Editing Cremation (section)

==History==
===Ancient===
{{further|Secondary cremation}}

[[File:CrematedHumanRemains.JPG|thumb|right|[[Bronze]] container of ancient cremated human remains, complete with [[votive offering]]]]
Cremation dates from at least 17,000 years ago<ref>Gillespie, R (1997) Burnt and unburnt carbon: dating charcoal and burnt bone from the Willandra Lakes, Australia: Radiocarbon 39, 225-236.</ref><ref>Gillespie, R (1998) Alternative timescales: a critical review of Willandra Lakes dating. Archaeology in Oceania, 33, 169-182.</ref> in the archaeological record, with the [[Lake Mungo remains|Mungo Lady]], the remains of a partly cremated body found at [[Lake Mungo]], Australia.<ref>Bowler, J.M. 1971. Pleistocene salinities and climatic change: Evidence from lakes and lunettes in southeastern Australia. In: Mulvaney, D.J. and Golson, J. (eds), Aboriginal Man and Environment in Australia. Canberra: Australian National University Press, pp. 47–65.</ref>

Alternative death rituals which emphasize one method of disposal – [[burial]], cremation, or [[Sky burial|exposure]] – have gone through periods of preference throughout history.

In the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the [[Neolithic]] era. Cultural groups had their own preferences and prohibitions. The ancient Egyptians developed an intricate transmigration-of-soul theology, which prohibited cremation. This was also widely adopted by Semitic peoples. The Babylonians, according to [[Herodotus]], embalmed their dead. [[Phoenicia]]ns practiced both cremation and burial. From the [[Cycladic civilisation|Cycladic civilization]] in 3000 BCE until the Sub-[[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] era in 1200–1100 BCE, [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] practiced burial. Cremation appeared around the 12th century BCE, probably influenced by [[Anatolia]]. Until the Christian era, when inhumation again became the only burial practice, both combustion and inhumation had been practiced, depending on the era and location.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ims.forth.gr/joint_projects/e-mem/burial_customs-gr.htm#archaic|title=IMS-FORTH: About IMS|website=Ims.forth.gr|access-date=3 October 2017|archive-date=18 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130318204155/http://www.ims.forth.gr/joint_projects/e-mem/burial_customs-gr.htm#archaic|url-status=dead}}</ref> In [[Ancient Rome|Rome's]] earliest history, both inhumation and cremation were in common use among all classes. Around the mid-Republic, inhumation was almost exclusively replaced by cremation, with some notable exceptions, and remained the most common funerary practice until the middle of the Empire, when it was almost entirely replaced by inhumation.

In Europe, there are traces of cremation dating to the Early [[Bronze Age]] (c. 2000 BCE) in the [[Pannonian Plain]] and along the middle [[Danube]]. The custom became dominant throughout Bronze Age Europe with the [[Urnfield culture]] (from c. 1300 BCE). In the [[Iron Age]], [[inhumation]] again becomes more common, but cremation persisted in the [[Villanovan culture]] and elsewhere. [[Homer]]'s account of [[Patroclus]]' burial describes cremation with subsequent burial in a [[tumulus]], similar to Urnfield burials, and qualifying as the earliest description of cremation rites. This may be an anachronism, as during Mycenaean times burial was generally preferred, and Homer may have been reflecting the more common use of cremation at the time the Iliad was written, centuries later.

[[File:The Funeral Rites of Auitzotl WDL6755.png|thumbnail|The [[Aztec]] emperor [[Ahuitzotl]] being cremated. Surrounding him are a necklace of jade and gold, an ornament of [[quetzal]] feathers, a ''copilli'' (crown), his name glyph, and three sacrificial vassals to accompany him in the afterlife.]]
Criticism of burial rites is a common aspersion by competing religions and cultures, including the association of cremation with [[fire sacrifice]] or [[human sacrifice]].

