Years ago there was a TV show that we used to watch called “Six Feet Under.” And there’s always the line in some cheesy movie that goes like: “One more move, and I’ll put you six feet under.” No matter if the phrase is spouted by a cowboy in a back hat or a mobster wearing pinstripes, everyone knows that six feet under represents the depth where coffins reside after burial. In fact it’s widely believed that the standard graveyard procedure is to put a coffin six feet under. But, actually, that’s not the case.
The final resting place of someone in a coffin varies depending on the site of the burial. The depths can range from 18 inches to 12 feet. There is no rule or regulation that decrees that a person must be put to rest exactly six feet below ground level. I guess if you think about it, that makes sense. Digging a six-foot grave someplace like New Orleans, that is below sea level, might get pretty soggy.
Most grave depths are determined by local, state, or national governments. In New Orleans, most of its dead are placed above ground in crypts. In that area, gravesite in the ground are almost always less than two feet deep — and even then, occasionally the coffin will pop out of the ground.
The California requirement is a mere 18 inches. In Quebec, Canada, the law states that coffins “shall be deposited in a grave and covered with at least one meter of earth.” New South Wales in Australia, calls for 900 millimeters (slightly less than three feet.)
And the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management in London says that “no body shall be buried in such a manner that any part of the coffin is less than three feet below the level of any ground adjoining the grave.”
So — if burial depths vary from place to place, how did the phrase “six feet under” come to life? Historians believe it originated in England. London’s Great Plague of 1665 killed 75,000 to 100,00 people. In the book, A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe, the author writes that the city’s lord mayor issued an edict that all graves had to be dug six feet deep to limit the spread of the plague outbreak.
But today we don’t have a uniform burial depth — I doubt that it really matters — but I’m glad six feet under became popular…. can you imagine a good cowboy or gangster movie without that line?
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