Above ground family tombs in Louisiana typically held up to 85 family members. How? When a fami
Above ground family tombs in Louisiana typically held up to 85 family members. How? When a family member passed they would be interred in the tomb in a wooden casket. They were kept there for one year and one day (the one day due to it being taboo to disturb someone exactly one year after their funeral) and exhumed. The whole purpose for this is to ensure the body went through a New Orleans summer where the tombs can reach 350 degrees easily in the summer heat. When the casket was removed they would either burn the casket or dispose of it after removing the body, taking the remains which have essentially been cremated (though in a Catholic friendly way since fire never touches the body) and placing them in the back of the tomb - mixing them with the remains of the family members who came before. -- source link
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