The Hennessey Cutcliffe Charlottetown Funeral Home is the latest funeral home to respond to increasing demand for cremation.
Kevin Gallant, owner of the funeral home, said recently they decided a year ago to offer the service.
The machine was put in last week, and the service is now available.
“Just the need with the rate of cremations rising,’’ Gallant said, when asked why his funeral home decided to make the move. “The demand is there. I think we were doing enough to have our own crematorium here. It’s service under one roof.’’
Belvedere Funeral Home also offers the service in Charlottetown.
Gallant said between 40 and 50 per cent of people are now choosing to be cremated, a dramatic rise in demand since he got into the business more than three decades ago.
“It’s a personal choice. Why people make that choice, I don’t have an answer for that. It’s just a personal choice. Some people say there’s lots of reasons (such as) cost, shortage of land, but I don’t think those are valid reasons. I just think it’s a personal choice,’’ he said, when asked why the demand has risen.
Gallant said demand first began to rise in western Canada and slowly made its way eastward.
“Anything that starts out there usually filters out to the Maritimes. It just takes a bit of time.’’
Gallant said when it comes to operating a crematorium there is nothing to worry about for area residents – there is no odour and no smoke emanating from the stack outside.
“Nothing with these machines to be honest with you. They’re so up to date. They’re all monitored (and) state of the art. If anything happens it will automatically shut the machine down. There’s no odour or anything like that.’’
Gallant said when he started in the funeral home business he did, maybe, one or two cremations here and there.
“I never thought I’d see the day that we’d have a crematorium here in the funeral home. You could see it coming (these last few years), but during those first years I would never have thought that.’’
5 Cremation facts
1 - Cremation heats the body and container at a high enough temperature to reduce all contents to cremains. "Cremains" is the technical term for "ashes."
2 - Cremains are generally gray in color and have a consistency similar to playground sand or fine gravel. From an environmental standpoint, cremains are sterile and non-polluting.
3 - Christianity, for a host of reasons, has long favored body burial to cremation. But as more and more people identify as secular, or the millennial favorite, spiritual but not really religious, the importance of the church-preferred option is diminishing.
4 - Archaeological evidence shows cremation rituals dating back to ancient times. In classical antiquity, cremation was a military procedure and thus was associated with battlefield honors. Both cremation and the interment of cremated remains are described in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, both dating from the eighth century B.C.E.
5 - It was in India and in the Indian-influenced cultures of Buddhism and Sikhism that cremation developed into a central and enduring social institution. Basic to Hinduism is the belief that the life force underlying human existence is not restricted to one life but undergoes numerous transmigrations that may involve nonhuman forms.
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