04-06-2026
News
Keeping ashes at home
The number of families choosing to keep cremation ashes at home is rising: an individual choice that weakens collective memory and challenges the traditional role of cemeteries.
In Italy, it is possible to keep the ashes of a loved one at home.
Family custody of ashes is increasing nationwide and reflects an increasingly individual relationship with death. While it offers emotional closeness and lower costs, it also weakens the role of the cemetery as a place of collective memory and may hinder the mourning process.
The decision on where to keep the ashes is therefore not only a private matter, but may affect the future of cemeteries and the shared memory of communities.
Family custody of ashes is increasing nationwide and reflects an increasingly individual relationship with death. While it offers emotional closeness and lower costs, it also weakens the role of the cemetery as a place of collective memory and may hinder the mourning process.
Custody of ashes: mourning moves beyond cemeteries
With nearly 19% of cremation ashes entrusted to families, cultural and psychological risks emerge for the bereaved, as well as economic challenges for municipalities, which are required to maintain more than 16,000 cemeteries despite declining revenues.The decision on where to keep the ashes is therefore not only a private matter, but may affect the future of cemeteries and the shared memory of communities.