Eternitate prin cenuşă: o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI
Gespeichert in:
| 1. Verfasser: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Buch |
| Sprache: | Romanian |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Iaşi
Inst. European
2011
|
| Schriftenreihe: | Colecţia Academica
128 |
| Schlagworte: | |
| Online-Zugang: | Inhaltsverzeichnis Abstract |
| Beschreibung: | Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: Cremation in Romania - a historical background |
| Beschreibung: | 630 S. Ill. |
| ISBN: | 9789736117787 |
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Datensatz im Suchindex
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| adam_text | Cuprins
Prefaţă
I
7
Cuvânt înainte. Despre jurnalul nescris al acestei cărţi
/ 13
Capitolul
1.
între modele posibile şi moda unei cercetări
/ 17
1.1.
Despre un subiect inexistent in istoriografia
romanesca
/17
1.2.
Nişte posibile modele. Cadrul general al analizei; surse şi metode
/ 23
Capitolul
2.
Pro şi contra incinerare în spaţiul românesc al celei de a doua
jumătăţi a secolului al XlX-lea şi începutul secolului
XX
/ 49
2.1.
Transilvania
/ 52
2.2.
Regatul României
/ 65
Capitolul
3.
Perioada interbelică: tradiţionalişti
versus
cremaţionişti
/ 109
3.1.
Cadrul legislativ al incinerării
/111
3.2.
Etapa revigorării ideii, punerii sale în practică şi a edificării crematoriului
Cenuşa
((1921-1928)/117
3.3.
Primul ars:
26
ianuarie
1928 -
reacţii, atitudini, polemici, scandaluri
/160
3.4.
Statistica incinerărilor între
1928-1947 / 238
3.5.
Decembrie
1934:
Apariţia periodicului „Flacăra Scară. Organ pentru
Propagarea cremaţiunii umane în România
/ 245
3.6.
Garabet Ibrăileanu, Constantin Stere, Anton Holban, Ionel Fernic,
Eugen Lovinescu, Grigore Trancu-Iaşi... şi alţii
/ 306
3.7.
The evil
politics
of cremation
în
Romania:
un
precedent
/ 334
3.8.
Cremaţiunea în România de la Al Doilea Război Mondial până în
1948 / 340
Capitolul
4.
Perioada comunistă: inovaţii şi înţelegeri tacite
/ 359
4.1.
Statisticile incinerării
/ 360
4.2.
Poziţia Bisericii Ortodoxe Române
/ 363
4.3.
Naţionalizarea Crematoriului Cenuşa
/371
4.4.
Comunismul românesc şi problematica cremaţiunii
/375
4.5.
Un contur al morţii în ideologia comunistă din România: între raiul
terestru şi tabu-ul morţii
/376
4.6.
Comunişti români şi practica incinerării
/ 393
4.7.
Niveluri ale cremaţiunii în România comunistă
/ 443
4.8.
Masca morţii roşii:
The evil Politics of Cremation in Romania
ín
decembrie
1989/467
Capitolul
5.
Crematorii şi incinerări umane în România după
1990 / 489
5.1.
Momente cheie; statistică
/ 489
5.2.
Apariţia crematoriului
Vitan
Bârzeşti
/ 492
5.3.
Greva salariaţilor de la crematoriul
Vitan
Bârzeşti:
3-Ю
mai
1997 / 497
5.4.
închiderea crematoriului Cenuşa
/ 498
5.5.
Criza locurilor de veci în mediul urban şi soluţia crematoriilor
/ 503
5.6.
Proiectul Panteonul Naţional
/ 521
5.7.
Asociaţia Cremaţionistă Amurg din România (Amurg.
Romanian
Cremation Association)
/ 523
5.8.
Crematoriul în presa românească după
1989:
glume şi lucruri prea...
serioase
/ 525
5.9.
O propunere legislativă
(2008, 2009, „20?? ) / 556
Concluzii
/ 565
Bibliografie
I
573
Anexă: Români celebri care au fost incineraţi sau au dorit să fie incineraţi
/ 581
Abstract
1
621
Abstract
Cremation in Romania
-
a historical background
In spite of the developments of studies focused on history of death in
the last years researches upon history of cremation is still a neglected topic. In
this last direction there are essential the works of Douglas Davies, Peter Jupp,
Stephan
Prothero, Hilary Grainger, Brian Parsons,
Fulvio Conti
or Robet
Nicol
and so on expressing the relevancy and the importance of this topic.