[[File:Hindu funeral.jpg|thumb|An 1820 painting showing a [[Antyesti|Hindu funeral]] procession in [[South India]]. The pyre is to the left, near a river, the lead mourner is walking in front, the dead body is wrapped in white and is being carried to the cremation pyre, relatives and friends follow.<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3058333&partId=1 Museum record 2007,3005.2] The British Museum, London</ref>]]
[[Hinduism]] and [[Jainism]] are notable for not only allowing but prescribing cremation. Cremation in India is first attested in the [[Cemetery H culture]] (from c. 1900 BCE), considered the last phase of [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] and beginning of the [[Vedic civilization]]. The [[Rigveda]] contains a reference to the emerging practice, in [[Mandala 10|RV 10]].15.14, where the forefathers "both cremated (''agnidagdhá-'') and uncremated (''ánagnidagdha-'')" are invoked.

Cremation remained common but not universal, in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome. According to Cicero, burial was considered the more archaic rite in Rome.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

The rise of [[Christianity]] saw an end to cremation in Europe, though it may have already been in decline.<ref name="guardian-15">{{cite news|author-first1=Thomas|author-last1=Laqueur|title=The burning question – How cremation became our last act of self-determination |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/30/burning-question-how-cremation-became-last-great-act-self-determination-thomas-laqueur|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 October 2015|access-date=4 January 2020}}</ref>

In early [[Roman Britain]], cremation was usual but diminished by the 4th century. It then reappeared in the 5th and 6th centuries during the migration era, when sacrificed animals were sometimes included on the pyre, and the dead were dressed in costume and with ornaments for the burning. That custom was also very widespread among the Germanic peoples of the northern continental lands from which the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] migrants are supposed to have been derived, during the same period. These ashes were usually thereafter deposited in a vessel of clay or bronze in an "urn cemetery". The custom again died out with the Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons or Early English during the 7th century, when Christian burial became general.<ref>S.J. Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'' (Tempus Publishing, Stroud 2005), 1–62.</ref>

===Middle Ages===
In parts of Europe, cremation was forbidden by law, and even punishable by death if combined with [[Germanic paganism|Heathen]] rites.<ref>{{cite book| title = A History of the Church | url = https://archive.org/details/ahistorychurch00dlgoog | last = von Döllinger | first = Johann Joseph Ignaz | publisher = C. Dolman and T. Jomes | year = 1841  | page = [https://archive.org/details/ahistorychurch00dlgoog/page/n17 9] | quote = The punishment of death was inflicted on the refusal of baptism, on the heathen practice of burning the dead, and on the violation of the days of fasting [...]}}</ref> Cremation was sometimes used by Catholic authorities as part of punishment for accused heretics, which included [[Death by burning|burning at the stake]]. For example, the body of [[John Wycliff]] was exhumed years after his death and burned to ashes, with the ashes thrown in a river,<ref>{{cite book| last = Peach| first = Howard| title = Curious Tales of Old North Yorkshire| year = 2003| publisher = Sigma Leisure| isbn = 1-85058-793-0| page = 99 }}</ref> explicitly as a posthumous punishment for his denial of the [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] doctrine of [[transubstantiation]].<ref>{{cite book| last = Schmidt| first = Alvin J.| title = How Christianity Changed the World| year = 2004| publisher = Zondervan| isbn = 0-310-26449-9| page = 261 }}</ref>

The first to advocate for the use of cremation was the physician Sir [[Thomas Browne]] in Urne Buriall (1658) which interpreted cremation as means of oblivion and reveals plainly that "there is no antidote against the Opium of time...".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBg9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA295 |title=Archaeologists and the Dead: Mortuary Archaeology in Contemporary Society |last2=Giles |first2=Melanie |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-875353-7 |pages=295 |language=en}}</ref> Honoretta Brooks Pratt became the first recorded cremated European individual in modern times when she died on 26 September 1769 and was illegally cremated at the [[St George's, Hanover Square#Burial ground|burial ground on Hanover Square in London]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJs7AwAAQBAJ|title=The Little Book of Death |author=Neil R Storey|year=2013|publisher=The History Press|isbn=9780752492483 }}</ref>

