Still no funeral without a coffin in Finsing

From holders for candles on the urn steles to burial options for star children to burial in a shroud without a coffin: The community of Finsing wants to change its cemetery and burial statutes.

After the preliminary consultation in the Committee for Social Affairs, Family and Culture, the municipal council has now determined important points.

Finsing

- According to managing director Helmut Fryba, a central point of the change is the relaxation of the coffin obligation.

As reported, cemetery bearers will in future be able to decide whether burial in a shroud without a coffin should be permitted for religious or ideological reasons.

However, the population structure in Finsing is not composed in such a way that there is an immediate need for burial in the shroud.

The committee recommended that the upcoming change should not be approved yet.

The local council agreed.

The question of whether a memorial should be built for star children or whether the option of buying a grave and burial should be given caused discussion.

Children who have died before, during or soon after their birth are called star children.

Star children: memorial or burial facility?

Fryba reported that in the larger surrounding municipalities such as Munich, Erding and Ebersberg there is a regulation that burials of children who have lived for up to six weeks are also possible in resting places for star children.

The parents themselves do not have to acquire any rights to use the grave; in most of the statutes this is compensated with 50 euros.

This would then have to be included in the statutes, but not a pure memorial.

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This memorial was built in Wartenberg five years ago to commemorate children who died prematurely.

There could also be one in Finsing - but the local council wants to take its time before making a decision.

© Vroni power

"I would find it very useful if we also took up burials," said Andrea Struck (Greens).

Should it become a memorial, however, the municipal council should take its time to consider what it might look like.

Martina Kollmannsberger (WGE) also suggested putting the topic on hold for the time being.

“Otherwise we put ourselves under pressure to offer something like that,” she said.

Instead, one should wait for further suggestions.

This is what is done now.

Flowers and candles on the urn graves

The most extensive topic was the placement of objects on urn steles, urn walls and urn graves under trees.

Councilor Michael Suhre (WGN) suggested in January that the regulation that flower arrangements or candles may only be placed in front of the urn stelae for a limited period of time should be reconsidered.

Until 2018, according to Fryba, it was not allowed to put flowers or candles on. In 2018 the addition was added that this was "only permissible on the day of the burial and the following six days". After that, those authorized to use the grave must dispose of flowers and candles on their own responsibility. Not everyone would adhere to this, however, and violations keep coming back.

For Suhre, flowers and candles are part of the fundamentals of funeral culture.

They could help manage the pain of grief.

Even if the relatives were informed of the regulations for the acquisition of the rights of use, it is often difficult for them to understand that they receive invoices from the administration for the disposal of the stored objects.

Mayor Max Kressirer (WGE) explained that violations can be pointed out several times without claiming fees: "Costs will only be charged if instructions are repeatedly ignored."

The proposal from the committee that in the dark season - for example from All Saints' Day until after Christmas - the placing of candles and flowers should not be punished is, according to Fryba, impractical: The administration needs clear guidelines for the implementation.

The committee members agreed that self-made brackets would not work at all.

At an on-site visit, an architect and a blacksmith would not have recommended high-quality brackets for decorative objects either: the urn steles with cubes stacked on top of one another represented a cube "which loses its clear line when brackets are attached".

The local council followed this recommendation against the vote of Suhre.

Statutes should be decided after the summer

On the other hand, it was decided to include the previous procedure for checking the stability of the tombs as an annex in order to have legal certainty.

In addition, the approval of photographs on tombs should no longer require a special permit.

However, the request of some citizens to set up collecting bins, especially for green waste, at the Steinfeld cemetery will not be complied with.

According to Kressirer, the administration will now process the amendments so that the municipal council can adopt the statutes after the summer.

vam