Burial rituals in the forest: nonreligion and funeral traditions

The burial of cremated ashes in forests is a relatively recent funerary practice in Denmark and part of an international trend towards burial in nature. Danish cemeteries are ritually consecrated; however, the burial site in the forest is deliberately not consecrated, and the area is not marked by religious symbols. Participant observations of two forest funeral ceremonies confirm that the forest environment and the nonreligious setting of this burial form have a specific impact on the funeral ceremony. At the same time, the ritual flow resembles a traditional funeral service in the church or in a funeral chapel and is therefore at once recognisable as a funeral. This observation follows the classic tenet in the study of religion that the ritual and not the myth is often the primary and stable.