering it to the sea.
The vast majority of sea burial in China is the burial method of scattering ashes into the sea.Scatter ashes in the sea, breaking through the traditional“be laid to rest”Concept.Man comes from nature and returns to nature.Sea burial is conducive to saving land, developing economy, changing customs, and building socialist spiritual civilization.
On April 2, 2019,Beijing Tianjin HebeiThe civil affairs department jointly hosted the first voyage of cremains burial at sea[1]。
Sea burial has a very long history. It originated fromVikingsAnd become the oldest and mournful ceremony on the sea.The initial ceremony of sea burial was very simple. It carried corpses in small boats, hung sails, and rode the sunset to drive westward, allowing them to wander in the sea.Later, in the evolution year by year, it was used by the army. In the early years, when people died on ships, if the bodies could not be transported back to land for burial, they would hold a sea burial ceremony at sea.
Ceremony process
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Handling procedures
a sea burial
1. Citizens take care of themselvesResident ID cardTo funeralService CentreGo through registration or call to make an appointment.
2. The funeral service center determines the time of the sea burial according to the reservation registration requirements, and sends a letter to the registered citizens to inform them of the time (usually one week before the event) and place of payment.
3. After receiving the letter, citizens should go to the designated time and place to go through the payment procedures and get the instructions for the sea burial activities.
4. Take a bus or a boat to the designated place at the time specified in the instructions to carry out sea burial activities.
Sea burial ceremony
The sea burial ceremony is usually held before sunrise or sunset, but it can also be held at night according to the special conditions of the battlefieldWhen the sea burial ceremony is held, all the sailors line up on the back deck, wrap up the body, tie up heavy objects and place them on the board. After the farewell ceremony, tilt the board slightly, and then the body slides into the sea and sinks.At this time, the shipsteam whistleThe flag of the warship will fly at half mastmilitary bandPlayElegiac music, and set the date, timeLongitude and latitudeloadLogbook。This is their original traditional sea burial ceremony.
Main cases
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Chinese Mainland
Premier Zhou Enlai and other older generationsProletarian Revolutionist The way of scattering ashes in the sea after death is the first way of sea burial in China.along withFuneral reformAs a civilized and economical funeral method, sea burial is gradually accepted by the people. Sea burial is the most effective way to completely solve the problem of burying ashes and saving funeral expensesprocessing methodOne of them is also the development direction of bone ash disposal in the future.
Since Beijing organized the first sea burial of ashes in May 1994, 21863 pieces of ashes have been successfully sown so far, serving 67887 families of the deceased.Especially since 2009, Beijing has implemented the whole process of sea burial of Beijing residentsFree serviceIn 2014, the incentive and guidance mechanism for cremains burial at sea was increased. By 2017, the number of cremains burial at sea in Beijing had reached 85 and 2675 were sown;In 2018, the number of cremains buried at sea increased to 2957, creatingHistory。
In 2022,ShaanxiAs an inland province that cannot see the sea, it was launched for the first time during the Tomb Sweeping DayPublic welfare sea burialServices.This commonweal sea burial service is between Shaanxi Province andQingdaoJointly launched by,Start timeTentatively scheduled for mid April.The families of the deceased who participated in the sea burial can also receive land saving ecological burial award and compensation funds from the local civil affairs department.Xi'anThe ashes of the deceased with municipal household registration are buried at seaservice chargefromXi'an Civil Affairs BureauUndertake, and give a reward of 5000 yuan according to the land saving ecological burial reward and subsidy policy;The service fee for cremains burial at sea of the deceased who are not registered in Xi'an shall be borne by themselves, but may be subject toDomicile locationThe reward and subsidy policy for land saving and ecological burial shall be applied to the local civil affairs department according to the procedure.[3]
On April 17 and 18, 2023, Weifang Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, together with the Municipal Civilization Office and the Municipal Finance Bureau, held an ecological sea burial activity in Qingdao in the spring of 2023.A total of 146 deceased people returned to the sea with Bibo as their home, which was the largest number of participants.[4]
In fact, Taiwan'sfuneral and intermentThe reform lags far behind the mainland and Japan,KaohsiungThe funeral management office in the capital of Hong Kong set up the sea burial as early as 1997Management regulationsTo promote the culture of sea burial.The Kaohsiung Funeral Management Institute employs a ship of about 20 people to let their close relatives take their ashes with them for free, put them into a vessel that can be dissolved, and sleep in the sea with fish and shrimp.
In the new draft law on funeral management,CemeteryAndfuneral and intermentThe definition of place will be changed, including cemetery, residence and schoolSpacerThe restrictions of will be greatly relaxed.Community oriented and artistic cemetery is imperative, such asEurope and AmericaOr Japan, next doorCrematoriumThe basement of the buildingfuneral homeThis will happen.And metropolitan areas, such asTaipeiCityHsinchuThe city's cremation rate is more than 98%, and cremation into the tower has become the mainstream.However, there are still more than 2 million tower spaces left unused. In terms of burial, the new law will expand from the past way of burial and cremation into the tower to tree burial, sea burialFlower burialAnd so on.
According to a public opinion survey in Japan, 40% of 378 ancient and rare people said they would like to throw their ashes into the sea after their death.According to this ratio, the same survey conducted 10 years ago was twice as high.The main reason for this is that the price of cemetery is increasing year by yearTokyo、OsakaIn such metropolises, the price has risen to a high level that most people are afraid of.Secondly, sea burial also experienced the "return to nature"New ideas。In addition, sea burial is not only economical, but also romantic.Seeing that the sea burial fever is warming up, people sprinkle the ashes in a specific area and float away with the wind without leaving any trace.The Japanese shipping company was inspired to open a new business of "ocean burial".