I have been documenting for a few years now on a possible history of
cremation in Romania, starting from the simplest and the most striking reality:
there is only one operational crematorium in Romania, a country of
22
million
inhabitants. Thus, all my efforts are generated by a simple question: How can
we explain this historically?
I will mention, in short, the essential moments of the history of cremation
during the 19th and 20th centuries Romania. Some of these moments are:
•
In the late 19th century, the idea of cremation was introduced in Romania.
The physician Iacob Felix generalised the idea of cremation in Romania. In
1867,
he demonstrated that they were imperative in the light of Bucharest
having been affected by an epidemic. The most important contribution is that of
Constantin
I. Istrati, MD. In his doctoral Thesis in Medicine defended in
1877
and entitled What to do with the body of the deceased person supported the idea
of cremation for hygienic reasons. Between
1913
and
1916,
he was chairman of
the Romanian Academy. He died in Paris in
1918.
His body was cremated.
•
After World War I, Transylvania was united with the Romanian Kingdom
and was no longer under the tutelage of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. After
this moment was the revival of Romanian ideas of cremation. In
1921,
the
Bucharest City Hall funded the building of a crematorium. The founding of the
cremation society Nirvana, renamed
Cenuşa
(Ashes) in
1923
was another important
moment. Ion Costinescu, twice mayor of Bucharest and Minister of Health in
the
1930s,
was among the most famous members. Romanian cremationists changed
the name of their society because they were accused of connections with paganism
and Freemasonry. In
1925,
the
Cenuşa
Society started to build the
Cenuşa
Crematorium, with the financial support of the Bucharest City Hall. One
621
MARIUS
ROTAR
important
Romanian cremation were Grigore Trancu-Iasi,
Radu D.
Rosetti,
Mihai Popovici,
С
Comanescu, Vasile I. Zorca.
•
The crematorium was inaugurated on
26
January
1928,
although the
building was not finished. The first person cremated was a man with unknown
identity, belief or civil status. Despite this, a group of Romanian Orthodox believers
led by the priest
Marin C.
Ionescu organised a protest and nearly engaged into a
fight with the Romanian cremationists gathered at the crematorium. The architectural
style of the
Cenuşa
Crematorium has Syrian, Babylonian and Egyptian influences.
In
1935,
two statues were erected at the entrance, representing Pain and Hope,
both the works of sculptor Ion Iordanescu. Also, the crematorium was built with
a coke fired furnace which used circa
250
kilos of coke and two hours to heat.
•
The fourth key moment of Romanian cremation in interwar period was
the violent campaign against the cremationists, led by a series of Orthodox
journals such as
Glasul Monahilor
(The Monastic Voice),
Biserica Ortodoxă
Română
(The Romanian Orthodox Church),
Cuvânt Bun
(A Good Word). They
condemned cremation and so did the Romanian Orthodox Church Synods organized
in
1928
and
1933.
Religious service was prohibited to those who chose cremation
and this decision is valid even today. The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC)
thought cremation to be a barbaric, anti-Christian and anti-Orthodox practice
specific to the Freemasonry. They thought it threatened the national spirit of the
Romanian people and that it was a stupid adaptation of Western models into
Romania. It was considered an aberration and condemned with other practices
such as: the radio broadcast of the holy mass, the legalization of abortions,
alcoholism or adopting the Western calendar.
•
Human incinerations became legal in Romania through several
government decisions, of which those included in the Criminal Code in
1936
are the most important; as a result, cremations and burials had the same legal
status, which is still valid today.
•
The first issue of the journal
Flacăra Sacră.
Organ
pentru propagarea
cremaţiunii umane în România
(Sacred
Flame)
was published in December
1934.
The publication circulated in about
3,000
copies per month, with the aim
of popularising cremation in Romania. Some of the Romanian cremationists
attended international conferences and I would like to mention Mihai Popovici
who attended the cremation conference in Prague in
1936.
Unfortunately, he
was unable to attend the London conference in
1937.
