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Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
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Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
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Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Canada: Only Good for the Living |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 23 July 2006 |
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Canada is a wonderful country for living, but perhaps not so good for dying - unless you take measures to keep vultures at bay upon your demise. Decades ago, a hitchhiker who had been working for a funeral home up north gave me some inside information on how these birds of prey operate.
The pickings had been pretty slim at his isolated, poverty stricken location. They had been able to salvage only an odd pair of winter boots from unclaimed Native Canadians and sometimes bury two of them in one box while charging the welfare department for two.
Today's looting is more sophisticated - and much more lucrative. Funeral industry has gradually elevated funerals to the present level of excessive extravaganza by taking advantage of survivor guilt and remorse. Those shopping for funerals are made to feel that they are obliged to give a "fitting tribute" to the departed and that they are shortchanging their loved one if they don't buy the inflated funeral package - which has, unfortunately, become a norm.
As we know, this "fitting tribute" package includes the non-necessities like draining out your blood and pumping in a rot inhibitor - often referred to as embalming, the bulging of your cheeks by stuffing your mouth full of cotton and dressing you in a shirt and a suit (without pants) which are slit open at the back to get around your rigor mortis. The package also includes cosmetology, a gaudy casket, the use of a visitation room bursting with fake solemnity and an accompaniment by a pair of paid-to-look-morose attendants on your hearse ride to the graveyard.
The wholesale prices of caskets have been kept a "top secret" for decades but my research for this article shows that funeral homes typically charge from $1555.00 to $3900.00 for caskets for which they have paid only $388.00. This represents a mark up of 300% to 900%! And according to the Board of Funeral Services, the average funeral cost in Canada today is $5000.00. This is outrageous!
The reason why mortuaries and coffin mongers have been able to ratchet their prices up to usurious levels is that those who have died before us have failed to keep them in check. If you don't stipulate what is good enough for you by means of your Last Will and Testament, your loved ones in their compulsion not to shortchange you become helpless suckers of the unscrupulous mortuary business. To do my will, I borrowed a book Wills for Ontario (ISBN 1-55180-249-X) from the public library - I like dealing with lawyers just as much as I do with morticians. With the help of the book, you can easily write your own will. And in case of any ambiguities slip in, a learned, impartial probate judge will be glad to sort them out.
To bypass the nauseatingly rapacious funeral racket, I have instructed in my will that my two strapping sons personally place my dead body into a coffin - which I will have made myself - and bury me according to my instructions. Thus the fruit of my own loin will protect me from the black-suited funereal vultures. Ontario laws allow the burial of one's own family member without any involvement by morticians.
It is only natural to delay the morbid job of writing one's will but I'd recommend it at least to anyone older than fifty. In addition to making the life easier for your loved ones, it may give you a healthy impetus to rearrange your priorities. For example, you may decide not to bust your butt unnecessarily by building as lavish a retirement home for your truncated life expectancy as you may have dreamed of before.
While working on my will, I found great solace by playing Handel's Messiah where they sing, among other comforting verses: "... And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God ...". - In fact, I stipulated in my will that it be played at an opportune moment after I have shuffled off this mortal coil.
SOURCE: http://www.canadiancontent.ca/articles/020602funerals.html |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul.” Longfellow
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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