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Does America pratice Ossaury? I thought of asking this 'cause I was inspired by reading something at the end of a subarticle about american funerals and I want to knew the answer to this question please.(And you may add some extra links if you what to.Thanks.
I have never heard of an ossuary anywhere in the U.S., mostly because there is enough land that cemeteries do not normally need to reclaim and re-use graves. However, some of the "above-ground tombs" of New Orleans, sized for one body at a time, are often emptied out and re-used by the family that owns it. Bones are sometimes collected and deposited in a central location, but not like the European ossuaries. Sorry, I don't have any links, but I'm told this happens in places like Metairie Cemetery and the three Saint Louis Cemeteries. Boneyard90 (talk) 14:28, 13 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In popular culture
I personally think this article deserves something along these lines.... although I don't know that the ossuary concept really "exists" in popular culture. Growing up, I always associated this with rather "heathen" or satanic practices.... it is ironic that the most famous ossuaries appear to be Roman Catholic! Imagery of walls of bones or skeletons have been used (or something similar) in horror movies, I'm sure. Root4(one) 18:21, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
An ossuary is basically a mass grave. It was primarily an Old World practice, although there are a number of sites from both World Wars that must be classified as an ossuary. With the exception of a few serial killers, America does not engage in the practice of using ossuaries.Blazedog5051 (talk) 00:53, 19 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose, agree with the others. Because of the strong negative connotation of charnel house, I do not believe it should be merged with ossuary.70.197.3.166 (talk) 14:42, 19 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose merge: Charnel houses were more often used as temporary storage for remains until the flesh was gone from the skeleton (often a religious practice to ensure they would be able to be reincarnated and often for space saving reasons see bundle burials) where as an Ossuary is a place were more than one skeleton would be purposely buried together to prevent the individuals from being separated. In some cases there may be multiple burials of these individuals with like body parts buried together. (pelvis bones with pelvis bones; arms and legs with arms and legs; etc)I would be for the editing of each of these articles however since they seem to be similar due to their inaccuracies.
Oppose merge: A charnel house is a location where human remains are deposited to decay into skeleton. They may or may not be "final" resting places, and may or may not house just skeletons. An ossuary is a place where human remains that have already been reduced to skeleton(either by natural decay or some other process) are stored as a "final" resting place.
