It is a common practice to cover the legs as there is swelling in the feet and shoes don't fit. As part of funeral care, the body is dressed and preserved, with the prime focus on the face. Post embalming, bodies are often placed without shoes; hence covering the legs is the way to offer a dignified funeral.
Therefore, covering the lower half of the body is cost-efficient and saves time for the embalmer or the funeral director so that they can pay more attention to ensuring that the deceased look presentable at the top.
The most common reasons to cover a person's legs in a casket are to keep focus on their face and to follow cultural, regional, or religious traditions. Half-couch caskets have split lids that shield the lower half of the body and are common choices for loved ones planning an open-casket service.
One of the most common questions people have about embalming is whether or not organs are removed. The answer is no; all of the organs remain in the body during the embalming process. Instead, the Embalmer makes small incisions in the abdomen and inserts tubes into the body cavity.
A coffin is constructed with SIX sides, a top and a bottom, while a casket is constructed of FOUR sides, a top and a bottom.
It is always easier to light up the upper half of the body and present the face under the best light. By covering the legs, funeral directors save time by spending lesser time lighting the lower portion of the body.
To Protect the Corpse from Being Stolen. Snatching dead bodies was common in many parts of England and Scotland in the early 1800s. Therefore, graves were always dug six feet deep to prevent body snatchers from gaining access to the buried remains.
We don't remove them. You can use what is called an eye cap to put over the flattened eyeball to recreate the natural curvature of the eye. You can also inject tissue builder directly into the eyeball and fill it up. And sometimes, the embalming fluid will fill the eye to normal size.
Simple linen or cloth robes are safe to go into the cremator and are easy for funeral directors to dress the person with. Most crematoriums provide these. You might ask for a funeral gown if you're not sure what to dress the person who's died in.
A body may be different in death to life because:
a mortician or funeral director has changed a body's appearance through clothing, or hair arrangement, or cosmetics. Such “dressing” of the body may be very different to how the person in life would have done it. the body smells different.
If you have an adult with you at the funeral home, it is ok to touch a dead body, and you will not get in trouble. You are naturally curious, and sometimes when you see and touch a dead body it helps you answer your questions. Remember to be gentle and have an adult help you.
OPEN-CASKET FUNERAL ETIQUETTE
If they have an open casket viewing, make sure you follow proper funeral etiquette: DON'T touch the body under any circumstances. Sometimes the casket has a glass to prevent this from happening.
Carrying a coffin with the feet first helps keep it balanced and also means the deceased is being handled with great care. The funeral director will provide instructions on how to take the coffin.
3-5 days after death — the body starts to bloat and blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose. 8-10 days after death — the body turns from green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the abdomen accumulate gas. Several weeks after death — nails and teeth fall out.
People are buried without shoes for practical, environmental, and traditional reasons. Shoes are difficult to place on a dead body due to the effects of rigor mortis, while many materials found in shoes are harmful to the environment. Some religious burial practices also forbid the use of shoes.
As those coffins decompose, the remains will gradually sink to the bottom of the grave and merge. The coffin at the bottom will often be the first to collapse and may pull down the remains above it. Graves are dug by machine, where possible.
Understanding Closed Casket Funeral Protocols
In a closed casket funeral, the body is not able to be seen during the viewing or the funeral service. The casket will be closed the entire time, but that does not mean that people have to distance themselves from the body of their loved one.
It is customary for morticians to remove internal body organs for inspection during the autopsy process. In the time being, the organs are placed inside preservatives. In most cases, they rearrange these organs as neatly as possible inside the deceased's body.
The only parts of the body that are removed before cremation are artificial ones like a medical device or implant with a battery, silicone, pins, radiation pressurization, pacemakers, and large hip, knee, and shoulder replacements along with any external jewelry.
It's through the chest cavity that the doctor removes the tongue and windpipe. After removal, the doctor carefully examines all of the internal organs one at a time. The mortician then carefully cuts the scalp and saws through the skull to examine parts of the brain.
The Embalming Process, Step by Step
Before the embalming begins, the body is washed in a disinfectant solution. Limbs are massaged to relieve the stiffening of the joints and muscles. Any necessary shaving would also take place at this time.
He continued: “Typically what I'll do is I'll actually flush out the bowels with a hose because the last thing you want to have happen is someone to start pooing, and then they continue doing it when you can't control it.”
So, do open caskets smell? Bodies at formal open casket funerals will not smell bad due to having been embalmed shortly after death. However, smells such as perfumes or flowers may be common at an open casket funeral. Bodies with unavoidable smells will typically not be offered an open casket funeral.
Grave subsidence refers to the appearance of graves 'sinking'. This is an entirely natural process caused by loosened soil settling into place. Grave subsidence is a process that Council manages and rectifies, and it should not be cause for concern.
The body takes between ten to fifteen years to decay to a point where you may just find bones, teeth and hair remaining in the casket. There may also be some excess tissue and clothing fibers that withstood the ten years of decay.