===Reintroduction===
[[File:Woking crematorium 1878.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Woking Crematorium]], built in 1878 as the first facility in England after a long campaign led by the [[Cremation Society of Great Britain]].]]
In Europe, a movement to reintroduce cremation as a viable method for body disposal began in the 1870s. This was made possible by the invention of new furnace technology and contact with eastern cultures that practiced it.<ref name="arch-review">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/typology/typology-crematorium/10014547.article|magazine=Architectural Review|date=14 November 2016|access-date=11 October 2019|title=Typology: Crematorium}}</ref> At the time, many proponents believed in the [[miasma theory]], and that cremation would reduce the "bad air" that caused diseases.<ref>"USA." Encyclopedia of Cremation. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 17 September 2012.</ref> These movements were associated with [[secularism]] and gained a following in cultural and intellectual circles.<ref name="arch-review"/> In Italy, the movement was associated with [[anti-clericalism]] and [[Freemasonry]], whereas these were not major themes of the movement in Britain.<ref name="guardian-15"/>

In 1869, the idea was presented to the Medical International Congress of Florence by Professors Coletti and Castiglioni "in the name of public health and civilization". In 1873, Professor [[Paolo Gorini]] of [[Lodi, Lombardy|Lodi]] and Professor Ludovico Brunetti of [[Padua]] published reports of practical work they had conducted.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_b2kPAAAAYAAJ |title=A Quartercentury of Cremation in North America |first=John Storer |last=Cobb |publisher=Knight and Millet |year=1901 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_b2kPAAAAYAAJ/page/n158 150]}}</ref> A model of Brunetti's cremating apparatus, together with the resulting ashes, was exhibited at the [[Vienna Exposition]] in 1873 and attracted great attention<ref name=introduction/> Meanwhile, Sir [[Charles William Siemens]] had developed his [[open hearth furnace|regenerative furnace]] in the 1850s. His furnace operated at a high temperature by using [[Air preheater|regenerative preheating]] of fuel and air for [[combustion]]. In regenerative preheating, the exhaust gases from the furnace are pumped into a chamber containing bricks, where heat is transferred from the gases to the bricks. The flow of the furnace is then reversed so that fuel and air pass through the chamber and are heated by the bricks. Through this method, an open-hearth furnace can reach temperatures high enough to melt steel, and this process made cremation an efficient and practical proposal. Charles's nephew, [[Carl Friedrich von Siemens]] perfected the use of this furnace for the incineration of organic material at his factory in [[Dresden]]. The radical politician, Sir [[Charles Wentworth Dilke]], took the corpse of his dead wife there to be cremated in 1874. The efficient and cheap process brought about the quick and complete incineration of the body and was a fundamental technical breakthrough that finally made industrial cremation a practical possibility.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tMOuJm345vsC|title=Between Mass Death And Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany|author1=Alon Confino |author2=Paul Betts |author3=Dirk Schumann |year=2013|publisher=Berghahn Books|page=94|isbn=9780857453846}}</ref>

The first crematorium in the Western World opened in [[Milan]] in 1876. Milan's "Crematorium Temple" was built in the [[Cimitero Monumentale di Milano|Monumental Cemetery]]. The building still stands but ceased to be operational in 1992.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307799131|last1=Boi |first1=Annalisa |last2=Celsi |first2=Valeria |journal= In_Bo. Ricerche e Progetti per Il Territorio|title=The Crematorium Temple in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan |volume=6 |issue=8 |doi=10.6092/issn.2036-1602/6076  |year=2015 }}</ref><ref name="eoc-arch">Encyclopedia of Cremation by Lewis H. Mates (p. 21-23)</ref>

