There are many writings and speculation on New Orleans cemeteries and burial customs.  While most of it is very interesting, there is a large portion of it that is simply untrue.  Sometimes this is due to misinformation, folklore or some such other wrongly assumed information.  Sometimes there are factors that play in, but are not the primary reason why New Orleans developed her cemeteries and burial customs such as she did.  My intention is twofold with this article.  I would like to dispel some commonly held myths and educate the uninformed, because the truth of it is very interesting unto itself.   

of the living population.  Another fear was that grave diggers would unleash even more of this on the population by unearthing the remains near the living population.

     St. Louis No. 1 and No.2  is where we first start seeing the above ground burials.  The tombs were brick structures that were plastered and whitewashed (later they were painted in other colors as well).  They were roofed and sealed at the front with a tablet that may or may not have the names of those buried inside engraved in the stone.  They were typically plastered with a limestone mixture and built in various aesthetic styles.  What has become a common explanation for the above ground tombs has been the water table of the city.  Many people claim that if the dead were buried underground and it rained extensively; the already high water table and poor drainage would cause the corpses to rise to the top.  While this may have happened in a very few cases, this is not the primary reason that above ground burial became popular.   One reason for the switch to above ground was that New Orleans’ primarily French and Spanish population followed the styles and fashion of their mother countries even in death.  Above ground burial was very popular in France and Spain at the time.  New Orleans Cemeteries resemble many cemeteries in France today.  It was a question of what was popular and fashionable at the time.  This was not the only reason, but it certainly played a significant role.

     In 1832, there was an especially virulent outbreak of Cholera that left a very large population of the city dead and dying.  The cemeteries were full  and space, even then, was at a premium.  Bodies were left in the streets because there was no room to bury them.  This left the population in fear of being contaminated by the corpses and the city decided to take action.  Cemeteries were still a mixture of above and below ground burials so the city officially outlawed underground burials in Catholic cemeteries.   This may seem an odd action to take as it would seem that the population would be safer with bodies buried in the ground and not in vaults or tombs.  This is where the efficiency of above ground burial comes to light.

        An explanation of the process will help to provide more detail in the efficiency and reasoning behind the 1832 decision.  Typically a tomb consists of two to four vaults closed in by a front sealed tablet.  When the tablet is taken off, what is inside are two or four shelves that are the depth of a coffin.  When someone has died, they simply slide the coffin in and seal the door.  Then when the next burial becomes necessary, as long as it has been one to two years, the next coffin is slid into the second shelf. ( I will explain the “year” policy further along in the article).  If it is a two vault tomb, when the third burial is necessary, they remove the coffin and dispose of it either by dumping it or burning it.  Usually by this point, the remains have been reduced to bones and they are swept into a “caveau” or basin at the bottom of the tomb.  It is by this method that entire families can be buried in one family tomb.  Whereas below ground burials take up much more real estate.   My family has a tomb in St. Louis No. 3 that has 27 family members “buried” in a two vault tomb!  Therefore if several family members died all at once it was practical to use this process of burial.  There was one catch though.  You could not open the tomb for one to two years as a I mentioned above after someone had been buried in it.

     The “Year and a day” rule that is often cited has its origins in Hebrew Law.  This was believed by them to be how long it took the body to decompose and many cultures have copied this Biblical example.  Judeo-Christian tradition further believed that this was an appropriate length of time for mourning a lost loved one.  In a city like New Orleans the year and a day length of time was practical in that the tombs themselves were oven like and in the sub tropic climate the body would decompose quickly.  Therefore, a year and a day would be a safe length of time to wait before further disposing of the remains if necessary.   However, it should be mentioned that if the person had died of a contagious disease, the length of time was extended to two years.  The obvious question one may have at this point would be; if you have to wait a year or two between burials, how does this improve the situation?  If anything, it seems it would make it even more difficult.  Well, the Catholic Church is nothing if not resourceful and found a way to deal with this.  If someone died before the allotted year to two years, the family would simply rent a vault until such time that the family tomb was available.  These vaults basically make up the walls of many of the old cemeteries in New Orleans.  While some people are permanently buried in the vaults, in the past they were often used as rentals.  If you have ever been to New Orleans or plan to visit, you will see these oven vaults walling in many of the cemeteries.

     The tradition of above ground burial is still used in New Orleans today so that even its more recent cemeteries have a majority of above ground tombs.  These are our cities of the dead.  The tombs are laid out much like a city grid is, with named streets and intersections.  The older cemeteries are a little less organized but are quite unique nonetheless.  Modern problems crop up because people no longer use coffins that are easy to dispose of so it has become a more costly and complicated process, but for the most part the basics have remained the same.  On a more lighthearted note,  my grandmother, who will be buried with my grandfather and one of my brothers in the family two vault tomb, was not to be troubled by the problem.  I asked her one day, out of concern over the cost and complications upon her death, what kind of coffin my grandfather had been buried in (he died before I was born) and what kind of coffin she had chosen for herself.  “Coffin!” she exclaimed, “I have no idea….I’m goin dancing tonight!”

     SOURCES:

    Colten, Craig. LSU Publishing, 2006.  An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature.   Page 66 and 67.

     Huston, Elizabeth. Lulu.com publishing, 2006. New Orleans Funerary Grounds. Page viii.

     Nolan, James. Caliber.ucpress.net, 2005. “One Year and a Day: A Recipe for Gumbo and Mourning“.

     Park, Chris C. Routledge, 1994. Sacred Worlds. Page 224.