Photos are perhaps the most common item families place in caskets. From wedding photos, graduations photos, family portraits, and any snapshot that captures the deceased lifetime works for their burial. Some families choose to add pictures with the frame, and others without the frame. Both are acceptable.
Photos are one of the most popular items to place inside a coffin. With the exception of green burials, these can be buried and, in many cases, cremated with the person. Other popular examples of what to put in a casket include flowers, letters, books and, when a baby or child has died, a teddy or other soft toys.
Anything combustible - like bottles of alcohol, or lighters. Pacemakers - they're removed before funerals because they can explode during cremation. Anything made from treated materials like leather, latex and vinyl - they can release fumes that are harmful to the environment. Jars or bottles made from plastic or glass.
You definitely do not want to take a picture of the casket, because that can be highly disrespectful, as well. If you want to take a picture of anything specific, like a decoration or the memorial display, you will need to ask the family for permission. If they do not agree, respect their wishes and do not insist.
Most people have a photo album. You can bring these albums to the funeral and display them on the table next to the deceased or elsewhere in the funeral hall. This allows respectful guests to browse the album and enjoy their photos and memories.
By ten-years, given enough moisture, the wet, low-oxygen environment sets off a chemical reaction that will turn the fat in the thighs and bottom to a soap-like substance called grave wax. However, in drier conditions, the body could also be mummified – that's mummification without wrappings, or chemicals.
If you are looking at a long-lasting ground casket, pick a steel or metal casket. If the grave site is low on water content or moisture, metal caskets are known to last even longer, over five decades. Under favorable weather conditions, experts say that metal caskets may even last more than that – up to 80 years.
By 50 years in, your tissues will have liquefied and disappeared, leaving behind mummified skin and tendons. Eventually these too will disintegrate, and after 80 years in that coffin, your bones will crack as the soft collagen inside them deteriorates, leaving nothing but the brittle mineral frame behind.
Prints. It is often safest to go with a solid color, but there is nothing that precludes you from wearing an understated print.
Is It Appropriate to Take Photos at a Funeral? Unless explicitly requested by the deceased's family, it is best to avoid taking photographs at a funeral or memorial ceremony. Taking candid photos of the relatives in their most vulnerable moments of grief might cause stress and destroy the mood during the service.
Aim for a selection of approximately 25 -30 photos featuring your loved one at various life stages and including a range of family and friends.
While you should generally steer clear of bright colours and loud prints (unless otherwise requested), other things to avoid include very revealing or overly casual clothes, like ripped jeans, sheer tops or pieces with inappropriate cut-out details. Accessory-wise, keep things minimal.
It's not only okay to smile at a funeral but it's also encouraged, especially when greeting the bereaved. Seeing someone smile at us can help lift our spirits. It's also a nonverbal way of showing support.
Yes. Whilst there are some limitations on what can be placed in the coffin for a cremation, you can place any legal, non-hazardous item in a coffin for a burial.
If you have family members that are hoping to be able to take part in the cremation services, you can allow them to help by bringing in photos and adding them to the cremation casket. Be sure to make copies and not use your original photos.
Yes — Depending upon the cemetery's policy, you may be able to save a grave space by having the cremains buried on top of the casketed remains of your spouse, or utilize the space provided next to him/her. Many cemeteries allow for multiple cremated remains to be interred in a single grave space.
What's really returned to you is the person's skeleton. Once you burn off all the water, soft tissue, organs, skin, hair, cremation container/casket, etc., what you're left with is bone. When complete, the bones are allowed to cool to a temperature that they can be handled and are placed into a processing machine.
The Best Method. The best way to put a picture on a headstone is to have the photo digitized and then used to create a ceramic photo tile, which can be attached to the monument. Ceramic photos are created by using special toner on an Italian porcelain tile, then fired in a kiln at 1600 degrees Fahrenheit.
In western cultures, red is often seen as a color of joy, love, and vitality. It's the color of celebrations and positive energy. Wearing red to a funeral would be considered inappropriate because it would clash with the somber atmosphere and be viewed as disrespectful.
Coffin flies have that name because they are particularly talented at getting into sealed places holding decaying matter, including coffins. Given the opportunity, they will indeed lay their eggs on corpses, thus providing food for their offspring as they develop into maggots and ultimately adult flies.
As those coffins decompose, the remains will gradually sink to the bottom of the grave and merge. The coffin at the bottom will often be the first to collapse and may pull down the remains above it.
Over time, coffins underground will decompose and eventually collapse. Covering the face before closing the casket adds an extra layer of protection and dignity for the deceased's face and can act as a symbolic final goodbye.
"The water in the graves seriously affects the coffins already buried. Coffins are not watertight so when the grave fills with water it also fills the coffin, which decomposes and rots the bodies faster.