[[File:William Price the Druid.jpg|thumb|right|upright|The trial of [[William Price (physician)|William Price]] confirmed that cremation was legal in the United Kingdom. He was himself cremated after his death in 1893.]]
[[Sir Henry Thompson, 1st Baronet]], a surgeon and [[Physician to the Queen]] [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]], had seen Gorini's cremator at the Vienna Exhibition and had returned home to become the first and chief promoter of cremation in England.<ref name=introduction>{{Cite web|url=http://www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html|at=Introduction|title=History of Modern Cremation in Great Britain from 1874: The First Hundred Years|work=The Cremation Society of Great Britain|year=1974|access-date=2 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100803051500/http://www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html|archive-date=3 August 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> His main reason for supporting cremation was that "it was becoming a necessary sanitary precaution against the propagation of disease among a population daily growing larger in relation to the area it occupied". In addition, he believed, cremation would prevent premature burial, reduce the expense of funerals, spare mourners the necessity of standing exposed to the weather during interment, and urns would be safe from vandalism.<ref name=introduction /> He joined with other proponents to form the ''[[Cremation Society of Great Britain]]'' in 1874."<ref name=introduction /> They founded [[Woking Crematorium|the United Kingdom's first crematorium]] in [[Woking]],<ref name=Directorys>{{Cite web |url= http://www.remembranceonline.co.uk/mtree/burial-and-cremation/crematoria/woking-crematorium |title= Woking Crematorium |work= Internet |publisher= remembranceonline |access-date= 28 November 2010 |archive-date= 4 October 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091004192153/http://www.remembranceonline.co.uk/mtree/burial-and-cremation/crematoria/woking-crematorium |url-status= dead }}</ref> with Gorini travelling to England to assist the installation of a cremator. They first tested it on 17 March 1879 with the body of a horse. After protests and an intervention by the [[Home Secretary]], [[R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross|Sir Richard Cross]], their plans were put on hold. In 1884, the Welsh [[Neo-Druidism|Neo-Druidic]] priest [[William Price (physician)|William Price]] was arrested and put on trial for attempting to cremate his son's body.<ref>{{cite news| url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/15/1032054710047.html?oneclick=true| title = Druid doc with a bee in his bonnet| access-date = 3 February 2007| first = Tim| last = Harris| work = theage.com.au| date = 16 September 2002| location=Melbourne}}</ref> Price successfully argued in court that while the law did not state that cremation was legal, it also did not state that it was illegal. The case set a [[precedent]] that allowed the Cremation Society to proceed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/heritagetrail/english/taf/drwilliamprice.html|title=Doctor William Price|publisher=Rhondda Cynon Taf Library Service|access-date=1 June 2012|archive-date=18 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818052233/http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/heritagetrail/english/taf/drwilliamprice.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1885, the first official cremation in the United Kingdom took place in Woking. The deceased was [[Jeanette Pickersgill]], a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/this_day_in_history/this_day_March_26.php| author = The History Channel| title = 26 March – This day in history| access-date = 20 February 2007| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061230204229/http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/this_day_in_history/this_day_March_26.php| archive-date = 30 December 2006| df = dmy-all}}</ref> By the end of the year, the Cremation Society of Great Britain had overseen 2 more cremations, a total of 3 out of 597,357 deaths in the UK that year.<ref name="Directorys"/> In 1888, 28 cremations took place at the venue. In 1891, Woking Crematorium added a chapel, pioneering the concept of a crematorium being a venue for funerals as well as cremation.<ref name="eoc-arch"/>

[[File:Cremation advertisement 1889.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for woollen envelopes to wrap the body in for cremation, appearing in the ''Undertaker's Journal'', 1889.]]
Other early crematoria in Europe were built in 1878 in the town of [[Gotha (town)|Gotha]] in Germany and later in [[Heidelberg]] in 1891. The first modern crematory in the U.S. was built in 1876 by [[Francis Julius LeMoyne]] after hearing about its use in Europe. Like many early proponents, he was motivated by a belief it would be beneficial for public health.<ref>{{cite web |title=The LeMoyne Crematory |url=http://www.acremation.com/First_Crematory_Built_in_the_United_States |access-date=27 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= An Unceremonious Rite; Cremation of Mrs. Ben Pitman |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1878/02/16/80675922.pdf |work= [[The New York Times]]|date= 16 February 1879|access-date=7 March 2009 }}
</ref> Before LeMoyne's crematory closed in 1901, it had performed 42 cremations.<ref name="Sanburn, Josh 2013">Sanburn, Josh. "The New American Way of Death." Time 181.24 (2013): 30. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 September 2013.</ref> Other countries that opened their first crematorium included Sweden (1887 in Stockholm), Switzerland (1889 in Zurich) and France (1889 in [[Père Lachaise Cemetery|Père Lachaise]], Paris).<ref name="eoc-arch"/>

