Why are caskets buried 6 feet into the ground?

Question

The bible says the number for man is 6. Is that a coincidence? how did they come up with that number?

Answer 1

~Ever seen a cemetery in New Orleans? Or the Roman catacombs? Or a native American burial ground? Or a mausoleum? By the way, is it 6 feet to the top of the casket, to the bottom, or to the top or bottom of the stiff.

Answer 2

In Australia the 6 feet under rule means that there has to be 6 feet of dirt on top of the casket. It is not a 6 foot hole... rather it is about 8-9 feet so there is six feet on top.

I am not sure of the origin of the 6 foot rule but imagine that it has plenty to do with superstition as well as natural events such as floods, earth quakes, land slides etc.

Some interesting details about burials in days gone by:
in some parts of the world a strong was placed from inside the coffin to a small bell above ground. So if a person was buried alive they could ring the bell and be rescued.

If a person was thought to be a witch, devil, or other evil being they were buried face down so that then they tried to dig their way out they would only dig themselves deeper.

Answer 3

Caskets typically aren't buried "six feet under" anymore. Mainly due to the advance in casket and vault materials over the years. They were probably buried that deep originally to keep animals, the elements, etc. away from the body for as long as possible since the interred was in a wooden coffin.

Answer 4

I would figure that it is the number of feet underground where any kind of natural occurance such as rain or any kind of natural disaster should not disturb the casket.

I'm not religious, nor do I believe anything found in the Bible. I would figure that everything in the Bible is either dramatically interpreted to mean pretty much anything. Many people don't understand that the Bible was interpreted from through a good 5 languages before reaching English, yet many to this day interpret it by literal meaning.

Answer 5

rears ago they were buried that deep because the casket was what we call today a rough box with no cement volts but when it was mandatory for the caskets to be put in vaults they are buried 4 ft in the ground and most volts are guaranteed to last 50 yr they reason for this is to slow the detraction of the deceased

Answer 6

To reduce the amount of evaporation of rotting flesh and to keep wild animals from unearthing them for food. "The concept of a burial being six feet deep goes back to a time in our history when people were not buried in concrete, metal or fiberglass outer containers and sometimes not even in caskets. This depth was thought deep enough to prevent animals from digging up the grave. "

Answer 7

This answer is instantly out of Ask!Yahoo dated Friday August 23, 2002: followers of the HBO sequence, and something else people, have the finished Plague of 1665 in London to thank for the expression "6 ft less than." This tragic recurrence of the Bubonic Plague (which first decimated Europe in the 14th century) become the impetus for the regulation requiring useless bodies to be buried a minimum of 6 ft less than floor. the finished cemetery web site, city of the Silent, addresses the matter on its web page of usually requested questions. English regulation once required a burial intensity of 6 ft to verify the corpse did not spread the plague to the living. for sure, this degree become ineffective as fleas contaminated with the plague probably spread the ailment. also, few diseases are shrunk from contact with useless bodies. an same web site provides a marginally gruesome description of early cemeteries as being "affected through bones and bits of charnel." besides, shallow graves allowed scavengers (probably both human and animal) to surely dig up the continues to be -- which makes a 6-foot-deep burial look like a respectable concept. A BBC web site about the plague of 1665 summarizes the regulations set through the Lord Mayor of London to reduce the outbreak. They contain the mandate that each and each one graves should be a minimum of 6 ft deep. author Daniel Defoe also charges the Lord Mayor's regulations in his artwork, A mag of the Plague 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. Defoe notes that the Lord Mayor's orders were printed in June 1665. The accuracy of Defoe's account is suspect because Defoe become in uncomplicated phrases 5 years previous on the time of the plague. besides the undeniable fact that, different internet sites reprint very similar expenditures of the Lord Mayor's regulations. even if if Defoe become incorrect, his writing would have helped popularize the conception of burial 6 ft down. at the same time as "6 ft less than" is instantly ahead slang for "useless and buried," many corpses are not any more buried at that intensity. British cemetery regulation replaced sometime after 1665, and now burial criteria are a lot looser. some U.ok. cities and counties in uncomplicated phrases require that a coffin be lined with a minimum 30 inches of soil. Many U.S. states do not look to have a intensity requirement for burials. In California, besides the undeniable fact that, caskets should be lined through a minimum of 18 inches of dirt and turf. yet someway "one-and-a-0.5 ft less than" would not sound fairly as catchy as "six ft less than."

Answer 8

I heard that in superstitious times people wanted corpses not to be able to get out, so only the sole would rise to Heaven. At the time a 6 foot person was almost unheard of, and grave diggers used ladders to get out.

I guess also on a practical note equally no one could dig down that far without a ladder, stopping grave robbing and the spread of whatever disease killed the poor person.

Answer 9

I have no idea why they are burried 6 feet under, however caskets were used as a response to the bubonic plague in Europe. The dead were put in wooden boxes to seal off the bad vibes.

Answer 10

The depth of a burial ground I think is not based on some superstition, it is based on practical factors - the most important being odour from the burided body should not hit the earth surface easily. It is also to ensure that no one is able to, especially animals with a strong sense of smell, reach the body!