•
The number of cremations at the
Cenuşa
Crematorium increased during
the interwar period. It is worth mentioning that
84%
of the people cremated
were Romanian Orthodox and some cremation costs were covered by the
Bucharest City Hall. In
75%
of the cases between
1928
and
1934,
religious service
was performed for the persons incinerated despite the interdictions of ROC.
622
Eternitate prin cenuşă
•
The
nationalisation
of the
Cenuşa
Crematorium. In
1948,
the Bucharest
City Hall became the owner of the building. On
30
December
1947,
king Mihai
I, the last king of Romania, was overthrown by the Communists, who established a
totalitarian Soviet type regime in Romania. According to the Soviet model, on
11
June
1948,
the Nationalisation Law was adopted. It stated that all the types
of society, personal enterprises, and private industrial associations, mining,
insurance, telecommunications and transportation associations became state
property. This Law dissolved the
Cenuşa
Society on
24
December
1948
and the
Crematorium became the property of the Bucharest City Hall. Another outcome
of the communist takeover was the cease of any relations between the
Romanian cremationists and the International Cremation Federation after
1947.
•
During the Communist regime, cremations were becoming more and
more popular. However, there are several observations to be made: none of the
first rank leaders of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) was cremated;
especially second rank party members and old communist activists from the
interwar period were cremated. Few, among which Iosif
Rangheţ,
had public
funerals organized in their honour, with the following itinerary: the deceased
lied in state in a public place, the funeral procession was formed, preceded by a
display of medals and decorations awarded to the deceased and presented on
small red cushions; the funeral ceremony was organised at the
Cenuşa
Crematorium
and eulogies were given. The ceremony ended with everyone singing the
Internationale. As a consequence, the
Bela Brainer
corner, also known as „the
red corner , was inaugurated at the
Cenuşa
Crematorium in
1949.
It contained
all the cremation urns of Romanian Communists. Thus, despite some members
of the RCP sympathising with cremation, the practice never spread in Romania.
Hence the question: Why were there no crematoria built in Romania in this
period, especially as from an ideological perspective, the Romanian communism
claimed to be atheist, following the footsteps of the Soviet scientific atheism? I
have found four explanations for this fact:
•
The rural roots of some of the communist leaders: for instance, the
Prime Minister of communist Romania, Dr.
Petru Groza,
son of an orthodox
priest, died in
1958,
was buried and a traditional religious service took place;
Nicolae Ceausescu s parents also had a religious service at their funeral etc.
Consequently, the atheist character of the communist regime in Romania was
rather formal and it only aimed at religion in general and not directly at ROC,
which it did not refer to or act against;
•
The high cost of crematorium building;
•
ROC s condemning attitude against cremation;
•
The silent agreement between the Romanian Communist Party and the
Romanian Orthodox Church regarding the manner in which society could be
managed: the problems of the physical world were managed by RCP, while the
623
MARIUS
ROTAR
problems of the other world were managed by ROC. In different words, as long
as ROC remained subjected and could be manipulated, the Romanian Communists
had no reason for radical changes. This happened despite the fact that ideologically,
death for communist was an event was anti-progressive and anti-rational. ROC
was also pleased with the state of facts as the institution with power over the
dominant religion of the Romanian society at that time. I believe that this final
explanation is closest to the truth.
However, I have to consider the statistical data related to human cremations
in Romania after
1989
to be able to understand the changes in the area after the
collapse of the Communist regime. Unfortunately, at a general level, we may
say that some of these statistics are truncated. They involve the lack of possibility
to lead to plausible explanations based on statistics concerning the adhesion of
the Romanian people to cremations. There is a simple explanation to this: there
is currently only one crematorium for a country of
22
million inhabitants, which
only functions in the capital city. Statistics from the most recent media publications
certify the cremation
0^75-100
deceased per month at
Vitan
Bârzeşti.
