FAQ: GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Casket/Coffin
A box or chest for burying human remains.

Cemetery Property
A grave, crypt, or niche.

Cemetery Services
Opening and closing graves, crypts, or niches; vaults; setting markers; and long-term maintenance of cemetery grounds and facilities.

Columbarium
A structure with niches (small spaces) for placement of cremated remains in urns or other approved containers. It may be outdoors or part of a mausoleum.

Cremation
Exposing human 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 casketed human remains or cremated remains in an urn.

Disposition
The placement of whole human remains or cremated remains in their final resting place. A Permit for Disposition must be filed with the local registrar before disposition can take place.

Endowment Care Fund
Moneys collected from cemetery property purchasers and placed in trust for the maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery. The state monitors the fund and establishes the minimum amount that must be collected; however, the cemetery is permitted to collect more than the minimum to build the fund. Only the income earned by such funds may be used for the care, maintenance, and embellishment 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 that help to commemorate a life, 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.

Grave
A space in the ground in a cemetery for the burial of casketed human remains or cremated remains in an urn.

Graveside Service
A service to commemorate the deceased held at the cemetery prior to burial.

Interment
Burial in the ground, inurnment, or entombment.

Inurnment
The placing of cremated remains into a niche.

Mausoleum
A building in which human remains are buried (entombed).

Memorial Service
A ceremony commemorating the deceased without the body present.

Niche
A space in a columbarium, mausoleum, or niche wall to hold an urn.

Outer Burial Container
An outer burial container (vault) completely encloses the casket and minimizeground settling.

Urn
A container to hold cremated human remains. It can be placed in a columbarium or mausoleum or it can be buried in the ground.

Vault
An outer burial container that completely encloses a casket.