Similarities Between Burial & Cremation

Funeral Service

Whether you bury the deceased in the ground at a burial site or cremate the remains, the same types of funeral services can take place. People conduct funeral services in a variety of fashions, including open casket, closed casket or no casket at all. Similarly, you can choose to have the urn holding the cremation remains present instead of a casket. The same rituals, practices and prayers can be held at the funeral service. Flowers, pictures and memorable items from the life of the deceased can be used as symbols to represent the deceased if a body is not present.

If you choose to have a burial, the body of the deceased will be placed in a casket, then underground and marked with a headstone. The headstone can be engraved with the name and a few summarizing words about the deceased. After the casket is placed underground, the friends and family of the deceased have a place to visit. When you cremate the deceased, you will have a visitation site in the form of an urn. You can bury an urn just as you would a casket. You can spread the ashes between two or more urns to have multiple visitation sites. These urns can be placed in a chapel with the remains of other urns (much like a graveyard or mausoleum), in your home or in another destination of your choosing.

Both burial and cremation are the preferred or condemned methods according to certain religions. In Islam, burials are allowed but cremation is not. In Christianity, both cremation and burial are allowed. In Hinduism, burial is not allowed but cremation is. In Judaism, burial is allowed but cremation is not. These major religions have similar philosophies promoting or condemning these practices. The holy books of each faith outline which practice is preferred and the reasons behind this.

Cremation has been marketed as preferable over burial because it releases less toxic waste into the environment. When a body is buried, it must first be prepared with embalming chemicals. These chemicals and the casket itself release toxins into the soil as the casket and the body decompose. Cremation avoids this process, but it also produces less noticeable toxic waste. When a body is burned, it is typically burned inside of a casket. Gas is consumed as it burns and emissions are released from the crematory, including nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and mercury.