"Did You Know?....
...that most wood caskets do not seal? If you want one that seals, you have to specify that when picking or ordering one.
...that casket come in a huge variety of materials? They range from hard cloth covered compressed cardboard, to particle-board, fiber-board, pine, oak, maple, ash, mohogany, etc. Then there's 16, 18 & 20 gauge staineless steel caskets. Copper & bronze caskets can go as high as 48 gauge. There's also casket made from manufactured stone. There used to be cast iron caskets w/ glass viewing window.
...that in the old days, they would pack the funeral parlor (or the family's home if the wake was held there) with tons of flowers as a way of masking the odor of a decaying corpse? Embalming wasn't really perfested until the 20th century, and caskets were often placed on a cooling board, which resembled a tub or crate of ice under the body to slow down the decaying process.
...that around that late 1800's & early 1900's, the term "Undertaker" was forced to change to funeral home (or parlor) in order to sound less morbid?
...that in the 1800's undertakers were the first to come up with diet plans? This came because they were tired of making oversized coffins for obese people.
...that embalming fluid contains a redish-pink dye coloring? Do you know why? It does nothing for the embalming process, right? ? ? That's because after death, your skin naturally loses it's color and turns white and sometimes gray, and the dye helps bring it back.
...that embalming really wasn'e perfected until the Civil War? It was used as a way to preserve the body so they could ship it back to the family for the funeral back home.
...that in the 1700's and 1800's, some people were mistaken for dead and actually buried alive because either their heartbeats were so slow or so faint that they couldn't find a pulse? Stethascopes weren't invented until the mid 1800's and at first, they weren't that strong.
...why wakes are held 3 to 5 days after the person has died. This tradition started as a way to make sure to not mistake them for dead, just in case they were still alive. They would give them a few days to see if they (A) wake up, or (B) show signs of decomposition.
...that ice fishing tip-ups were designed from an idea from a special signal device that were rigged from the coffin to the grounds suface in case someone was buried alive? It was a hollow pole with a rope that led from the casket to a fald or bell at the graveside, so that if the person was buried alive, they could pull the rope and signal someone that they were still alive.
...that when embalming was first invented, almsot everyone thought it was a blessing? Mainly because it would eliminate accidental mistaken deaths. Some said that "If you weren't dead BEFORE embalming, you sure were afterwards!"
...that before embalming, people were horrified of being mistaken for dead and buried alive? Some would request horrible things done as a test to make sure. Some people went as far as to request a knife or stake in the heart, cutting off a finger and even decapitation.
...that allot of ideas from horror movies were taken from real cases of live burials? For example; Dracula's stake-through-the-heart bit. This was actually done in some cases as a way to 1 - ensure that they were really dead & not bury them alive. And 2 - Some religions actually insisted on it because some believed it would keep them in the ground & prevent them from becoming the undead or a zombie.
...that even autopsies performed today, when internal organs and/or the brain is removed for inspection or analysis, that sometimes they are not put back in? They sometimes use a filler so the chest doesn't appear colapsed. And if the organs are put back in, somet-imes they are not put back in their original place. Some M.E.s and other employees in the field will just dump them back in and sew them back up. (Not everyone does this. So don't all you M.E.s and morticians email me if you're offended by this. Two of my own grandfathers were morticians, and I have great respect for the funeral industry.)
...that from the 1500's to the early 1900's, there was a shortage of cadavers for medical studies? Some professors would hire transients or other low-lifes to steal fresh bodies from cemeteries in order to study and practice embalming and autopsy procedures.
...that since the 1970's, embalming procedures and techniques haven't changed much at all? Only the tools and chemicals used have/
...that unlike the movies, caskets are NOT just placed in the ground by themselves? They are placed in a 6-8 inch concrete vault and sealed with a heavy concrete lid . Before vaults, wooden caskets wood rot and weaken from the weight of the damp earth (dirt) and colapse. This proved helpful with exhumation, also. The vaults protected the caskets, so if a body needed to be exhumed for DNA analysis, the body was gauranteed to be there.
...that when you buy chothes from a funeral home, that most of them have no backs? If you could roll the body to it side, they would be nude in the back. They have ties or snaps to hold the garment on and in place. Because of the initial stiffness of the body, it is spmetimes hard to dress them in "normal" clothes. Even if you provide clothes for your loved one, unfortunately, the backs might need to be cut and removed in order to dress the deceased.
...that unless you provide socks and shoes to the funeral home, you most likely will be buries barefoot? It's true, although alot of funeral homes have burial footwaer for you to buy if you wish. |
