When you’re preplanning your funeral and deciding between burial and cremation , you may want to consider the various disposition options for burial and cremation.
Options for burying the body
Casket – You can choose between wood (hard wood, soft wood, or plywood with a cloth cover), metal (steel, copper or bronze), fiberglass, or eco-friendly options such as bamboo, as well as different materials and colours to line the casket.
Plot – You can purchase a single plot, a double plot or a group of plots so several family members may be buried together.
Location – You can be buried under the ground, or above the ground in a mausoleum. In this case, the casket is stored in a climate-controlled building.
Options for disposition of cremated remains
You can bury cremated remains in an urn in the ground, either in its own urn plot, a shared plot for two urns, or in a combined plot with a casket.
If someone chooses to bury cremated remains on their own property, it’s important to remember that it’s there. You wouldn’t want someone to unearth the urn by accident while doing landscaping work in the backyard.
Similar to a mausoleum where you can store a body above ground, cremated remains can be housed in a niche in the wall of a columbarium. Costs will vary based on whether you have a single space or a double space for two people, and which level of the structure you choose, i.e., ground level, eye level or penthouse.
To store cremated remains, some people purchase an urn from the funeral service establishment, and others use their own container, especially when it’s something meaningful to the person who has died. Here at our funeral home alternative in Barrie, Ontario, we’ve seen many interesting and creative choices, including alcohol bottles, travel mementos, and even a fishing tackle box!
Cremated remains may be scattered, either in a designated area of a cemetery, on private property (if you have permission), or on Crown-owned land or water.
While you may want to choose a personally-meaningful location, one benefit of having the remains scattered at a cemetery is that the person’s name is then registered in the records of that cemetery. This isn’t the case if you were to scatter the remains anywhere else. There would be no official record of where the person was laid to rest.
For more information about burial and cremation options and regulations in Ontario, Canada, please see the Consumer Information Guide to Funeral, Burials and Cremation Services at http://www.funeralboard.com/PublicUploads/223362Cons%20GuideENG.pdf.
