Burial Traditions
The concept of “traditional” burial has evolved over time. Earlier in America’s history, the family cared for the body after death, wrapped it in a shroud or placed it in simple wooden coffin, and buried it at home or in a nearby cemetery. Today, for most Americans, it is considered “traditional” to use a funeral home, embalm the body, and bury it in a casket and vault in a public cemetery. But few of these traditional elements are required by law, and families do have a wide range of choices.
Below you will find information about many available options. PLEASE NOTE: Vendor information here does not imply nor represent an endorsement by the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts. We provide the contacts to facilitate exploration of choices, and encourage consumers to do comparison shopping. Please inform us of any omissions, errors, or needed updates in the entries here. Thanks!
Casket Options
The Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule requires that funeral homes permit the consumer to purchase a casket from a separate source without imposing any additional charge for doing so. As always, we recommend comparison shopping before making a purchase. Be sure that the retail outlet is, in fact, charging less than the funeral home would charge for a comparable item. For more detail about rights re 3rd-party caskets, read this article from FCA.
Florence Casket Co., Florence, MA., manufactures environmentally friendly caskets. 413-584-4244. website.
Berkshire Gravesite Services, Pittsfield, MA. Matthew Kudlate, owner. 413-347-6766, Facebook, or email berkshiregravesiteservices [at] gmail [dot] com. “In stock caskets will be delivered within 24 hours to any funeral home in Berkshire County.” Deliveries to other locations can be negotiated (added fee). Alternative containers appropriate for cremation are also available.
Mourning Dove Studios, Arlington, MA. Ruth Faas. Massachusetts products for natural burial, including woven fiber caskets and cardboard caskets.
Willow caskets woven by Mary Fraser Lauren can be acquired from Fraserbaskets.com.
Biodegradable cardboard caskets are also available in western Massachusetts via Green Burial Massachusetts.
There are online vendors and some discount outlets, such as Costco, that offer caskets for sale. See also Caskets by Design or Titan Casket.
Cemeteries
There are many types of cemeteries in Massachusetts: municipal, private, religious, or historic. Rules and regulations, and costs of plots, vary depending on the ownership of the cemetery and policies made by its governing body, frequently a board of cemetery commissioners.
When you buy a grave, you haven’t actually bought a piece of property. You’ve bought the right to be buried in a particular space. In addition to the cost of the grave, the cemetery will charge an opening and closing fee at the time of burial. This covers the cost to dig the grave and fill it in again, or to entomb a casket or urn in a mausoleum or columbarium. The rate may vary according to the size of grave, and time of day, week or year. We recommend this informative page on the national FCA website: Guide to Cemetery Purchases or their informative pamphlet (which you can download): Consumer’s Guide to Cemetery Purchases and this Federal Trade Commission webpage: Buying a Cemetery Site.
We do not have a complete directory of all active cemeteries in western Massachusetts, but a major project started in 2018 in conjunction with Green Burial Massachusetts to survey ALL active cemeteries in MA and indicate which ones offer green burial. (More volunteers welcome!) The results are being posted online in GBM’s Searchable database of MA Cemeteries.
For historic and genealogical purposes, FindaGrave.com can be useful. They have information for “over 400,000 cemeteries in over 200 different countries.” If you select “Cemetery Lookup” and choose our state and one of our counties (without typing anything in the name field), you can retrieve a very long list of local cemeteries, e.g., over 200 in Hampden county, but with no information about which ones might still sell plots.
More useful is a search for cemeteries via Funerals360.com. You can enter a zip code or city name, and retrieve Search Results with an interactive Map locating cemeteries nearby. Try their vendor search form and select “Cemetery” as type of vendor.
Shrouds
Shrouding is an ancient rite that is returning to wider practice as we reconsider options for after-death care.
A demonstration of shrouding, with dolls illustrating different styles, was presented by Dina Stander at our 2019 Annual Meeting and Program, “Caskets and Coffins and Shrouds, Oh My!”
Fabrics that have had special meaning for the loved one can be used for a shroud, or incorporated into a custom-made shroud. Consider a family quilt or a favorite tablecloth or bedspread.
For more information see Last Dance Shrouds by Dina Stander, Shutesbury, MA. 413-237-1300
Ruth Faas of Mourning Dove Studios, Arlington, MA, may also have some shrouds.
Do-It-Yourself Options
Another option is to build your own casket.
We offered a Coffin Building Workshop in 2019. FCAWM Board member Joan Pillsbury organized this workshop in conjunction with Green Burial Massachusetts and enjoyed assembling her own pine box.
“My coffin is beautiful.
I plan to use it as a bookcase until time of need,” says Joan.
Let us know if you’d like to participate in such workshops in the future.
For inspiration (and entertainment) watch this 4-minute video of The Coffin Club (New Zealand).
Ernest Morgan’s book Dealing Creatively with Death: A Manual of Death Education and Simple Burial (14th edition, revised and updated, Upper Access Publishing, 2001) includes handy instructions in Appendix 5 for building plywood Burial Boxes of various sizes. The designs are simple and the instructions clear and encouraging: “Anyone modestly experienced with tools can assemble the boxes.”