Cremation in Romania after
1989
After
1989,
I have identified seven key moments involving crematoria
and human cremations in Romania:
•
Reverberations of the operation Rose, later called operation Customs,
into the Romanian society after
1989;
Operation Customs led to a negative perception on cremation in
Romania, as the
Cenuşa
Crematorium became the most radical tool used by the
political power to remove all evidence of its political opponents (the evil politics
of cremation or necropolitics). We speak about the cremation of
43
people killed
in
Timişoara,
in December
1989
during the Revolution. The bodies were taken to
Cenuşa,
at the order of Elena Ceausescu. The bodies were taken out of the
Timişoara
County Hospital and put inside an isotherm trailer, which was accompanied by a
Securitate
squad. At the 36th kilometre on the
Bucharest-Piteşti
highway, a team
from the Bucharest branch of the
Securitate
took over the transport, changed the
registration plates of the isotherm trailer and continued towards the capital. It is
from this moment that Operation Rose changed into Operation Customs, a
concept which reflects the explanation that the Communist regime was to give
to the families of the cremated: that they had fraudulently crossed the border of the
country! Around
5
p.m. on
19*
December
1989
the transport reached the
crematorium, where the bodies were unloaded and cremated. The cremation
ended at
10
a.m. on 20th December
1989,
and the ashes of the cremated were loaded
into four containers and taken to Popesti-Leordeni where they were discharged
into a pit.
624
Eternitate prin cenuşă
The cremation of the dead of
Timişoara
became
public
news on 12th
January
1990.
The act itself was made public by the General Prosecutor of
Romania, Gheorghe
Robu.
This uncertainty regarding the exact number of
victims reflected the general uncertainty of the first months after December
1989,
which lead even to public demonstrations in
Timişoara.
On the other
hand, one of the main charges in the
Timişoara
trial that began in March
1990
was the radical method that the political power had used in December
1989
to
dispose of the dead. Among the defendants we mention the Director of the
Cenuşa
Crematorium and the Director of the Bucharest Administration of
Crematoria and Cemeteries, both uncovered
Securitate
agents. The trial ended a
few years later, with minor sentences and acquittals, after the Romanian public
opinion lost interest.
•
Building and inaugurating the second human crematorium in Romania
in Bucharest, more precisely in
Vitan
Bârzeşti
in June
1994;
The inauguration of the
Vitan
Bârzeşti
Crematorium in
1994
had a weak
echo in the Romanian press, as it was rather mentioned as news than issue any
debates. The building was initially designed by Nicoale
Ceauşescu
in
1988.
Surprisingly and strangely, ROC had no reaction to the opening of the second
human crematorium in Romania. The two crematoria functioned both until
2002,
although there were certain ambiguities at times. This crematorium had
3
furnaces and was fuelled by methane gas.
•
The strike of the employees at the
Vitan
Bârzeşti
Crematorium
between
3
and
10
February
1997;
Much more press coverage was given to an event in
1997,
when the
employees of
Vitan
Bârzeşti
Crematorium went on strike. Our conclusion of this
fact is at least bitter: If even crematoria employees went on strike in post-1989
Romania, then we surely dealt with a crazy or an ultra-open or excessively
corrupt society at that time. Each of the parties involved in the strike came with
their own version for the strike reason:
Ionel
Gheorghe, the administrator of the
crematorium explained that he and the
14
employees went into strike to protest
against the mod of cemeteries led by the director of the Administration of
Crematoria and Cemeteries,
Cristian Ştefănescu.
He had engaged in the illegal
sale of burial places in secret agreement with the vice mayor of Bucharest
Alexandru
Malliu.
Ionel
Gheorghe was also accused of being both the administrator of the
crematorium and the manager of a shop located on the premises of the
Vitan
Bârzeşti
Crematorium, which was against the law. Moreover, in a press conference,
Ionel
Gheorghe was also charged with irresponsible actions for starting the
strike with no consideration for the citizens forced to move their dead all
through the city. His accusations could not be proved.
The strike ended a week later without any lay offs. A column published
in the newspaper
Adevărul
in
9
February
1997,
signed by Marius
Niţu
625
MARIUS
ROTAR
summarizes: „as death is in extremis, a final fact of life and our entire life is in
transition, death has eventually stepped into transition .
•
The closing of
Cenuşa
Crematorium in September
2003;
The fourth key moment was that of the
Cenuşa
Crematorium closing in
2003.
