Cremation in Romania

Dr.Marius Rotar - Ph.D. in History , professor

at "1st of December" University from Alba Iulia -

is one of the most active militants for the practice

of cremation in Romania .                           

 Romania : population ~20 million 

Number of crematoriums : 3 (only two are functional)

Postcommunist Romania was the scene were many failed social and economic reforms did their number , characterized by a total lack of perspective , clearness and realism , many of them generated no positive changes or even making things worst . 

  One of the most neglected sectors that is still in a deplorable state even today is the funeral one , not having the "privilege" to be on the political agenda of the power from Bucharest , this sector had over the years its fair share of issues that have roots in the fact that very little had been done on a national level to give solutions for problems like the lack of burial places available in the cemeteries from the major urban centers of the country or popularizing alternative body disposal methods. 

  For centuries the romanians of eastern orthodox faith preferred to use traditional methods of body disposal that blend perfectly with their complex system of traditions and superstitions regarding death , other methods of body disposal such as cremation were the subject of controversy within all levels of the romanian society over the course of time , being regarded by some as "unromanian" or being more of a "western things" that is not compatible with romanian costumes. In order to understand the negative feedback that many romanians have regarding cremation we must take in consideration the following aspects :  

1.  The environmental aspect  - being blessed with a lot of usable free land , for the people here traditional burial is very easy to put in practice . We can notice that cremation gained significant popularity in states were there is limited usable land and spots that are available are preferred to be used for farming or agriculture rather then for burial spaces. A very good example is Switzerland , a nation with a mountainous terrain that has limited usable space where cremation replaced traditional burial do to practical reasons. 

2. The religious factor - the predominance of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a other obstacle in the way of cremation , being one of the most conservative branches of Christianity , the eastern orthodox tradition  banns the burning  of corpses .

3. Postburial  traditions - romanian culture is rich in postburial practices that are intended to "repair" some of the unlawful things that the deceased did during his life or some having a purely symbolic nature , this traditions can stretch from the moment of death up to seven years.  The problem comes from the fact that the effects of this practices are null if the deceased's body was cremated.

4. Economic factor - from a economic perspective traditional burial are more expensive then cremation , this overlaps with the fact that the Romanian Orthodox Church has a huge influence  in the funeral business and its more appealing for it to encourage  traditional burial over other methods from body disposal. 

  Even so , Romania had a constant  percentage of people who choose cremation over burial ,  this practice being much more popular for the members of other denominations (catholics,baptists,evangelicals,adventists,jehovas witnesses,etc) and for the members of the intellectual class.  Other reasons that contributed to the low number of people who preferred cremation in Romania are: 

• The lack of information distributed to the general public about cremation and its benefits.
• The false idea that traditional funerals reinforce in some way our ethnic identity.
• Very few researches in the field and  a lack of promotion of those who were made.
• Very few organized groups that support cremation.

For more information on cremation and its history in Romania you can access read the following books :

a. Marius Rotar ,  Death in Transylvania in the XIX century / Marius Rotar, Moartea in Transilvania în secolul al XIX-lea .

b. Marius Rotar , Eternity in Ash . A history of the crematories and human incineration from Romania in the XIX and XXI century / Marius Rotar, Eternitate prin Cenuşa. O istorie a crematoriilor si incinerărilor umane 

in România secolelor XIX-XXI.

c. Marius Rotar, History of Modern Cremation in Romania.

For more cremation related topics you can also access : Amurg - Romanian Cremation Asociation