I heard this somewhere but can’t remember where. Over here in Europe the spot is eventually replaced after it has turned to dirt. How long varies because you can extend it, but I think it is 10 years. And it will depend on country to country.
I don’t remember the exact process, but iirc they do need to remove the body.
Edit: Forgot to add that it can be extended and it is commom to do that.
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Generally, yes. It’s your final resting place. There may be some exceptions but it is nearly always permanent. We have plenty of room here, we’re not stacked up like old European cities.
At least theoretically, yes. Who knows what’ll happen hundreds of years from now though.
Why wouldn’t it be
Yes. Here once you’re in the ground you’re in that spot until the end of time, at least in theory
The cemetery that my grandfather is buried in is a half acre plot in rural northern Michigan, surrounded by farmland and forest. Last I knew, about half of the plot is still unused. I don’t think Grandpa’s going anywhere.
Is that true? I remember walking around a cemetery at the Jewish Museum in Prague and there were like 10 layers of new soil added throughout the years because they didn’t ever remove the bodies. And I also went to the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora, and looking back at some pictures, the gravestones I can see are dated early-mid 1900s.
Most American cemeteries require vaults and caskets that would take way too long to decompose in any reasonable time so they are generally forever plots.
My parents purchased plots in a cemetery that as far as I can tell are permanent for the foreseeable future. Spots for themselves and 3 extra plots next to them, for myself and my two brothers in Maine. I had the cemetery call me about 2 years ago because someone wanted to use the space which was awkward.
Generally speaking, yes once one buys a cemetery plot, it’s yours in perpetuity.
So, once you loved ones burial lease expires, what do you do with their remains?
There’s a family cemetery in my city. It’s been there for a very long time.
It’s in the middle of a parking lot. There’s a Bed, Bath and Beyond about 110 meters away from it and a McDonald’s less than 80 meters away.
Land is ample in the US, and we generally dislike digging up the deceased unnecessarily. We put them there for a reason when they died, and they requested to be buried there for a reason. It would be exceedingly rude to dig up their bodies and yeet their corpses to the side just so Walmart can use the land.
Even ancient cemeteries that have been lost for ***generations*** to the point that no one remembers them are quite well legally protected.
Also, I really wasn’t joking about the cemetery being in the middle of a parking lot. It’s just hidden quite well.
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.2318076,-85.6405491,258m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
Generally it is supposed to be permanent but sometimes cemeteries get moved if cities redistrict or something. In that case there’s laws about how long the bodies can be unburied and they need to be reinterred as far as I’m aware. There’s also been some instances where old cemeteries that lost their markers get dug up in the course of construction and the choice there is move them or build over them. I’ve seen it go both ways. Though the “build over” example I can think of was a library that made sort of an educational exibit out of it, so there was still an effort being made with regards to “respect for the dead”.
There’s also places in the US that have different burial practices entirely, like in New Orleans they have more of a family mausoleum and your body basically gets roasted for a year (and a day?) in a crypt until it breaks down, then the remainder gets put in a satchel and put in the base of the mausoleum with the rest of your family’s bones. There’s special cemetery rules if a family has more than one person needing the crypt. This is because the area around New Orleans is so swampy that bodies can’t be buried because the coffin basically floats to the surface (happens sometimes to slightly more inland cemeteries when hurricanes come through). So these above ground crypt burials are the way they do it. (At least closer to the coast, I’m not sure what the regional spread is of that burial style offhand).
Mortuary practices are fascinating.
Personally I’m a fan of these new eco burials that are being developed. Someone in California (I think? Definitely west coast) came up with one where you basically get composted and the whole process just sounds very restful and not traumatic like embalming, burial, or cremation. Turn me quietly into dirt and put me back in nature.
But that aligns with my values.
Out of curiosity what’s done with the bones in your country when they get disinterred?
Not in New Orleans. Those above ground graves that the city is known for are actually reusable. When a body is entered into the mausoleum it’s left to rot for a year and a day and then the remains are literally pushed into a hole underneath the structure. Then the next person can be placed in the mausoleum for a year and a day until they’re pushed down there too… The graves usually stay in families but if a family agrees to they can transfer the remains and sell the plot.
