Problems of burial in modern Greece: Between customs, law and economy

Abstract

This paper focuses on issues of complex relationships between religion and local tradition on the one side and needs of modern society, government laws and migrations on the other, as exemplified by funerals in modern Greece. Overcrowding in big urban centers, especially in municipalities of Athens, consequently led to a lack of space for traditional long-term burial by inhumation. Exhumation follows after three to five years, when family members are forced to face (often un-decayed) remains of loved ones .The question arises concerning the ethical dimension of such a procedure and the emotional traumas it causes. Skeletons stripped of flesh undergo secondary burial by being laid into an ossuary. Cremation is not practiced, although cremation societies of citizens interested in it exist and Greek Parliament voted for the permission to build and operate crematories in 2006. However, Greece is still the only country member of European Union without a crematory. In Greece, Orthodox Christian faith is the official religion with significant social influence, which, consequently leads to a failure of implementation of cremation on its territory even for local and foreign citizens of other faiths and atheists. The deceased are being transported to the cheapest crematories in Bulgaria or, on rare occasions, to some of the “prestigious” ones in Western European countries. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177027: Multiethnicity, Multiculturalism, migrations - contemporary process]

Keywords

• burial
• cremation
• honeftiri
• Greece
• Athens
• emigrants
• tradition
• religion
• Church