Burial always took place at night, outside city walls. The corpse was typically burned or interred in a tomb. Romans felt so strongly about proper burial practices being upheld that a monthly funeral insurance membership was common throughout Rome.
Members would pay monthly dues to make sure their funerals took place in accordance with their status in the community. Many of these interments are positioned in accordance with astrological features and events. They were also known to bury important belongings along with their departed loved ones. Looking for more on the history of burials? Read our guide on the history of cremation , too. Just as burials looked different throughout human history, they also vary greatly across the world today, some even seeming like strange traditions.
Below are just a couple of examples:. In the Phillippines and in Filipino funerals , you'll see that many ethnic groups practice unique death rituals. For example, the Benguet of Northwestern Philippines blindfold the dead. In Apayo, families bury departed loved ones under their kitchens. The Caviteno people near Manila bury the dead in hollowed-out tree trunks. The Tinguian seat the dead in a chair and place a lit cigarette between their lips.
One of the largest investments is the casket. Every two to seven years, family members visit their ancestral crypts to exhume the bodies of the dead. Each family wraps its dead in silk, sprays the bodies with wine, and brings them out of the crypts for a community celebration. For decades, the norm in the United States and other first-world societies has been to preserve dead bodies with formaldehyde and other chemicals.
Now, people are choosing to forgo those processes and return to the earth sans-preservation. When it comes to underground burial, there are some questions that come up again and again. Coffins and caskets serve to insulate a deceased body from the elements underground. They can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and may have been related to spirituality or disease prevention. In the United States, caskets became popular for an entirely different reason. During the Civil War, furniture makers began doubling as undertakers due to the high demand.
They started building wooden caskets to transport dead soldiers. This was the beginning of the mass-production and near-ubiquitous of caskets in the U. In modern times there are plenty of casket options available, from wooden caskets to metal caskets , but more and more people are opting for decomposing caskets that are better for the environment.
But are people really buried exactly six feet underground? Plan now using our value packages. Click here to start. Push button for menu Push button for menu. FD CEB Why Do We Use Coffins? Since BC in China humans have buried their dead in wooden coffins, and coffins may range from plain wooden boxes to intricate caskets as we saw in Egyptian times.
Coffins were found around the globe and throughout human history. But why do we need any of the coffins? The fact is, since coffins serve so many practical and emotional functions, they are so common. We use them for a number of purposes, in several different ways. Here are some of the most famous reasons people have ever used coffins, and why we continue to use them today.
For early communities, defense of the body from scavengers and predators that would have been drawn to it may have been important. Before it could be buried, a sealed casket would have deterred birds and animals from destroying the body. Most coffins are used to show the body, either before burial or entirely without burial. Viewing the body may be an act of closure and a way of expressing sorrow, or a way of expressing gratitude and honor to the passer-by.
By associating a funerary box with a jewelry box, funeral directors hoped to impart a more soothing tone to the conversation when discussing funerals with families. But now you know it. In some cases the answer is yes, you can be buried in the ground without a coffin or a casket. However, this option is not available at every cemetery. If you are interested in this option, you may want to consider a natural burial. A natural burial does not use a coffin, burial vault, or embalming fluid.
Learn more about natural burials here. Interested in learning about the financial advantages of planning your own funeral now? By planning several decades in advance, you and your family can save money and avoid additional grief.
Learn more by downloading a free burial information kit now. What is a Burial Plan? Do Veterans Get Buried for Free? How Much Does Cremation Cost? Remembrance Quotes Guide. How Can We Help You? Return to Top.
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