However, the closing of the
Cenuşa
Crematorium is based on other facts
than the official explanation, which was pollution (poor state of the building and
the lack of necessary filters). These other facts were called conspiracy by
Camelia
Ioniţă,
administrator of
Cenuşa
at that time. In her opinion, the Director of the
Administration of Crematoria and Cemeteries,
Radu Dumitru
and the administrator
of Vitan-Barzesti Crematorium, Gheorghe
Ionel,
had monopolized the funeral
business and charged fees for their services.
•
The issue of very few burial places in Romanian urban areas and the
alternative of the growing practice of human cremations in Romania;
*
* *
Bucharest experienced this crisis as well as almost the entire urban
areas in Romania. The press voiced similar situations in almost all the bigger
cities in Romania. Thus, a life and death fight over burial places was depicted in
the media, which also mentioned that the
Bellu
cemetery in Bucharest was the
most expensive in Romania, that a burial place cost as much as a pension or that
the burial place crisis competed with the housing crisis. Other realities were
pinpointed such as the birth and the activity of the cemetery mafia, the fact that
the business of selling burial places brought large profits as they were tax-free.
Despite these situations, few of the Romanian press articles dealing with this
reality develop a pro-cremation rhetoric. Moreover, when they do mention
cremation, they also highlight its lack of perspective in Romania due to high
costs, to the Church opposing and to the Romanian attitudes towards cremation.
Some strange situations resulted: in
Piteşti, Ploieşti
and
Targu
Jiu,
only dying
persons and people over
75
years of age were able to lease graves. Romanian
towns on the Hungarian border sometimes cremated their dead in Hungary, at
the Szeged and
Macco
crematoria, as they were much less expensive than a
burial or cremation in Bucharest.
Due to the burial place crisis, projects have been launched to build
crematoria funded by public money in cities such as
Galaţi, Oradea, Cluj-Napoca.
The highest rate of success is held by a project initiated by the private investor
Cosmin Bodrean from
Hunedoara,
the owner of a cemetery, who intends to
open a crematorium in Transylvania the next year.
Also, the press sometimes mentioned the alternative of cremation as a
solution to the high costs of burials in Romania because, they argued, it was at
626
Eternitate prin cenuşă
least several times less expensive than a burial. However, cremationa are
currently more expensive than burials in Romania, if the deceased is not from
Bucharest, as the costs of transporting the dead body to the
Vitan
Bârzeşti
Crematorium is high.
The National Pantheon Project
Launched in September
2008
by the Romanian Academy, the The
Romanian Pantheon project is directly connected with the issue discussed. The
aim of the project was to build „a monumental institution dedicated to the
illustrious people who have honoured our Country or have sacrificed for its
Glory across the ageslbidem. The chosen site was the former
Cenuşa
Crematorium
located in Park Carol. The total cost estimate of the project was of circa
50
million Euros, to begin in the spring of
2010.
The Romanian Academy
established the Romanian Pantheon Foundation to raise funds in order to cover
the costs of this project. There are a few essential problems that this project
creates. First, the fate of the former
Cenuşa
Crematorium is at stake, and no
clear decision has yet been taken regarding its demolition. Obviously, the
building can no longer serve its purpose due to the extremely high costs of a
possible rehabilitation or reconditioning. The
Cenuşa
Crematorium can be
considered a building of national heritage, through the unique
monumentality
of
the building, its particular significance and its integration into the area
landscape. Secondly, the costs involved are quite high and this money could be
used for different purposes for other projects of the Romanian Academy meant
to support Romanian culture and science. It could include the rehabilitation of
other buildings of patrimony owned by the Romanian Academy or the pressing
modernization of services provided by this institution (for instance, the Romanian
Academy Library). Thirdly, there is the issue of transferring the remains of
those who will be hosted in this establishment and it is difficult to believe that the
earthly remains of first rank personalities of Romanian history will be exhumed
from their current location. Fourthly, there is the issue of the originality of this
project, which seems to be a cheap and costly copy of Western models.
Amurg.
Romanian Cremation Association
Foundation of this association in
2009
is based on the reality of the
burial crisis places in urban area and also, due to the economical reasons. The
aims of the
AMURG.
Romanian Cremation Association are: the reform of
funeral system in Romania; to support and promote the practice of human
cremation in Romania; the continuing concern to stay informed and to inform
the public on the need for cremation in Romania, informing on its developments
on a world level. This association have had
24
members until now.
