Graves in the Garden:
Natural Burials at Mount Auburn
By Bree D. Harvey, Vice President of Cemetery & Visitor Services
The founding of Mount Auburn in 1831 was in part a response to changes in how people thought about burial and commemoration, and Cemetery practices have continued to respond as ideas about the end of life have evolved. Even after nearly two centuries of use as a place of burial and remembrance, we are still able to offer our clients a wide range of options in choosing beautiful and innovative burial space throughout our world-renowned horticultural landscape. This April, Mount Auburn added a new option: natural or“ green” burial graves.
Interestingly, much of the current conversation about natural burials echoes the thoughts of our founders. More than 180 years ago, they embraced the idea that“ the elements which have once moved and circulated in living frames do not become extinct or useless after death: they offer themselves as the materials from which other living frames are to be constructed.” They created Mount Auburn as“ a place to bury and commemorate the dead in surroundings of exceptional natural beauty that provide comfort and inspiration to the bereaved and the public.” More recently, Mark Harris, natural burial advocate and author of the best-selling book Grave Matters: A Journey through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial, phrased this sentiment in simpler terms:“ There is something appealing about returning to the earth as your final act on earth, and using your remains to push up a tree.”
At its core, natural burial simply means burial in a biodegradable container— a shroud, a pine box crafted with wooden dowels and rope handles, a casket fashioned out of willow, or a“ pod” made of papier-mâché— without the use of a concrete grave liner. The recent public interest in natural burials is rooted in the modern environmental movement and has in places been used as a means of conserving forests, prairies, and other lands threatened by encroaching development. In some locations,“ green cemeteries” have been established as places where only natural burials are permitted. While there are groups working to establish a green cemetery here in Massachusetts, at present the closest“ green cemeteries” are in Maine, upstate New York, and New Jersey. In response to the desire for natural burial on the part of clients in and around Massachusetts, Mount Auburn has recently been designated as a“ hybrid burial
ground” by the Green Burial Council. We are proud to be the first cemetery in Massachusetts to receive certification by the Green Burial Council at any level.
The incorporation of natural burials into Mount Auburn has required a thoughtful approach. Rather than designating a particular corner of our 175 acres for natural graves, we have nestled them into our historic landscape, utilizing small pockets of land between historic family lots and in spots where trees have been lost to old age and decline. As with other burial options at the Cemetery, the type of memorialization that accompanies these burials varies with the location of the grave. Some natural burial graves allow for an individual marker; some may have a shrub or tree with a memorial plaque; still others allow for no physical monument. All graves, however, are carefully mapped and can be located now and into the future using GPS coordinates.
Providing natural burial options is much more than simply satisfying current client demand or keeping up with the most recent trends. Natural burial helps to reconnect us in a more meaningful way with the natural cycle of life while at the same time ensuring that the Cemetery can sustain its founding mission: to bury the dead and preserve this beautiful landscape for the comfort of the bereaved and the enjoyment of the living now and well into the future.
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