===Western spread===
Some of the various Protestant churches came to accept cremation. In Anglican and Nordic Protestant countries, cremation gained acceptance (though it did not yet become the norm) first by the upper classes and cultural circles, and then by the rest of the population.<ref name="eoc-arch"/> In 1905, [[Westminster Abbey]] interred ashes for the first time; by 1911 the Abbey was expressing a preference for interring ashes.<ref name=CremSoc>{{cite web|url=http://www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html|title=Woking Crematorium|work=Internet|publisher=The Cremation Society of Great Britain|access-date=28 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100803051500/http://www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html|archive-date=3 August 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The 1908 [[Catholic Encyclopedia]] was critical of the development, referring to them as a "sinister movement" and associating them with [[Freemasonry]], although it said that "there is nothing directly opposed to any dogma of the Church in the practice of cremation."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| encyclopedia = Catholic Encyclopedia| title = Cremation| publisher = The Encyclopedia Press| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04481c.htm| quote = In conclusion, it must be remembered that there is nothing directly opposed to any dogma of the Church in the practice of cremation, and that, if ever the leaders of this sinister movement so far control the governments of the world as to make this custom universal, it would not be a lapse in the faith confided to her were she obliged to conform.}}</ref>

In the U.S. only about one crematory per year was built in the late 19th century. As embalming became more widely accepted and used, crematories lost their sanitary edge. Not to be left behind, crematories had an idea of making cremation beautiful. They started building crematories with stained-glass windows and marble floors with frescoed walls.

Australia also started to establish modern cremation movements and societies. Australians had their first purpose-built modern crematorium and chapel in the [[West Terrace Cemetery]] in the [[South Australia]]n capital of [[Adelaide]] in 1901. This small building, resembling the buildings at [[Woking]], remained largely unchanged from its 19th-century style and was in full operation until the late 1950s. The oldest operating crematorium in Australia is at [[Rookwood Cemetery]], in [[Sydney]]. It opened in 1925.

In the Netherlands, the foundation of the Association for Optional Cremation<ref>Dutch, ''Vereniging voor Facultatieve Lijkverbranding''</ref> in 1874 ushered in a long debate about the merits and demerits of cremation. Laws against cremation were challenged and invalidated in 1915 (two years after the construction of the first crematorium in the Netherlands), though cremation did not become legally recognised until 1955.<ref>{{cite book| last = Groenendijk| first = Paul|author2=Vollaard, Piet| title = Architectuurgids Nederland| year = 2006| publisher = 010 Publishers| isbn = 90-6450-573-X| pages = 213 }}</ref>

=== World War II {{anchor|Crematoria#World War II|Crematoria}} ===

During [[World War II]] (1939–45), [[Nazi Germany]] used specially built furnaces in at least six [[extermination camp]]s throughout [[occupied Poland]] including at [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz-Birkenau]], [[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]], [[Belzec extermination camp|Belzec]], [[Majdanek]], [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibor]] and [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]], where the bodies of those murdered by gassing were disposed of using incineration. The efficiency of industrialised killing of ''[[Operation Reinhard]]'' during the most deadly phase of [[the Holocaust]] produced too many corpses, therefore the crematoria manufactured to SS specifications were put into use in all of them to handle the disposals around the clock, day and night.<ref name="Berenbaum">{{cite book |title=Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp|last=Berenbaum|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Berenbaum|author2=Yisrael Gutman|year=1998|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-20884-2|page=199|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrU2oS8fP3cC&pg=PA199}}</ref><ref name="Holocaust">[http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/camps.htm Holocaust Timeline: The Camps.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100108092724/http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/TIMELINE/camps.htm |date=8 January 2010 }}</ref> The [[Vrba–Wetzler report]] offers the following description. {{quote|At present there are four crematoria in operation at B<small>IRKENAU</small>, two large ones, I and II, and two smaller ones, III and IV. Those of type I and II consist of 3 parts, i.e.,: (A) the furnace room; (B) the large halls; and (C) the gas chamber. A huge chimney rises from the furnace room around which are grouped nine furnaces, each having four openings. Each opening can take three normal corpses at once and after an hour and a half the bodies are completely burned. This corresponds to a daily capacity of about 2,000 bodies... Crematoria III and IV work on nearly the same principle, but their capacity is only half as large. Thus the total capacity of the four cremating and gassing plants at B<small>IRKENAU</small> amounts to about 6,000 daily.<ref name="Świebocki">Holocaust Research Project, [http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschproto.html "The Vrba-Wetzler Report"], part 2. ''Alternate source: Świebocki (1997), pp. 218, 220, 224; in his reproduction of the Vrba–Wetzler report, Świebocki presents the material without paragraph breaks.''</ref>}}

