More and more people are deciding against tombstones

Last year, 1,739 people applied for permission to spread their ashes in Norway. The number has tripled over the last ten years.

In 2010, by comparison, only 619 people applied for the same, writes NRK.

This year, there are already 871 people who have applied for ash spreading.

– “Some choose it because it saves space, others due to aversion to the decay process, but most because they will end up in a place where they have spent a lot of time at,” says Professor Tove Ingebjørg Fjell at the University of Bergen.

Fjell has researched Norwegians’ relationship to death, and she believes that the ceremonies now to a greater extent try to reflect those who have passed away.

– “We have moved away from the “assembly line” we had before, where everyone got a pretty similar farewell,” she says.

Spreading ash during cremation was first permitted in Norway in 1997. As a general rule, ash spreading is only permitted on the open sea or in the high mountains.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today