627
MARIUS
ROTAR
Other realities of cremation in Romania of nowadays
1994 -
The scandal of performing the religious orthodox service at the
Cenuşa
Crematorium published in the Romania
Liberă
newspaper at
2
April
having a critical attitude. The criticism was essentially based on two situations.
The first referred to the fact that a certain Orthodox priest,
Constantin
Stancu,
performed the religious service at the
Cenuşa
Crematorium with a clean conscience.
The second situation sees cremation and crematoria as a matter of preference
pertaining rather to Communist rather than Christian habits. However, the presence
of an orthodox priest in service at the crematorium was harshly criticised in four
articles written by clergymen or authors close to the Orthodox Church.
Moreover, in a notice published on
8
April
1994
in the same newspaper, the
Romanian Orthodox Patriarchy stated the following:
•
The Patriarchy had not authorized a priest to serve at the Crematory;
•
The archiepiscopacy of Bucharest had never authorized the presence
of an Orthodox priest at the Crematorium;
•
The Romanian Orthodox Church did not agree with cremation and
refused to perform the funeral service for the cremated;
•
There was going to be a canonical investigation of the appointed
priest.
Nevertheless, religious service is actually held in most cases of cremations
for Orthodox Christian Romanians but not inside the Crematorium but in the
chapel where the body is initially placed. Another article published at
7
August
2003
by the newspaper
Libertatea
addressed the same problem but this time at
the
Vitan
Bârzeşi
Crematorium entitled The priest of
VIP
ashes. The article was
focused on
Popa
Gheorghe, who had been serving as a priest at
Vitan
Bârzeşti
since
1994,
since the building was erected. The priest was defrocked because of
this and so were his fellow priests who served at the crematorium during the
interwar period.
A clear explanation of the current stand of the Romanian Orthodox
Church on cremation is given by Nicolae
Nečula,
professor at the Faculty of
Theology in Bucharest, who stated that cremation was forbidden to the Orthodox
believers. At the end of his intervention, it was interesting to see how Nicolae
Nečula
accused a Romanian MP
ofthat
time of pro cremation propaganda in the
written media, which he considered to be „the most outraging defiance and
ignorance towards this important part of Romanian Orthodox spirituality which
is the cult of the dead and a lack of respect towards the people who for all their
efforts here on earth deserve at least some clothes and four timber boards in
which to leave this life . To the extent of my knowledge, this MP was a Senator
from
Constanţa,
Gheorghe
Dumitraşcu,
who gave a public statement expressing
his views in favour of encouraging the practice in Romania. Also, Teoctist, the
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church condemned cremation, which he
628
Eternitate prin cenuşă
considered to be the greatest sin, in his Easter Pastoral, in
2007.
However, the greatest exaggeration in the field in the Romanian press
after
1989
can be found in an article from
România Liberă
of
8
January
2007
entitled The corpses of those who lived in Cluj-Napoca, cremated in Bucharest^
Thus, genuinely sad, the author announced that the activity of the human
crematorium in Cluj-Napoca had stopped almost
20
years before. The reality is
that no human crematorium was ever built in Cluj-Napoca!
There are two other issues that deserve to be mentioned: between
2002-2004,
the Director of the Administration of Crematoria and Cemeteries
was the priest
Radu Dumitru,
a character with multiple skills, who in the year
2002
was a priest, manager of ACC, a student, a member of the Romanian
Social Democrat Party, a councillor, chairman of a Foundation and
a karateka.
Radu Dumitru
has drawn our attention for other reasons: an Orthodox priest was
managing the crematoria in Bucharest! This situation implies a bitter conclusion
on its exotic nature but also on the total lack of perspective for cremation as the
current Romanian society is concerned.
On the other hand, significant press coverage after
1990
was given to
the cremation of several public Romanian persons. In this case and at certain times,
the Romanian press did not elaborate on the event or on the choice of cremation.
Still, there were some gross deformations as in the case of actor Ilarion Ciobanu;
the second day after cremation, most of the newspapers and magazines denounced
his family as irresponsible as they had left his urn at the
Vitan
Bârzeşti
Crematorium. Or, the regulations of the crematoria in Bucharest stated the fact
that urns could be picked up by the relatives
45
days after cremation at the latest.