Islam's Views on Sea Burial
AzharmosqueIt is the highest research institution of orthodox Sunnis in the world.Azab, an adviser to the archbishop of the temple, Daye, pointed out that "Islam is totally opposed to throwing corpses into the sea."
Azab said: "Any corpse should be respected whether it is murdered or died naturally, whether it is Islamic, Christian or non religious." A statement issued by the Azhar mosque said: "IfBin Laden's body was indeed thrown into the sea, big leafimamCondemn it. "
The statement said, "The sea burial procedure violatedReligious valueAnd human nature.The archbishop believes that regardless of thereligious beliefWhy, Islam forbids the destruction of bodies.The way to respect the dead isTheThe dead were properly buried. "Azab said that only in the case of drowning, "Islam will accept sea burial".
Advantages of sea burial
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word off disease
Bone ash generated after human body incineration, belonging toInorganiccalcium carbonate, notToxic and harmful substances, will not causewater pollution。From the perspective of cremation, the temperature of human body cremation is 800-1200 degrees, and harmful bacteria cannot survive under such high temperature, includinginfectivityExtremely stronghepatitis virus、tuberculosisIt can be seen that "the ashes of the sick will spread germs" is nonsense.
The site selection for spreading ashes over the sea is also very particular.The sea burial is basically selected in Changxing IslandHengsha IslandThe sea between is because of this placeHydrodynamic forceIt can wash all the ashes into the sea without causing backflow.In addition,Upper Yangtze RiverThe amount of sediment brought into the East China Sea every year is 500 million tons, while the amount of ashes scattered into the sea is 800, each weighing about 500 grams, which also means that the amount of ashes scattered into the sea every year is only about half a ton, which is a small amount relative to the amount of sediment and the dilution capacity of the sea.
Application
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Funeral families who are required to scatter ashes in the sea can contact the institutions specialized in sea burial services for registration first.At eachfuneral homeInsideagencyThe outlets of the funeral service department distributed in the urban area can also handle registration.Certificate required for registrationrelationshipOfResidence booklet, Registrant'sIDCertificate of cremation or certificate of deposit of ashes.The burial service department will arrange the time and notify the funeral home.ifThe cinerary casketIf it is deposited in the funeral home, it should be taken back before the burial at sea.The Marine Burial Service Department has a special car to take the funeral home to the wharf to board the Shanghai burial ship, and scatter the ashes into the sea within the sea area designated by the relevant departments.After the completion of the sea burial, the sea burial service department shall issue the certificate of sea burial to the funeral family.Ceremony: When ashes are scattered in the sea, a farewell ceremony will be held, presided over by a specially assigned person (also readEulogyAnd invited family representatives to make speeches, review the lives of their deceased relatives, express their feelings of missing and observe a silent ceremony.Then, amid the sound of sadness and music, the family members slowly scattered flowers and ashes into the sea.The ashes return to nature.Other sundries such as urn and urn bag shall not be thrown into the sea during sea sprinkling, and attention shall be paid to environmental protection.
Online sacrifice: ashes are scattered in the sea, and family love remains in the world.The family members who were buried at sea missed their loved ones and hoped to have the opportunity to pay homage to them.In order to meet the wishes of this part of the bereaved families, online sacrifice has solved their difficulties for those families who are inconvenient to visit, especially those who are far away from home.In the future, no matter whether the deceased has a real cemetery or not, their families can register themOnline cemetery。At that time, people can visit the dead without leaving their homes.In the online cemetery, the relatives and friends of the deceased can see the introduction of the deceased's life story, look at the deceased's photo remains, listen to the recording of the deceased's conversation, play a favorite music of the deceased, and offer the deceased flowers and say a few words.Online cemeteries have really realized remote sacrifice and sweeping, greatly facilitating bereavement.
Legal provisions
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The Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the Notice on Doing Well the Work of Tomb Sweeping Day in 2013.The Ministry of Civil Affairs said it would explore ways to incorporate the rental of farewell halls and ecological burial of ashes into the basicService ItemsThis also means that the government is expected to pay for the ecological burial law of ashes.[2]
The Ministry of Civil Affairs proposed that ecological burial should be encouraged, and all localities should carry out bone ash sprinkling in accordance with local conditionsTree burialAnd other ecological burial activities, strive to implement free sea burial, scattering and other ecological burial for those who do not retain ashes, and reward their families.At the same time, we will encourage commercial cemeteries to open up ecological public welfare cemeteries, provide free or low-cost burial services for ashes, and guide people to abandon hard tombs and epitaphs.[2]
The Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Implementing the Policy of Funeral and Interment for the Benefit of the People, proposing that by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan, cremation areas across the country will comprehensively establish basic funeral and interment servicesService guaranteeSystem, the basis of the massesFuneral servicesThe government will pay for it in the future.[2]
In this notice, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that it is necessary to strive to increase the standard and expand the scope of items, reasonably adjust the standard of basic funeral service subsidy reduction and exemption, and explore renting the farewell hallThe cinerary casket、Paper coffinThe ecological burial method of ashes was included in the scope of basic services and expandedHuimin Funeral PolicyBenefiting areas, to achieve full coverage of urban and rural residents as soon as possible.[2]
