Dutch more positive about cremation

Six in ten of the Dutch want to be cremated after death. More than a third of the people whose parents still opted for burial choose cremation themselves. Nearly half of the Dutch are now positive about cremation, compared to 40 per cent ten years ago.

This can be concluded after a poll done by market research agency DirectResearch. The study was commissioned by the Christian NPO Radio 1 program ‘Dit is de Dag’, (‘This is the Day’), and the Dutch daily Nederlands Dagblad.

Ten years ago, 17 per cent of the participants in the survey said they had a negative attitude towards cremation; now it is 12 per cent. DirectResearch surveyed a representative group of 1050 Dutch people.

The changing attitude is also noticeable in people’s preference for funeral services. About one in five respondents has changed their preference in the past ten years. The most significant shift is taking place from burial to cremation. Six in ten now want to have themselves cremated after their death, while one in three Dutch people still opt for burial as a form of burial.

Christians also think more positively about cremation than before, writes the radio program on its website. Most Protestants (69 per cent) opt for burial. However, of the Protestants who were negative about cremation ten years ago, now a third think more positively about it.

Catholics have started to think more positively about cremation to almost the same extent as the average Dutch person. The view of Protestants has changed less. Catholics are, therefore, remarkably more likely to choose cremation themselves than Protestants. Slightly more than half of Catholics want to be cremated later, while this applies to only one in five Protestants.

Seed

The choice of burial or cremation is more often made based on faith among Protestants than among Catholics. “Christians have long concluded that, based on the Bible, burial is the correct way of providing funeral services”, says ethicist Theo Boer to the Nederlands Dagblad. Also, the belief that bodies lie like seed in the ground waiting for the resurrection on the day of Christ’s return plays a role among some Christians. “Protestants generally relate the Bible more directly to personal life than Catholics, so that might explain why Protestant views haven’t changed that much.”

“Burial is a more important characteristic of the Protestant identity. That preference does not change just like that”, says religious scientist Eric Venbrux. He does expect, however, that more and more Protestants will opt for cremation. “I’m surprised this hasn’t come out yet from the investigation. In other Protestant countries, such as Denmark and Switzerland, there are more Protestants than Catholics who opt for cremation.”

Another factor was the fact that cremation was seen as a pagan custom among Christians. This was mainly due to the symbolism. Because fire often has a negative connotation in Protestant circles, many Protestants prefer burial. Janieke Bruin, coordinator at the Institute for Ritual and Liturgical Studies at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam: “I see people struggling with the symbolism of fire: is it a warming fire, a cleansing fire or a fire of destruction?”

Philosophy

For only one in eight Dutch people, the philosophy of life or religion influences their preference. ‘Feeling’ is also at the top of the list for Protestants, but for them, philosophy of life or faith comes first.

About 10 per cent opt for alternative forms of ‘body processing’, such as making the body available to science after death (7 per cent), resomation (letting the body dissolve by chemical means) or freezing the body.