I learned this on one of those cemetery tours, it was truly interesting and I recommend it.
While generally true, in the early 1900s two cemeteries in my hometown where no one had been buried in more than 50 years were redeveloped. The few remains left were removed to another cemetery and elementary schools were built on the land. On one of them, the sign for the cemetery is still there.
Yes. It’s usually forever. The US has a lot of land
To me it’s bizarre they move the body after your time is up.
How long are people buried in your European country? It seems like some famous European people are allowed to have their tombs undisturbed even if they aren’t royals (like Newton), so regular folks lose their final resting place after a century or so?
“You moved the headstones but left the bodies!”
Yeah, we have graves that are hundreds of years old. You buy it once and it’s your final resting place. I remember being kind of shocked when I went to Austria and visited a cemetery and my husband explained to me that you basically rent a grave and then they move your bones when you’re done with it.
You son of a bitch! You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn’t you? You son of a bitch, you left the bodies and you only moved the head stones! You only moved the head stones! Why? Why?
not only do we leave the dead where they are, but if that’s ever not possible/there’s a good reason a cemetery needs to be moved- say, the cemetery is so old it’s no longer visible above ground, someone buys the land and starts to build only to discover there are bones in the ground- the bodies will be disinterred and relocated to a new site. aside from in major cities (like new york), we have more than enough space to do it.
More or less, you can legally move cemetarys if they are under freeways, but you have to relocate them.
And this rule extends backwards in time thousands of years.
You aren’t allowed to disturb native American burial grounds either without permits and lots of paperwork, even if the gravesites are 2000 years old.
As always, remember US is not yet 2 and a half centuries old, and how much real estate we have. Now, if we’re still around in a 1000 years and have a population density of, say, India, then this may change.
There’s a law in my city where they won’t even touch anything they may show signs of there being an ancient Indian Burual grounds or even the chance that there may be. No one is allowed to dig in the ground to check, either. There are above ground tests that can be run but if the modern Native American tribes decide there’s enough evidence that something is there, developers can only put landscaping over it but can’t build any structure on top of where a body might be.
10 years really isn’t a long time. A lot of the people who knew that person are probably still alive. They aren’t offended by someone else building over their loved one’s grave? Because I’d be furious.
I’ve always found the European custom of getting rid of graves to be disturbing.
As an Australian this is completely unheard of. Once you’re buried, that’s it. Has been since Colonialism.
“You son of a bitch! You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn’t you? You son of a bitch, you left the bodies and you only moved the headstones! You only moved the headstones! Why? Why?”
[According to this story](https://www.talkdeath.com/cemetery-overcrowding-leading-europe-recycle-burial-plots/), it sounds like the situation is not quite what OP is describing. Yes, many European countries are understandably running out of burial space, and they have been limiting how long one can use a pot. However, it’s been happening long enough that everyone goes in knowing that they’ll be “renting” the burial plot for 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, etc years (in the UK, it’s 75). It’s not a surprise, it’s understood that this is how it has to be. When the graves are exhumed, the remains are moved with proper ceremony to an ossuary or repository for a permanent resting spot. And in many European nations, you are still able to buy a permanent burial plot – it just costs more.
So, perhaps something we can look forward to in a few hundred years, when we’ve had time to catch up to Europe’s graveyard overcrowding.
Yes. We don’t practice grave leasing. You buy that plot of land and are permanently laid to rest.
From what I’ve learned (I could be wrong) in Europe the time frame is about 50ish years in some places, so the bodies can decay and loved ones can still visit.
I believe the major difference is embalming. Almost everyone does it in the US, and it causes bodies to decay incredibly slowly. They can’t just yeet the bodies into another hole, so they stay where they are.
I’m not sure how Europe sees respect as far as dead people, but in the US it is extremely disrespectful and very frowned upon to move someone from their resting place.
I read about the embalming thing somewhere, but I live in the US, so I don’t really know how Europe works, and could be very wrong.