In the United States, you must obtain permission to scatter ashes on private property. Therefore, in places such as Disneyland or Disney World that do not grant permission for visitors to scatter ashes on their property, scattering ashes is illegal.
You can use any container you find appropriate to hold your loved one's ashes or your future ashes, and if you feel that no cremation urns you find are suitable, you can make your own urn for ashes. However, depending on the materials you use to create a DIY urn, the urn may not be as durable and long-lasting as an urn that was professionally manufactured. At In the Light Urns, we create custom cremation urns for ashes and can help you make a personalized urn for your needs. Our 3D-printed custom urns are excellent choices for an urn that you can design to be printed in any shape or style imaginable.
When scattering ashes, you might say a few words that honor the memory and life of the deceased, sharing a personal story or a meaningful quote. It's also common to take a moment of silence for reflection, and if appropriate, invite others to share their thoughts or feelings before gently releasing the ashes into the chosen location.
A cremation urn is a type of container used to hold the cremated remains of a person. Urns for ashes can hold some or all of a person's remains, and can be made from several different materials including metal, wood, stone, and paper. Traditional urns are shaped like vases or jars, but urns can also be shaped like boxes or take contemporary designs, like the 3D-printed urns available at In the Light Urns. Urns can be customized with different designs, themes, or engravings to honor a person's memory and memorialize them.
Cremation urns can be buried in order to give your loved one's ashes a final resting place. Many cemeteries offer designated plots for urns, and some families choose to bury their loved one in family plots or memorial gardens. This practice allows families to have a permanent and often marked place to visit and remember their loved ones, similar to traditional burial practices.
If you are burying a cremation urn in a cemetery plot, it is likely that a cemetery attendant or staff member will dig and prepare the burial hole for you.
Depending on the cemetery, you may be asked to bury the urn inside an urn vault if the urn is intended for permanent placement (i.e. the urn is not biodegradable).
The cremation urn, or the closed urn vault containing the urn, will be placed inside the hole and then covered up with soil.
If you are burying a cremation urn outside a cemetery, you will have to dig a hole by yourself.
Obtain permission from any property owners and ask them if they have any requirements for urn burial, and check local laws to make sure you are complying with environmental and health policies.
When digging a hole yourself, the urn should ideally be buried 3 feet deep to ensure the urn does not get disturbed. If this is not possible, aim for a depth of at least 1 foot.
You can kneel and place the urn, or urn vault, into the hole by hand. After the urn has been placed, fill the hole with soil again.
After an urn has been buried, you can mark the burial site.
Within a cemetery, the cemetery will guide you on your options for choosing a headstone or other memorial, and take care of the installation for you.
On private or public property, the property owner can advise you on what burial marker will be appropriate for display, and you will have to install the marker yourself.
Generally, one pound of a person's weight when alive will correspond to one cubic inch of cremated remains. For example, if a person weighed 150 pounds while alive, their loved ones can expect to receive 150 cubic inches of cremated remains, and should look for an urn with a volume of at least 150 cubic inches. A standard adult urn, which has a volume of at least 200 cubic inches, would be appropriate for this person. For a detailed estimation on the volume of ashes you may expect to receive after cremation, please visit our Urn Calculator. To read more about urn sizes, visit our detailed urn size guide.
A cremation urn can cost anywhere from $10 to $500 or more, depending on factors like material, size, and detail. Jewelry urns and keepsakes, meant to hold a small or minuscule portion of ashes, are generally more affordable than standard, extra-large, and companion cremation urns which hold one or more person's complete remains. However, a jewelry urn made of 14KT gold will be more expensive than a standard urn made from wood or brass, despite the jewelry urn having a substantially smaller volume. Most customers looking to purchase a standard-sized urn for ashes can expect to spend between $100 to $350.
If your husband (or spouse) has passed away, keeping your husband's ashes at home is a respectful way to honor your spouse's memory and keep him close to you. You may wish to consider the preferences of other family members, and split the ashes if there are multiple people who would like to keep a portion of ashes.
There is no mention of scattering ashes in the Bible, but the Catholic Church prohibits scattering because it teaches that a person's body should be interred in a sacred resting place (i.e., graveyard, which is a cemetery located on church grounds). Cremation is permitted under the basis that cremated remains are treated as if they were a whole body, and the act of scattering goes against this practice.
Selecting the right urn size is important to ensure you have an urn that can accommodate your loved one's remains. It can be distressing to discover that an urn you picked is too small for your loved one. Fortunately, a standard-sized urn is properly sized to hold the full volume of ashes from most adults, which can take some of the guesswork out of choosing urn sizes. Use our urn size calculator to estimate the approximate volume you will need for your loved one's ashes, and when in doubt, always size up.
Metal urns are one of the most durable types of cremation urns, and can last several decades to centuries. These urns are usually vase-shaped and made from metals such as brass or pewter. It takes extreme force to damage the structure of a metal urn, and if one is buried underground without an urn vault, over time the urn risks collapsing under the weight of soil. Like other metal objects, metal urns can also be dented or scratched with improper handling, but these visual flaws will not affect the strength or function of the urn. In the Light Urns offers free urns for ashes that have suffered minor aesthetic damage in our warehouse and cannot be sold in perfect condition.
Most metal cremation urns are vase-shaped with a threaded lid, which means that the lid uses a twist mechanism to open and close. To open a metal cremation urn and remove the lid, unscrew the top lid counter-clockwise.
Most wood urns are box-shaped and have a removable bottom panel that is held in place via threaded screws. After the screws have been tightened, some people may choose to add glue to seal where the edges of the bottom panel meet the urn, but this is a matter of preference.
A wood urn, metal urn, or any type of urn should have a size that corresponds with its intended use. If a person's complete ashes will be stored within one urn, the size of the urn should be large enough to accommodate the full volume. A general guideline is to assume that at least one cubic inch of volume will be necessary per pound of body weight. For example, a person who weighed 125 pounds would need an urn with a volume of over 125 cubic inches. Wood urns also come in keepsake and medium sizes for holding a portion of ashes, and extra-large and companion sizes for holding more than 200 cubic inches of remains.
Cremation does not require blood or any other fluids in the body to be drained. However, if a viewing or open casket funeral is planned for your loved one prior to cremation, they will need to be embalmed first, which involves draining blood from the body and replacing it with formaldehyde. This process helps preserve the body by slowing the rate of decomposition. Embalmed bodies can still be cremated, but an embalming is not necessary for cremation. If your loved one will not be viewed post-mortem, you do not need to have them embalmed.
Christianity has always practiced burial, but due to the rising popularity of cremation in modern times, most Christian denominations today permit cremation even if they encourage burial as a first choice. However, Eastern Orthodox Christians still don't believe in allowing cremation, and the Eastern Orthodox Church forbids it. Historically, this ban was enacted because cremation was viewed as pagan, and denied the value of the human body and creation by God.
A cremation container is a combustible box or casket used to hold a person's intact body before cremation. When cremation occurs, the cremation container holding the body gets burned in a cremation chamber. After cremation, when a person's body has been reduced to bones and ground into small particles resembling sand, an urn is used to store the cremated remains or "ashes." An urn for ashes can be a temporary holding container while the ashes are transported for scattering, or it can be a permanent urn intended for burial or decorative display.