If there’s anything that one doesn’t expect to find at Disney, it’s human ashes. Yet there’s an astonishingly large amount of them in these American amusement parks.
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This gruesome custom was made public by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, October 24th, and then further spread by the Huffington Post. It was 11 years ago when the first visitor reported seeing someone put ashes in one of the water rides. Far from being an isolated case, it’s assumed that this happens once a month on average.
Well-hidden ashes
To sneak in the dust left over from their loved one’s cremations, the park’s visitors tend to hide them in medicine and makeup bottles. They then toss them on bushes, in flowerbeds, or even right in the attractions.
Why? To allow the deceased to eternally rest in “the happiest place on earth,” responded a few who have partaken in the practice. Except that it’s far from hygienic—not to mention perfectly illegal. Staff have to throw out of the park those who decide to take the risk anyway, not to mention close down the attraction afterward to clean up.
This type of incident is so common that park staff have given it its own codename: the “HEPA Cleanup”—named for the type of vacuum cleaner used to suck up the ashes. Meaning, after all their living loved ones risked, the dearly departed will remain for eternity…in the trashcan.
