I'm thinking so the coffin has a tighter seal so Air stays out.

So they dont escape. You may notice how few peeps are buried with hammers and crow bars.

They have newer methods of sealing coffins these days folks I believe lol Actually, they use caskets now, rather than coffins. These are all more expensive and ornate than the old fashioned coffins seen in Western TV Shows and movies. They are sealed in a much different manner than the old nailed down coffins.

Coffins really get nailed shut?? I thought the slang expression for cigarettes as "coffin nails" was just a joke.

The whole purpose, whether using nails or not, as well as being 6 feet under ground, is to protect the body from being detected by wild animals looking for food. A scavanger animal, and perhaps a grave robber (as many are buried with precious gems and metals) would be thwarted by such a task and would be even more deterred by a solid seal.

New caskets have a screw mechanism, musch like a car jack, that tightly seals the casket with gaskets against air, water and squiggly things. As well as for security. The mortuary usually secures the casket..

They use screws and a seal . Caskets are not frequently used in England PG. although they are occassionally. They are too large and the cemetaries here are so overcrowded. it is becoming very difficult just to get a plot. Inthe not too distant future i think cremation will become just about mandatory here. Thank god it is not at the moment. Because of the holidays and the crowding in the cemetaries it is two weeks before you can get a funeral date here at the moment.Not well put who wants a date at a funeral. I mean before you can get an internment

This was very hard to search on line because so many of the sites do refer to cigarettes or just the saying "another nail in the coffin". I did find some references to jumping into the grave after the funeral to nail the coffin shut. And I also found references to how some manufacturers will tell you that the high end coffins have seals that will preserve the body (which isn't true). So, my guess is that at least in some cultures, the coffin was nailed shut for this reason. I then found this which I thought was interesting: For the same reason that it was once the custom in Ireland to remove the nails from the coffin immediately before lowering it into the grave (in order that the dead might have no difficulty in freeing themselves on the day of Resurrection), so we find that the shroud or winding sheet was often loosened from the feet and hands, lest its tight folds should prevent a speedy egress at the all important moment. A special costume for burial was provided, and in some cases prepared during life, by the women, so that there might be no doubt about its being ready when required at death. From: http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/fcod/fcod06.htm

Well, considering that even embalmed bodies eventually decay and then turn into mush in a sealed coffin as they decompose (worse than a rotting vegetable), I guess it's probably not a bad idea to seal the coffin. Personally, I'd rather be buried in a plain wooden box so that my body could decompose into the earth naturally. Unfortunately, most cities around here require sealed vaults, so looks like I'm probably STILL going to be stuck in a box, dadgummit!

Would you like zombies all around town?

This from a mortician: "When rigor mortis sets in, the fluid in the body becomes tight and constricts, which, on occasion, causes the body to move involuntarily. When a body is placed in a coffin, the lid is nailed shut to prevent an arm or leg from forcefully opening the casket. Although I imagine it was also done in the past to help deter grave robbers." Today though the coffin is locked rather than nailed shut.

.It probably goes back to the time of grave robbers. I expect that the nails were to discourage them somewhat

No not at all disturbing. A wee bit difficult for the undead, but I guess that could be a point to keep the undead in their box. We no longer use nails (in the western world) we use locks. Locks are used not to just secure the corpse (to prevent it from getting out, eating brains or going to Las Vegas) but to keep the living out. The Nail in the coffin of old held the lid in place (especially useful if the pall-bearers dropped the coffin on the way to the graveyard) and to make it a bit more difficult for grave robbers to 'quietly' rob the grave. Granted digging up a box buried 6 feet under should make a lot of racket to alert somebody, but having to pull the nails that held the lid down, or now days to break they lock - is more likely to alert the living who care to the danger that the living who steal from the dead are up to their old tricks. A mixture of 'need' and 'superstition' most likely keep the practice alive (pardon the pun) of locking the modern casket. Although most grave yards are watched and the modern casket is 'sealed' under a concrete dome or in a concrete vault.

It would be a lot more disturbing if they dropped the coffin and the dead person came flying out. Or if they found out someone had gotten into the coffin and stolen something or done something..... or if someone stole the body or the body wasn't all in one piece or: back before they embalmbed people if they didnt nail the coffine shut and the lid came off and the body had filled up with gasses and blam! exploded all over the place. How would you like to have been a "pall-bearer" back then?

Well we dont want the body falling out, do we!!!!!! LOL

SO ZOMBIES WONNY COME OUT

So it won't come off.

So necrophiliacs can't get in.

So it doesn't get dislodged during the funeral?

Because it was to protect the body from grave robbers. Not that it worked. Grave robbers used to steal the bodies and bring them to the medical schools so that the students could practice on them. For most of the 1800's doctors and students werent allowed to use cadavers for scientific purposes unless if it was a suspicious death that required an autopsy. They still seal them now to protect the many things that people still put in the graves such as jewlery and money because till this day there are still grave robbers but they rob the graves of the valuables not the bodies.

To ensure those nightmares about being locked inside one. I think they do it just in case it ever tipped over at the funeral. Can you imagine????

good question, but I would think it's just in case it was dropped before being buried, the body wouldn't fall out. Most coffins have a locking mechanism now that "seals" it.

I don't think they do that anymore but I would imagine to deter grave robbers. From what I have read robbing graves turned out quite the profit a few hundred yrs ago or so.

morning wood !