Burying a Loved One's Ashes in a Cemetery: What's Involved?

About Me
Sharing The Burden: Ideas For Funeral Arrangements

Hello, everybody. My name is Lois, and I am in my seventies. It might be hard to believe, but I attended my first funeral when I was sixty-five years old. Since then, I have suffered the loss of quite a few family members and close friends. In fact, I have now organised over a dozen funerals. As someone who had been so blessed, it really came as a shock when I first experienced the trauma of making funeral arrangements whilst still finding time to grieve. It really taught me the importance of having an empathetic and creative funeral director that can help share the burden and honour your loved one appropriately. Hopefully, this blog will help those who, like me, had no idea about the enormity of the task a funeral organiser faces. I trust that the ideas within will prove comforting and inspiring during this difficult time. Thank you.

Burying a Loved One's Ashes in a Cemetery: What's Involved?

29 June 2021
 Categories: , Blog

The cremation rate in Australia is around 69% of all deaths. While the number of Australians deciding to be buried in a casket is on the decline, sometimes cremations lead to burials. What does this involve?

What to Do With the Ashes

There are a number of choices of what to do with the cremated ashes of a loved one. The ashes can simply be displayed at home, allowing you to feel as though your loved one is still with you, in some form. It's also traditional for ashes to be scattered at a special, symbolic location. You can even purchase a keepsake ashes holder, which fits in your pocket, allowing you to literally carry your loved one with you. What about burying ashes?

Creating a Final Resting Place

Sometimes a family might opt to bury cremated ashes. This allows the person to be laid to rest in the same cemetery as other family members and also creates a final resting place that can be visited. Is it just a matter of purchasing a cemetery plot and burying the urn?

A Designated Space

Cemeteries often have a designated space where cremated ashes can be buried. Given the dimensions of an urn containing ashes versus a casket containing a person's remains, a cemetery plot for the burial of ashes is less expensive than a traditional plot. The urn cannot be buried as-is.

Not for Burial

The urn provided to you by the crematory is not intended for burial. While it safely contains your loved one's ashes for display purposes, it will not withstand the pressure of being buried. You will need an urn vault.

Burial Urn Vault

An urn vault resembles a miniature casket. The urn is placed inside the vault, which is then sealed for burial. This preserves your loved one's remains within the urn, meaning that it will not break down and mingle with soil. The urn vault is also strong enough to cope with the pressure of the earth packed on top of it during burial. There are also the additional pressures of foot traffic from people visiting the grave, not to mention the weight of cemetery maintenance vehicles passing overhead. An urn vault prevents the soil from sinking.

It's certainly not mandatory to bury a loved one's ashes, and this could conceivably be decided some time after cremation. If you and other family members opt for burial, you will simply need a cemetery plot designated for ashes, along with an urn vault.