Cremation is increasingly chosen by the French for their funerals, a practice particularly widespread in eastern France, leading to the creation of new facilities.
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If in 1980, the cremation rate in France was 1%, today it has climbed to 40% and 250,000 cremations are carried out each year. In Haguenau, this concerns more than six out of ten deceased people.
“In Alsace, and in Northern Alsace in particular, people are increasingly asking to be cremated,” notes Isabelle Deutschmann, deputy mayor of the second city in Bas-Rhin.
Faced with “long waiting lists” of families who had to turn to the crematoriums of Strasbourg or Moselle, the city built its own equipment, inaugurated in September. It is added to the more than 200 in France. “It’s really to respond to a change in practices regarding death,” explains the deputy mayor.
“Precursor”
“The cremation rate is increasing regularly in France, for reasons of changing mentalities, dematerialization of memories, the breakup of the family unit, etc. and in certain regions, this rate increases more, among other things for historical and religious reasons,” Michel Kawnik, founder and director of the French funeral information association (Afif), explains to AFP.
In Alsace, this is partly explained by the presence of Protestants, who have authorized cremation since the end of the 19th century. “Some ask me if the fact of being cremated will not prevent God from resurrecting them but I reassure them,” reports Pastor Jehan Claude Hutchen, ecclesiastical inspector of Strasbourg, recalling the passage from the Bible: “you are dust and you will return to dust. On the Catholic side, the Church has no longer prohibited cremation since 1963.
Today, in the Grand Est, more than one in two deceased people is cremated, making it the region where this practice is most widespread. In the south of Alsace, near Mulhouse, two crematoriums are barely 3 kilometers apart. The first was created in 1978, at a time when this practice was marginal.
“In 1978, you still had to be a bit of a pioneer to move towards cremation, it was not something common, but it still took off quite quickly,” underlines Ingrid Bourgeois-Muller, head of funeral affairs in Mulhouse. .
Since the 2010s, the cremation rate in Mulhouse has exceeded 50%. A choice intended to avoid imposing on loved ones the “burden” of maintaining a grave: “Removing weeds, cleaning a monument, making repairs from time to time when something breaks, It can be off-putting.”
“More freedom”
According to her, cremation offers “more freedom”: the ashes can be scattered in a memorial garden, in nature or be kept in an urn placed in a columbarium or burial vault.
Today, cremation is chosen by “all social categories, from the worker to the CEO,” underlines Ingrid Bourgeois-Muller. “There are still religions where this is not possible,” she notes, referring to Judaism and Islam, but “it could evolve, as Christianity has evolved.”
For Mr. Kawnik, the French interest can be explained by “cost and organizational reasons: we consider that cremation is much simpler”. Evolution of mentalities, decline of religious influence, but also lack of space in cemeteries, the explanations are multiple.
According to a Crédoc study published in May 2024, 51% of respondents preferred cremation for their funeral compared to 30% a burial. In total, 24% of respondents justified this preference “not to embarrass the family” and 18% for ecological reasons. “Coffins are proposed which are not made of solid wood. There are even cardboard coffins, which are much less polluting,” describes Mr. Kawnik.
In Haguenau, Isabelle Deutschmann made her choice: “I have already told my husband and my children that I wanted to be cremated”, not seeing herself “being locked in a coffin underground”. For her, whatever the choice, it is important to express it. “Talking about it doesn’t kill you, but it makes things easier.”
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