[[File:Vrba-Wetzler report sketch (crematoria).jpg|thumb|left|alt=diagram|A sketch from the [[Vrba–Wetzler report]], showing the rough layout of the crematoria used at [[Auschwitz]], one of the several Nazi German [[extermination camp]]s in [[occupied Poland]]]]
The Holocaust furnaces were supplied by a number of manufacturers, with the best known and most common being [[Topf and Sons]] as well as Kori Company of Berlin,<ref name="Kori">{{cite web | url=http://www.deathcamps.org/gas_chambers/gas_chambers_sonnenstein.html | title=Kori Company (Berlin) | publisher=ARC | work=The Gas Chamber at Sonnenstein | year=2005 | access-date=22 April 2013}}</ref> whose ovens were elongated to accommodate two bodies, slid inside from the back side. The ashes were taken out from the front side.<ref name="jewishvirtuallibrary">{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Majdanek5.html | title=Crematorium at Majdanek | publisher=Jewish Virtual Library.org | year=2013 | access-date=22 April 2013}}</ref>

=== Modern era ===
{{see also|List of countries by cremation rate}}
In the 20th century, cremation gained varying degrees of acceptance in most Christian denominations. [[William Temple (bishop)|William Temple]], the most senior bishop in the [[Church of England]], was cremated after his death in office in 1944. The [[Roman Catholic Church]] accepted the practice more slowly. In 1963, at the [[Second Vatican Council]] [[Pope Paul VI]] lifted the ban on cremation,<ref name="kohmescher">{{cite book| last = Kohmescher| first = Matthew F.| title = Catholicism Today: A Survey of Catholic Belief and Practice| year = 1999| publisher = Paulist Press| isbn = 0-8091-3873-5| pages = [https://archive.org/details/catholicismtoday0000kohm_z7d7/page/178 178–179]| url = https://archive.org/details/catholicismtoday0000kohm_z7d7/page/178}}</ref> and in 1966 allowed Catholic priests to [[officiate]] at cremation ceremonies. This is done on the condition that the ashes must be buried or interred, not scattered. Many countries where burial is traditional saw cremation rise to become a significant, if not the most common way of disposing of a dead body. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was an unprecedented phase of crematorium construction in the United Kingdom<ref name="arch-review"/> and the Netherlands.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290753255 |title=Designing a place for goodbye: The architecture of crematoria in the Netherlands |journal=Final Places |last1=Klassens |first1=Mirjam |last2=Groote |first2=Peter |date=January 2012 |via=researchgate.net}}</ref>

Starting in the 1960s, cremation has become more common than burial in several countries where the latter is traditional. This has included the United Kingdom (1968), Czechoslovakia (1980),<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347305450 |title='Life Begins in the Heat of Love and Ends in the Heat of Fire': Four Views on the Development of Cremation in Czech Society |first1=Zdeněk R. |last1=Nešpor |first2=Olga |last2=Nešporová |journal=Soudobé dějiny |year=2011 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=563–602 |via=researchgate.com |doi=10.51134/sod.2011.042|doi-access=free }}</ref> Canada (early 2000s), the United States (2016) and Finland (2017). Factors cited include cheaper costs (especially a factor after the [[Great Recession|2008 recession]]), growth in secular attitudes and declining opposition in some Christian denominations.<ref>{{cite news |last=Barron |first=James |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/nyregion/cremations-increase-in-a-move-away-from-tradition.html |title=In a Move Away From Tradition, Cremations Increase |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2017-08-10 |access-date=2017-08-14 }}</ref>