Why do people get buried 6 feet under

The six feet under rule for burial may have come from a plague in London in In general, most graves dug today are not 6 feet deep. The concept of being buried facing east to represent meeting the new day or the next life is also evident in Christianity and Christian burials. This is because they believe in the second coming of Christ and scripture teaches that he will come from the east.

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. The idea was to make it easier on the eye for the families of the deceased.

As all the graves looked the same they could focus on the graves of their loved ones and not be distracted by other larger and elaborate ones. Each grave would get a small flat marker, which was mostly placed at the feet. Two people typically a husband and wife pre-purchase a cemetery space together, and their caskets are placed on top of one another when they pass.

The couple then shares a single marker that features both names. The Bible neither favors nor forbids the process of cremation. Nevertheless, many Christians believe that their bodies would be ineligible for resurrection if they are cremated.

This argument, though, is refuted by others on the basis of the fact that the body still decomposes over time after burial. Generally speaking, when you purchase a cemetery plot, it does not expire , and it will always be yours. Maggots are fly larvae and unless you had them living within you and the mortician just skimped out on his job they will never get into a coffin.

Plus newer coffins are treated and airtight so that nothing else will get in for years to come. If the ground is light, dry soil, decomposition is quicker.

Generally speaking, a body takes 10 or 15 years to decompose to a skeleton. Some of the old Victorian graves hold families of up to eight people.

As those coffins decompose, the remains will gradually sink to the bottom of the grave and merge. New York City, though, requires at least 3 feet between the ground surface and the top of a casket or coffin. If the body is in a concrete vault, it needs to be just two feet below ground. In neighboring Pennsylvania, the top of a vault or grave liner has to be at least 1. When there is no vault or grave liner, there must be 2 feet between the top of the casket and the surface. Two feet is also the rule for "green" or natural burials , where there is no coffin.

There are no nationwide rules for the depth of gravesites in the United States. Instead, each state has its own rules. Sometimes states leave the matter up to cities, local municipalities, or even cemeteries. For the most part, graves dug today are not 6 feet deep.

For single gravesites, roughly 4 feet deep is closer to the norm. An exception is double- or even triple-depth plots.

In these plots, caskets are "stacked" vertically in the same gravesite. A single grave in one of these plots might be 7 to 12 feet deep. It's not clear where the "6 feet under" idea came from. It might have been for the safety of the gravedigger, or to make grave digging easier. People may have also believed it would keep bodies from being disturbed or prevent the spread of disease.

In the United States, there are no nationwide rules outlining how deep graves should be. States usually have their own rules. Generally speaking, most graves dug today are only about 4 feet deep. They most often are not. The term "6 feet under" is a euphemism for being dead and buried. The term may date back to the London Plague of , when the Lord Mayor of London ordered that all "graves shall be at least 6-foot deep" under the presumption that doing so would prevent the spread of disease.

In the United States, the laws regulating the depth of graves vary by state. In Texas, for example, graves must be deep enough so that the coffin is covered by two feet of soil. In New York, there must be at least three feet of soil. Many other states only require 18 inches of soil and sometimes less. The traditional term is a "gravedigger," although the title is considered by many to be ghoulish. Today, these cemetery workers are often referred to as burial ground custodians.

Technically, there are only three U. A few other states will only allow home burial if a funeral director is involved. The majority of states have no law forbidding home burial, but speak with your local authorities including the health department and local funeral commission to ensure you follow state laws governing all burials. Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life.

City of London, England, Court of Aldermen. Orders conceived and published by the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London concerning the infection of the plague. University of Oxford Press. Word Health Organization. Risks posed by dead bodies after disasters. Published February 6, University of Oxford. Updated April 18, Cemetery FAQ's. Depth of graves. Health and Safety Code: Chapter Miscellaneous provisions relating to cemeteries.

Modern American burial laws vary from state to state, though many states simply require a minimum of 18 inches of soil on top of the casket or burial vault or two feet of soil if the body is not enclosed in anything. Given an inch dirt buffer and the height of the average casket which appears to be approximately 30 inches , a grave as shallow as four feet would be fine.

A typical modern burial involves a body pumped full of chemical preservatives sealed inside a sturdy metal casket, which is itself sealed inside a steel or cement burial vault. Without any protection, and subjected to a few years of soil erosion, the bones of the dearly departed could inconveniently and unexpectedly surface or get too close to the living, scaring people and acting as disease vectors.