Of the above mentioned names, the daughter of the
Ceuşescu
family,
Zoe,
preferred cremation and she was a very religious person. In her case,
despite the ROC interdictions, a funeral service was performed at the Elefterie
cel Mic
Church in Bucharest, on
22
November
2007,
and there were no protests
this time.
Conclusion
-
between two flames
In the spirit of that said above, we can notice a series of mutations that
occurred with respect to crematoria in 19th-21st century Romania.
•
There is a period between the late 19th century and after World War II,
when Romanian cremationists become in tune with the Western world in this
field. But for the USSR, Romania was the first Orthodox country in the world to
open a crematorium during the interwar period. Thus, Romanian cremationists
of that time were pioneers, despite the vehement rejection of cremation by
ROC;
629
MARIUS
ROTAR
•
During the Communist regime, although there are a slightly higher
number of cremations, the practice does not develop in Romania, but on the
contrary, there is a fallback as compared to the previous period. Romania was
thus surpassed by the neighbouring countries of Hungary and Yugoslavia;
•
After
1989,
this gap becomes even wider, despite the burial place crisis
in Romania and despite the inauguration of the second crematorium in Bucharest.
This reality can be explained by the automatic responses registered in the
Romanian society and influenced by the stand of the Romanian Orthodox Church,
who is happy with the current state. Thus, although the public utility of the
practice cannot be doubted, it has never been the subject of a serious debate in
Romania after
1989.
Under these circumstances, ROC benefited the most from
the situation, and it continues to reject the practice. Therefore, it can be noticed
that as long as the issue of crematoria and human cremations does not turn into
a real debate, the Romanian Orthodox Church will not react and as this silence
is in its advantage. However, certainly, if cremation becomes a viable alternative
for the crisis of burial places in urban areas, ROC will react, maybe as
vehemently as during the interwar period.
630
|
| any_adam_object | 1 |
| author | Rotar, Marius 1974- |
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| era | Geschichte 1850-2000 gnd |
| era_facet | Geschichte 1850-2000 |
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| spelling | Rotar, Marius 1974- Verfasser (DE-588)136133215 aut Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI Marius Rotar Iaşi Inst. European 2011 630 S. Ill. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Colecţia Academica 128 Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: Cremation in Romania - a historical background Geschichte 1850-2000 gnd rswk-swf Krematorium (DE-588)4231309-0 gnd rswk-swf Feuerbestattung (DE-588)4154259-9 gnd rswk-swf Rumänien (DE-588)4050939-4 gnd rswk-swf Rumänien (DE-588)4050939-4 g Krematorium (DE-588)4231309-0 s Feuerbestattung (DE-588)4154259-9 s Geschichte 1850-2000 z DE-604 Colecţia Academica 128 (DE-604)BV035808626 128 Digitalisierung BSB Muenchen 2 application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=024704017&sequence=000003&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Inhaltsverzeichnis Digitalisierung BSB Muenchen 2 application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=024704017&sequence=000004&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Abstract |
| spellingShingle | Rotar, Marius 1974- Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI Colecţia Academica Krematorium (DE-588)4231309-0 gnd Feuerbestattung (DE-588)4154259-9 gnd |
| subject_GND | (DE-588)4231309-0 (DE-588)4154259-9 (DE-588)4050939-4 |
| title | Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI |
| title_auth | Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI |
| title_exact_search | Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI |
| title_full | Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI Marius Rotar |
| title_fullStr | Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI Marius Rotar |
| title_full_unstemmed | Eternitate prin cenuşă o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI Marius Rotar |
| title_short | Eternitate prin cenuşă |
| title_sort | eternitate prin cenusa o istorie a crematoriilor si incinerarilor umane in romania secolelor xix xxi |
| title_sub | o istorie a crematoriilor şi incinerărilor umane în România secolelor XIX - XXI |
| topic | Krematorium (DE-588)4231309-0 gnd Feuerbestattung (DE-588)4154259-9 gnd |
| topic_facet | Krematorium Feuerbestattung Rumänien |
| url | http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=024704017&sequence=000003&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=024704017&sequence=000004&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA |
| volume_link | (DE-604)BV035808626 |
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