You've more than likely heard about cremation, the burning of the dead, and burial, the process of burying the dead under ground, as processes of after-life caretaking. But chances are you don't know the real facts about cremations and burials. But everyone, in my opinion, should know the facts and truths about cremations and burials.
What is a burial anyway? A burial is the disposal of human remains by depositing in the earth, a grave, or a tomb. Religious and social attitudes determine how elaborate the burial should be; for example, "rank", or "classes", may determine whether the body is placed in the shallow trench of a simple burial or in an underground chamber of impressive findings like the earlier kings and leaders of ancient Rome and Egyptian times. Western burials in the 20th century have become fairly standardized. The dead are placed in cloth-lined coffins called caskets, and after ceremonies of eulogies and farewells the casket is lowered into a rectangular hole, usually dug 6 feet deep into the soil, which is then filled up with earth. Beginning in the 19th century, burials increasingly took place in cemeteries, which are special areas set aside as sites for graves. .
A cremation is the practice of reducing a corpse to its essential elements by burning. Cremation now is very different compared to the past. Open fires are not used anymore; instead, the body is placed in a chamber where intense heat dissolves it in approximately two to five hours. Fragments of the bone are left and then ground into a fine dust like material. Then the ashes can be placed in an urn and can be scattered in a garden or some other preferred spot, placed in an urn and kept at home, or taken to a cemetery for burial in a small plot or placement in a columbarium. You must remember though that any body that is not burned will eventually rot overtime in the end. Cremation probably began during the early Stone Age - around 3000 BC - and swept the world by a new idea.