May 28, 1876 – New York’s Masonic Hall on the westside of Manhattan a crowd gathers to watch what the press had billed as a “pagan funeral,” was in fact intended to be the first public cremation to take place on American soil. Designed to create a spectacle and raise public attention, the event was quite the “occult” affair with black robes and mystical incantations.
However, cremation at the time was so taboo that many in the crowd reacted with such hostility that the organizers were forced to stop short of incinerating the remains of recently deceased member of the Theosophical Society, Bavarian nobleman Joseph Henry Louis Charles, who had willed his body to be cremated.
At the time most Americans associated cremation with pre-Christian or Eastern practices, that many viewed as heathen or anti-Christian. The main organizer behind the ceremony, Henry Steel Olcott, was aiming to change the negative perception of cremation and highlight what he saw as the more sanitary and logistically sound method of disposing of the recently deceased. Olcott, a Colonel of the Union Army was a journalist, writer, War Department official during the Civil War (and a prominent investigator of the assassination of President Lincoln) and a lawyer, recognized the practical advantages of cremation over burial. His greatest contributions to the world came from his conversion to Buddhism and leadership of the then nascent Theosophical Society with Helena Blavatsky. As the first American to openly convert to Buddhism, he would encourage the colonial governments in southeast Asian nations to be more prominent in their tolerance of the Dharmic religions, which had been repressed in favor of Christian proselytizing by the British occupation for decades. His work, which included the design of the Buddhist Flag and even a Catechism for Buddhists, is still a strong influence on southeast Asian culture, in particular Sri Lanka.
Ironically, because the public cremation was not allowed to proceed, Olcott was forced to contend with the undesirable task of disposing of Henry Louis Charles’ remains. He was fortunate enough to find a private crematorium who allowed him to fulfill is promise to Henry Louis Charles. Funerary practices have always been a defining ritual for human civilizations and every culture (simple or complex) devise ritual methods, born of necessity, to dispose of rapidly decaying corpses. In fact many of our ideas of the after life most likely arose from the emotional and logistical problems that dying creates. Modern day European burial customs can be traced back to the Ancient Egyptian’s obsession with preserving the corpse after death. A lot can be learned about a culture from their funerary customs. Olcott helped to usher in an Asiatic practice which, to him, seemed a quite civilized approach to the treatment of the newly deceased, probably influenced by the corpse-strewn battlefields of the Civil War of which he had been a direct witness.
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Care for Cremation? | Peter Pendragon
However, cremation at the time was so taboo that many in the crowd reacted with such hostility that the organizers were forced to stop short of incinerating the remains of recently deceased member of the Theosophical Society, Bavarian nobleman Joseph Henry Louis Charles, who had willed his body to be cremated.
At the time most Americans associated cremation with pre-Christian or Eastern practices, that many viewed as heathen or anti-Christian. The main organizer behind the ceremony, Henry Steel Olcott, was aiming to change the negative perception of cremation and highlight what he saw as the more sanitary and logistically sound method of disposing of the recently deceased. Olcott, a Colonel of the Union Army was a journalist, writer, War Department official during the Civil War (and a prominent investigator of the assassination of President Lincoln) and a lawyer, recognized the practical advantages of cremation over burial. His greatest contributions to the world came from his conversion to Buddhism and leadership of the then nascent Theosophical Society with Helena Blavatsky. As the first American to openly convert to Buddhism, he would encourage the colonial governments in southeast Asian nations to be more prominent in their tolerance of the Dharmic religions, which had been repressed in favor of Christian proselytizing by the British occupation for decades. His work, which included the design of the Buddhist Flag and even a Catechism for Buddhists, is still a strong influence on southeast Asian culture, in particular Sri Lanka.
Ironically, because the public cremation was not allowed to proceed, Olcott was forced to contend with the undesirable task of disposing of Henry Louis Charles’ remains. He was fortunate enough to find a private crematorium who allowed him to fulfill is promise to Henry Louis Charles. Funerary practices have always been a defining ritual for human civilizations and every culture (simple or complex) devise ritual methods, born of necessity, to dispose of rapidly decaying corpses. In fact many of our ideas of the after life most likely arose from the emotional and logistical problems that dying creates. Modern day European burial customs can be traced back to the Ancient Egyptian’s obsession with preserving the corpse after death. A lot can be learned about a culture from their funerary customs. Olcott helped to usher in an Asiatic practice which, to him, seemed a quite civilized approach to the treatment of the newly deceased, probably influenced by the corpse-strewn battlefields of the Civil War of which he had been a direct witness.
more
Care for Cremation? | Peter Pendragon