12,000 years ago the after The Funeral Meal-Your Funeral Guy.

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Going out to eat or a  meal at the family meal may have occurred as early as 12,000 years ago. Funerals play an important role in the  Cultural History of mankind. They are important to the life of every human who ever lived.

One has to wonder what was discussed a the Funeral Meal 12,000 years ago.

Now a University of Connecticut (UConn) anthropologist says there is new evidence that nearly 12,000 years ago, feasts were used to celebrate burial of the dead, bringing about the world’s first established communities.

UConn Associate Professor of Anthropology Natalie Munro and a team of scientists found clear evidence of feasting at the ancient Hilazon Tachtit Cave burial site near Karmiel, Israel. Unusually high densities of butchered tortoise and wild cattle led them to conclude that the Natufian community members who lived in the area at the time gathered at the site for “special rituals to commemorate the burial of the dead, and that feasts were central elements.”

via scienceblog.com

Funeral industry|Funeral News Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

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At Your Funeral, “the guy or gal” is important, Not the resume

At your funeral your work history is not all that important. Every heard of  the deceased’s resume being passed out at Funeral? Will your company buy your tombstone?Yes maybe you get life insurance through work. People from work may show up at our funeral. But what is really important is how you are remembered.

Think about what people are going to say at your funeral, assuming anyone shows up. If you are too busy working to be a family man, or at least spend time with people, what is the point? Your family loves you and your  friends want to have some fun and let loose every so often, so why are you still at work? Do you enjoy living a boring life, or risk having your tombstone bought by your company for 78 years of service?

via www.helium.com

Funeral industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Your Funeral Guy’s Blog and book Featured at MSN Money Central

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Your Funeral Guy’s blog and book has been featured at MSN Money Central. This is a good step toward families learning how to do a lower cost Funeral.

In this economy for many folks it is important to lower funeral cost.

Folks simply find putting Ten  to Fifteen Thousand  in the ground unacceptable in the current uncertain Economy.

Today Many folks say that you can save on a funeral by not choosing embalming, something that is not required by Law.

With a little forethought, you, too, can save thousands of dollars on a funeral or the burial of a loved one, the experts say. Here are some of their top tips:

• Choose cremation. “The National Funeral Directors Association says the average cost of a funeral in 2006 was $7,323. That does not include a cemetery. The average cost of a cremation is between $1,000 and $1,500,” says R. Brian Burkhardt, the author of “Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral” and the author of a blog about the funeral industry. “So cremation is the No. 1 way to save money on your funeral.”

• Save even more by choosing “direct cremation.” The deceased is promptly cremated, without a funeral service or viewing. Direct cremation usually includes transport of the body, cremation and a cardboard or plastic container for the ashes.

• Skip the preservative. “Forgo embalming,” says Burkhardt. “Under the law — the Funeral Rule — you have the right to forgo embalming. That can save you between $600 and $800 on the funeral.” Want a traditional funeral anyway? Just choose a closed casket, Burkhardt says. “If the body’s not viewed, it doesn’t have to be embalmed.”

• Buy that box on the Web. “Get the casket online,” Burkhardt says. “Do not buy it from the funeral home, because — and they hate me when I say this — caskets at the funeral home are marked up between 100 and 500%,” with occasional exceptions, he says. No other single item is so expensive. “I got a $4,000 oversized casket on the Internet (for a friend), and it was delivered to the funeral home the next day, and I paid $1,037.” Today some of the big-box stores, including Costco, sell caskets, too.

via articles.moneycentral.msn.com

Funeral Industry| Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska to Buried at Arlington National Cemetery-yourfuneralguy

Image  looking at Washington DC from Arlington National Cemetery-via Wikipedia

Senator Ted Stevens Alaska’s longest serving Senator will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery(ANC) On Tuesday Afternoon August 31st 2010.

The family announced the private  Burial Friday before noon-in the press- August 27th 2010. An associated press statement went out at 8:08 AM.

Snippet From Fox News.

….Sen. Ted Stevens will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., in a ceremony with relatives and friends.

In a statement Friday, the family said the decorated World War II pilot and president pro tempore of the Senate will be buried ….. with honors.

The 86-year-old Stevens was one of five people killed Aug. 9 in a plane crash while on a fishing trip near Dillingham in southwest Alaska.

via www.foxnews.com

Funeral Industry |Funeral News | Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Some reports have the burial happening on September 28th, 2010. We shall await clarification.

No word on whether there will be video coverage live or not.

This date is consistent with the general 4-8 week wait for a veterans burial at Arlington National Cemetery

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Newsweek’s comments on Green, Bio Cremation -YourFuneralGuy

At the heart of green cremation is a chemical reaction Image via Wikipedia

Newsweek’s Comments on green cremation, bio cremation, resomation, or  cycled burial, are uninformed, not helpful and kindly stated,  far from the factual reality(expletives deleted). Here are the comments.

Another burial option piquing consumers’ interest is resomation (also known as “bio-cremation”), which emits no carbon. In the United States, only a handful of states have approved resomation, and California is the latest to consider legalizing it. Resomation involves placing human remains, water and potassium hydroxide into a stainless steel tank and heating it for several hours until the remains melt. While some of the residue can be placed in an urn, the rest is recycled through the sewage system, giving the practice the nickname, “toilet burial.” Joe Sehee, executive director of the Green Burial Council, questions whether it is environmentally friendly to flush what may be more than 100 pounds of human residue through the sewage system.

via www.newsweek.com

Resomation, green cremation, water cremation, bio cremation, is not the remains melting,(as in the wicked which of the west) but accelerated decomposition (as in a chemical reaction).

The rest is recycled through the sewage system giving the nick name ‘toilet burial”.  THE REPORTER IS UNINFORMED.  The recycled remains do not have to go into the sewage system.

