Blanka Dobešová and Monika Suchánská are interested in the same topic. Natural burials, which was also the topic of their theses at Masaryk University. However, they brought the topic further than most of their classmates did. Together with their friend Alžběta Živá they founded a non-profit organisation To the Roots (Ke kořenům) and opened the first natural burial ground in the Czech Republic at the beginning of June.
Death and burial are a taboo. What made you interested in the topic?
Monika: It was actually our theses what brought us to natural burial. As an anthropologist, I have dealt with natural burial from the environmental point of view, Blanka as a student of environmental sciences with its social benefits. Alžběta found natural burial to be a way to combine environmental studies with social work.
You founded a non-profit organisation To the Roots a year ago. Why?
Blanka: Because we see a crisis of burial rites. In the Czech Republic, up to one third of funerals are without ceremony, in Prague up to one half. This is alarming. Nothing like this is happening elsewhere in the world.
Monika: People have no desire to organise funerals. Most of them are dissatisfied with the form of today's ceremonies. Britain experienced a similar crisis in the 1990s. They solved it by offering an alternative – natural burial. And it worked. We want the same thing too.
How does natural burial differ from the traditional one?
Monika: Natural burial combines a friendly approach to nature and the mourners. Trees or plants are planted in the final resting place instead of tomb stones. Materials are as natural as possible because if you put a body in a coffin with synthetic lining and in clothes made of synthetic clothes, the body is conserved. The natural environment of burial sites is also amicable for final farewell ceremonies, their atmosphere is more relaxed and dignified.
How are bodies buried abroad?
Alžběta: In Germany, urns are placed under adult trees. In Great Britain, bodies are buried in wicker coffins or ideally entirely without coffins, wrapped in a shroud. The depth plays a big role—the closer to the surface, the faster the process. A metre and a half is mandatory in the Czech Republic. But the soil quality, moisture and access of air are also important.
Have you visited any foreign natural cemeteries?
Blanka: Two years ago during the summer holiday, me and Alžběta went to England and visited about seven natural burial grounds. They are very popular in Britain, there are over three hundred of them there. And they are also very diverse—from simple meadows to luxurious cemeteries where people move around in golf carts. British legislation is friendly, cemeteries can be also founded by non-profit organisations or private persons. In the Czech Republic only by municipalities, churches and religious societies.
You opened one natural burial ground at the end of May in Prague.
Monika: Yes, we were contacted by the director of the Prague Cemeteries Administration, he wanted to open the first natural burial ground in the Ďáblice cemetery and wanted us to help him. We had been dreaming about something similar for a long time, so we said yes enthusiastically. On 30 May we opened a two-hectare Forest of Memories with about three hundred trees. For now we will bury, to the roots of trees, only urns because up to 98% of cremations take place in Prague. If someone wanted to bury the entire body in the future, we also have a meadow available. But it will take time.
In addition to alternative burial, do you also offer alternative ceremonies?
Blanka: Yes, we try to engage the mourners in the preparation of the final farewell—for example, they can deliver the funeral speech or make a bouquet. The ceremony need not necessarily take place in a crematorium or church. They can say goodbye in a café, wine bar or outdoors.
Do funeral companies also offer similar possibilities?
Alžběta: Any extra services that are not in catalogues are for extra charge, which we find nonsense. Moreover, the offer has been the same for ten years.
Blanka: Mourners often stick with the offer of funeral companies but they feel they would like the funeral to be different. Therefore we try to make them think about their burial already during life—we organise various lectures. We are trying to open a debate about death. We want to make people think about their funeral and to assume an open and responsible approach to death.
How are your activities perceived by people around you?
Monika: Mostly positive. There are usually long discussions after lectures, people ask what possibilities they have and what is legal. At the beginning we thought our project would be of interest mainly to environmentally minded people but it turned out it's not the case.
Have you worked with mourners in the past?
Alžběta: Me and Blanka attended a course for advisors for mourners and one summer we worked for a funeral company as funeral arrangers. We wanted to learn how to do ceremonies without the need to involve a funeral company. Thanks to our practice we decided to create last wish sheets, which should serve as a mind map of a funeral.
Were you surprised by anything in your funeral company practice?
Alžběta: That funerals are not as overpriced as it is said. The costs are simply high. In Germany the prices are much higher. And it also surprises us that a frequent bad habit of funeral companies is a terrible website. Lots of black, yellow, gold. Heaven, angels, pigeons. No innovation.
What are your future plans?
Blanka: Now we focus on the opening of the Forest of Memories and our advisory centre in the Krymská street in Prague. Our dream is to have our own orchard where we could bury under fruit trees.