They also send a hearse to carry the body to the funeral home or mortuary. Burial in a casket is the most common method of disposing of remains in this country, although entombments also occur. Cremation, which is the burning of a body in a special furnace, is increasingly selected. Even when remains are cremated, the ashes are often placed in an urn and buried. Funeral directors usually stock a selection of caskets and urns for families to purchase.
Directors arrange the details and handle the logistics of funerals.
They prepare obituary notices and have them placed in newspapers, arrange for pallbearers and clergy, schedule with the cemetery the opening and closing of a grave, decorate and prepare the sites of all services, and provide for the transportation of the remains, mourners, and flowers between sites. Funeral services may take place in the home, a house of worship, or the funeral home and at the grave site or crematory. Services may be nonreligious, but often they reflect the religion of the family, so funeral directors must be familiar with the funeral and burial customs of many faiths, ethnic groups, and fraternal organizations. For example, members of some religions seldom have the bodies of the deceased embalmed or cremated. Most funeral directors are also trained, licensed, and practicing embalmers.