Green Burial Glossary: The Working Terms for Families Considering a Natural Farewell
Every movement starts developing its vocabulary before it begins doing anything else. Green burial, the return to the more environmentally friendly form of burial that started as just a few innovative grounds and became a nation-wide option, has accumulated a vocabulary big enough to confuse people who have to use it. Terms are not explained in brochures; grounds use them in different ways; a family, trying to honor the environmentalist values of their deceased member and their need for the marked grave, gets confused with the terminology. That is why this green burial glossary is needed – the list of working terms of the movement alphabetically arranged and clearly defined with the necessary usage notes; and there will be some entries about the meeting of our trade and the movement towards the end of the glossary.
Conservation cemetery. Definition: the full expression of the green burial concept – the ground whose ownership is tied to preserving nature, managed as native meadow, woodland or prairie. Usage note: the strictest standards apply here: everything is supposed to be biodegradable, the vaults are not allowed, and the marking can consist of a fieldstone only or can be prohibited altogether; the graves are found by surveying. In case a family decides on a conservation cemetery, they should ask about the markers first, not last. For the information about how remembrance is done in the conditions of strict standards, see Fieldstone marker and GPS grave location below.
Fieldstone marker. Definition: the most natural marker permitted in natural burial grounds – an uncut or slightly worked native stone laid flat or lowered and often engraved with the name and dates of death and birth. Usage note: “uncut” determines the shape of the stone, but not the inscription – most natural grounds allow engraving; the craft of beautiful engraving of the natural stone with its irregular shape and with the name placed where it can fit on the surface is an old skill and deeply beautiful in its result. Our workshop takes up such commissions with special care: the fieldstone chosen by the family or sourced by us according to the specifications of the ground, engraved deeply and previewed in 3D before any cutting starts. A natural stone with the name engraved in it is the aesthetic of the whole movement in one object: the only thing added is the remembering.
GPS grave location. Definition: the practice used at grounds with the markers prohibited or allowed rarely: every grave gets its exact GPS coordinates so that the families can always find the place, regardless of whether there is any marker or not. Usage note: ask any ground how the coordinates are recorded, who keeps the record, and what the family will receive. And then follow the recommendation of the veterans of the movement: keep the coordinates in your family records – and consider the hybrid solutions offered in the entries below. Because ten years of observing families visiting grounds teach one lesson: the coordinates can locate a place, but people need to have a name. Which leads to the next entry:
Hybrid ground (and hybrid remembrance). Definition: a traditional cemetery that provides a natural burial section – burial without the vault, in biodegradable coffins and shrouds, in an established ground. Usage note: hybrid grounds usually allow modest markers not allowed in the conservation grounds: flat granite markers, natural stones, and even bevels – depending on the rules of the section. This entry in the glossary is the most useful for families divided between two convictions – the environment-friendly burial and the marked grave – because the hybrid section allows both without any compromises. We settle the rules of every section of every ground in this glossary (and any other) with the office before making any markers for it – and the rules of green sections deserve the most careful studying.
Living memorial. Definition: the remembrance grown instead of being installed – the memorial tree, the planted shrubs and flowers, the restored meadow in the name of the dead. Usage note: beloved, and is best planned together with the ground’s management (species lists and planting rules are strict in natural grounds for good ecological reasons). The most important usage note for families: living memorials and stone memorials are the complementing rather than competing forms of remembrance. The tree grows; the small natural stone with engraving at its foot tells who it was planted for – and it will tell it to the great-grandchildren after everybody who planted it is gone. The movement’s literature increasingly recommends exactly this combination.
Natural burial. Definition: the essence of green burial – burial without embalming chemicals, in a biodegradable coffin or shroud, without the vault, at the depth allowing soil to work on the body as usual. Usage note: legal in all states; the availability depends on grounds, not laws. It describes the burial, not remembrance – that is the reason for existence of the entire glossary, because sometimes families think that choosing natural burial implies the giving up of the marked grave, while at most grounds it simply is not true. The body is returned to the earth. The stone keeps the name above the ground. The green burial movement, in its best manifestations, honors both desires as the ancient and natural partners.
Vault-free. Definition: burial without the concrete outer box that conventional cemeteries use to keep the lawns leveled for mowing. Usage note: the ground above the vault-free grave settles naturally in the first years – which is why the natural grounds prefer the flush and low markers that should be placed with the settling in mind; it is the professional routine of the experienced installer. Ask the section how and when the markers can be placed, and the answer will tell you how well the ground knows the soil of its own grounds.
Closing entry of the glossary: Remembering (green). Definition: the whole point, and the entry absent in most brochures. Usage note, essay-length, as this glossary entry deserves it: green burial solves wonderfully the problem with the body; the remaining question of the families is how remembrance looks in case the ground is the monument – and the clear answer, built from this glossary’s entries, is: smaller, quieter, and not less permanent. The engraved fieldstone lying flush in the meadow. The granite marker in the hybrid section, modest as the rules require and deep-engraved as the decades demand. The coordinates in the family records and the name at the foot of the tree. The part of the movement’s vocabulary made by our trade is exactly this entry: markers for green and hybrid sections – the natural fieldstone and the flat granite, engraved to last, sized and placed according to the ground’s rules, previewed in 3D with revision rounds and engraving included in every price, freight paid, 0% terms offered – the remembrance scaled to the ethic of the meadow without the giving up of the name to the grass. The movement founders liked saying that the natural burial ground in fifty years should look like nothing happened there. The families we serve amend it gently, and the glossary gives them the last word: like nothing happened – except that someone we loved is here, and anybody who wants to can find out who.
