Oslo could have a forest churchyard, private log houses, and fixed points for ash spreading.This is evident from the Grave Site Reports submitted to the city council.
Rina Mariann Hansen of Arbeiderpartiet (AP) told Aftenposten newspaper that the city council wishes to give the city’s population three new ways to lay in rest after death.
Today, you must apply to the County Governor for permission to spread ashes in the wind. In the future, Oslo may have one or more fixed points for the spread of ashes, so that families or friends will be released from the application process.
Stockholm has a large forest churchyard, with space for 100,000 graves. The cemetery is from 1920, and is located on a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In recent years, several Norwegian municipalities have established smaller natural cemeteries, where trees and vegetation are left untouched, and this is also the case in Oslo.
An ‘arbor’, or ‘columbarium’, is a room where the walls have niches for urns. This is common today in several Catholic countries, and this form of burial has roots back to the Roman Empire.
‘I do not think there is a columbarium anywhere in Norway.
But we see that once we have opened up for new means of burial, people have used them,’ said Hansen.
A forest churchyard lays further ahead in time. Currently, the city council has not proposed a specific location.
The ‘Grave Report’ contains a review of the current situation, the challenges faced, and the plans ahead.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
