A lot of people already know that their loved one wants to be cremated, so they make it a point to honor their wishes. However, in many other cases, someone may not have had the chance to discuss this topic with their loved one, so they end up needing to make the decision on whether to go with a burial or a cremation for their loved one. Something else that is often decided when it comes to cremation is whether to spread the ashes of the loved one and if so, where to spread them. However, before you follow through with spreading the ashes of your loved one after they have been cremated, you want to be sure you read the following information. It will prove to be helpful by educating you more on the subject.
There are many things you can do with the ashes
You don't have to spread all of someone's ashes and there are a lot of other things that you can do with the ashes. If you want, you can spread some of their ashes and then do something else with the rest. Some of the other things you can do with them include keeping them in an urn, placing some of the ashes into several smaller urns to share amongst loved ones, having a diamond made of the ashes, having the ashes put in an urn keepsake piece of jewelry, and even mixing the ashes in soil at the base of a memorial tree or plant.
There are laws regarding spreading someone's ashes
There aren't normally a lot of laws regarding the spreading of a person's ashes, but there are some in place that you want to know about before you go out to spread their ashes. By knowing about the laws that do exist, you won't find yourself getting into trouble while you are simply trying to do something special for your loved one.
One of the laws that there are with regards to spreading someone's ashes has to do with spreading them over the ocean. The Clean Water Act covers the spreading of ashes which is also referred to as burial at sea. The law states that someone must be at least three miles from the shore before they spread ashes at sea.
There are things to keep in mind with regards to how to spread ashes
The first thing you should know before you spread your loved one's ashes is that they won't blow very far, so you want to be right above where you want them to land, since they may only travel out a few feet before going downward. However, they can be picked up by the wind and tossed in any direction, so be aware of the direction of the wind so you can avoid getting their ashes blown back at you.
You might be surprised at just how much ashes there are, so you might want to spread their ashes over several different locations if you would like to spread them over areas that you know they held near and dear to their heart.