Funeral Planning
Glossery of Terms:
Alternative Container: An unfinished wood box or
other non-metal receptacle
without ornamentation, often
made of fiberboard, pressed
wood or composition materials,
and generally lower in cost
than caskets.
Casket/Coffin: A box or chest for burying
remains.
Cemetery Property: A grave, crypt or niche.
Cemetery Services: Opening and closing graves,
crypts or niches; setting grave
liners and vaults; setting
markers; and long-term maintenance
of cemetery grounds
and facilities.
Columbarium: A structure with niches (small
spaces) for placing cremated
remains in urns or other approved
containers. It may be
outdoors or part of a mausoleum.
Cremation: Exposing remains and the
container encasing them to
extreme heat and flame and
processing the resulting bone
fragments to a uniform size
and consistency.
Crypt: A space in a mausoleum or
other building to hold cremated
or whole remains.
Disposition: The placement of cremated or
whole remains in their final
resting place.
Endowment Care Fund: Money collected from cemetery
property purchasers and
placed in trust for the maintenance
and upkeep of the cemetery.
Entombment: Burial in a mausoleum.
Funeral Ceremony A service commemorating the
deceased, with the body
present.
Funeral Services: Services provided by a funeral
director and staff, which may
include consulting with the
family on funeral planning;
transportation, shelter, refrigeration
and embalming of
remains; preparing and filing
notices; obtaining authorizations
and permits; and coordinating
with the cemetery,
crematory or other third parties.
Funeral Planning Society: See Memorial Society.
Grave: A space in the ground in a
cemetery for the burial of
remains.
Grave Liner or A concrete: cover that fits over
a casket in a grave. Some
liners cover tops and sides of
the casket. Others, referred to
as vaults, completely enclose
the casket. Grave liners minimize
ground settling.
Graveside Service: A service to commemorate the
deceased held at the cemetery
before burial.
Interment: Burial in the ground,
inurnment or entombment.
Inurnment: The placing of cremated remains
in an urn.
Mausoleum: A building in which remains
are buried or entombed.
Memorial Service: A ceremony commemorating
the deceased, without the body
present.
Memorial Society: An organization that provides
information about funerals and
disposition, but is not part of
the state-regulated funeral
industry.
Niche: A space in a columbarium,
mausoleum or niche wall to
hold an urn.
Urn: A container to hold cremated
remains. It can be placed in a
columbarium or mausoleum, or
buried in the ground.
Vault: A grave liner that completely
encloses a casket.
Courtesy of the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Cemetery and Funeral Bureau
Copyright © 1995 - 2004 Regina Pickett Garson
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