Alkaline hydrolysis as a means of disposition contains  much more dignity than the Newsweek  report.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

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Should Arlington National Cemetery be run by the Veterans Admin?-YourFuneralGuy

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Should the US Army continue to run Arlington National Cemetery? This is probably the most pressing question facing our country at this time. But it is one that is being asked.

Veterans groups and members of Congress are questioning whether management of Arlington National Cemetery should be transferred from the Army to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Once the records at Arlington National Cemetery Are computerized and the investigation of administrators and contractors is completed the United States Army deserves a second chance.

Funeral industry|Funeral News |Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

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It’s Official The Funeral Industry has a Casket Cop-yourfuneralguy

Image by @superamit via Flickr

More has been revealed on the situation of the Lawsuit of the monks in Louisiana and the Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers in Louisiania . There is a casket cop.

Could Funeral directors have been hit so hard by the Recession that they would hire a casket cop to investigate monks? The answer is yes according to the Wall Street Journal. It has happened in Louisiania.

Snippet

‘Meanwhile, the state funeral board enlisted an investigator, who acts as Louisiana’s casket cop, to catch the brothers in the act. Sworn statements were taken from funeral homes that acknowledged receiving the abbey’s caskets. Pictures of the coffins were snapped before any evidence could be buried.

Board investigator Jude Daigle wrote in a report that in October 2008, he observed a monk-made casket being delivered at a funeral home in Lutcher, La. He spotted the abbey’s truck, according to the report, and saw Mr. Coudrain, the deacon, hop out. “I helped him unload the casket,” Mr. Daigle wrote. “He introduced himself and so did I. He then realized he’d been caught by the state board.”

Mr. Coudrain confirms the account; Mr. Daigle declined to comment.

This past March, the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors subpoenaed two abbey officials to a hearing. If found guilty of illegal casket sales, each official would face fines of between $500 and $2,500 per violation, the board warned. The hearing, scheduled for mid-August, was cancelled due to a tropical storm.

By then, the monks had already prepared their own federal lawsuit, citing Louisiana’s “casket cartel.”

via online.wsj.com

This is an incredible case of the funeral industry gone vampire over their casket sales. I have seen Batesville sales reps go ape over their competitor caskets. .But a cop to protect funeral home’s casket sales. The funeral Industry does not need this bad publicity.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy

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Costco, Walmart can save you money on a Casket-YourFuneralGuy

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One of the Ways to save money on a funeral is to reduce the Casket expense. Obtain your Casket from a Third party or on the internet. Depending on the funeral home the markup on the casket  markup is  between 100 and 500 %. I remember the first time i heard that as a Funeral apprentice, at an elite funeral home in the Washington DC Area. It made me uncomfortable then and it  is disconcerting  to think i was once taking advantage of the funeral consumer in this manner.

Third party caskets can save you lots of money on a funeral. Many times you can obtain the same or similar casket you find at the funeral home.

There are also lower cost Funeral Homes that sell caskets just a little over cost.They do not price gouge on Caskets  These Folks should not be overlooked because often they go out of their way to help you save on Funeral Cost. Even in today’s economy the low cost funeral home may be hard to find.  But the good news is that “today” more and more Funeral directors are willing to negotiate down the price of a Funeral.

Costco and Walmart are some of the main players in today’s market giving the funeral industry a hard time on casket and funeral cost.

Beyond sudden and unexpected outbreaks of longevity, the funeral industry has plenty of challenges. Cremations have been growing in popularity, and they’re less expensive than traditional burials. Companies such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Costco (Nasdaq: COST) have also found a new and potentially powerful revenue stream by selling inexpensive caskets online. (Lest anyone try to tell you otherwise, funeral homes are required to accept and work with third-party caskets.)

via www.themoneytimes.com

Funeral industry, Funeral News, Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Your Funeral Guy is not affiliated with Costco or Wal mart

Crematories can Burn Down|Your Funeral Guy

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

Recently I have become aware of several Crematories that have burned down and even burned funeral homes down. As  a crematory operator i have dealt with fires in the crematory, grease fires.

The new green cremation process using water does not use fire, only water and alkali-accelerating decomposition.

“A structural fire was extinguished Saturday, August 21 at around 12:30 p.m. at Countryside Funeral Home, 950 S. Bartlett Road by the Bartlett Fire Protection District and members of other area fire districts including Hanover Park, Streamwood, Bloomingdale, Itasca, Pingree Grove and Countryside.

Bartlett police said the fire appeared to have originated in the funeral home’s crematory and caused about $100,000 worth of damage to the roof and crematory.”

via www.mysuburbanlife.com

When fire cremation is not used-Accelerating decomposition-through alkaline hydrolysis, bio cremation, water cremation, water resolution, resomation etc there is not the same threat of fire as with fire cremation.

The Most recent out of control crematory fire struck in my area.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by your funeral guy

Cemetery Gridlock Pushing cremation-YourFuneralGuy

Image by joiseyshowaa via Flickr

In New York City, There is cemetery Gridlock. Cemetery Gridlock is not often listed as a reason to do a fire a or green cremation.  There is space to bury the dead there and with what space there is it is quite expensive.

The answer around this issue is cremation and the in the future the answer may be fire cremation or green cremation by alkaline hydrolysis.

For the dead, however, virtually no amount of money will secure a final resting place in the heart of a city that is fast running out of graveyard space.

And in the parts of town where a burial plot is still available, the cost has in some cases more than tripled in less than a decade; aboveground mausoleums can fetch upward of $3 million. Cemeteries are scrambling to create more space, and as plot prices have soared, the number of cremations has also risen, with a quarter of New Yorkers choosing the less expensive alternative.

via www.nytimes.com

Funeral industry|Funeral news| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral guy

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