ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role ashes play in memorial strategies in the Netherlands. Until recently Dutch people were not allowed to take the ashes home after cremation, and the majority of ash disposal was conducted by professionals working in the funeral industry. As a consequence, the use of ashes in memorial displays and mourning rituals has received little scholarly attention. This chapter focuses on the way Dutch young adults use ashes in continuing the bond with their deceased parent. Despite the fact that within the discipline of Death Studies the notion of ‘continuing bonds’ rather than ‘breaking bonds’ is gaining ground, this idea was not prevalent amongst the participants in this study. While the young adults were showing creativity in their material memorial strategies, a common concern was whether their practices were ‘normal.’ Two distinct ways of dealing with the ashes were identified: either the ashes were kept as a whole, or they were divided in smaller portions and incorporated in a range of objects such as urns, pendants and artworks, and, in one occasion, even a memorial tattoo. To what extent these practices are a form of ‘ritual creativity’ or driven by the commercialization of the funeral industry is argued to be an important venue for future research.
