There are a few common types of services in North America. A traditional funeral service consists of a viewing (sometimes referred to as a visitation), a funeral service at the church of the deceased (or at the funeral home chapel), and a graveside committal service. Direct cremation consists of the funeral home receiving the remains of the deceased, filing the necessary paperwork (according to state/provincial laws), and completing the cremation process. Direct/immediate burial is when the family of the deceased forgoes a funeral ceremony and solely wishes their loved one to be buried in a timely manner. Forwarding or receiving of remains to or from another mortuary consists of preparing the body for shipment in a casket strapped into an airtray or a combination unit. This is used when the cemetery in which the deceased is to be buried lies in another state or country.

When the deceased are brought to the funeral home, they are sometimes embalmed to delay decomposition. The typical embalming procedure involves replacement of the blood of the decedent with a mixture of preservative chemicals and dyes, aspiration of the internal organs, and the setting of the person’s features. The use of makeup to make a person look more lifelike is often employed. If the deceased was disfigured from an accident or illness, the embalmer can sometimes utilize restorative techniques to make the body presentable for an open casket service. If the embalmer is unable to do so, or if the family requests otherwise, the funeral home can perform a closed casket service.

The funeral home often sets aside one or more large areas for families to gather at a visitation. This area may contain a space to display the deceased in their casket for visitors to pay their respects. Funeral services and memorial services may also take place at the funeral home. Many funeral homes also offer prearrangement services for those who wish to prepare their own funeral services before death.

Several large multi-national corporations in this service field have received exposure from high profile litigation. The Loewen Group, Inc., received a particularly large jury verdict in the State of Mississippi which was later found to be in error as the allegations against Loewen Group proved false. The Canadian based company then brought suit against the United States alleging violations under N.A.F.T.A.. Houston based Service Corporation International has also had their share of legal troubles with the operations of both their funeral home and cemetery operations.

With the advent of many people favoring cremation in North America, there has been a new classification of a funeral establishment that has started to become popular, these are classified as a "Transfer Service", they can provide the basic needs to have someone either cremated or buried without a funeral service. Transfer services are limited as to what they can offer the public as they do not have licenses issued for preparation embalming nor can they hold or offer services for a visitation with the remains present, however the public likes this and many of these operations in North America are becoming more and more popular.

Cremation is the process of reducing dead bodies to basic chemical compounds in the form of gases and bone fragments. This is accomplished through burning—high temperatures and vaporization. Cremation may serve as a funeral or postfuneral rite that is an alternative to the interment of an intact body in a casket. Cremated remains, which are not a health risk, may be buried or immured in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be legally retained by relatives or dispersed in a variety of ways and locations.

In many countries cremation is usually done in a crematory (or crematorium), but others may prefer different methods. An example is the common practice of open-air cremation in India.

Public cremation in Kathmandu, Nepal

The cremation occurs in a crematory (or crematorium), consisting of one or more cremator furnaces or cremation retorts for the ashes. A cremator is an industrial furnace capable of generating temperatures of 870–980 °C (1,598–1,796 Ã‚°F) to ensure disintegration of the corpse. A crematorium may be part of chapel or a funeral home, or part of an independent facility or a service offered by a cemetery.

Assumption Catholic Cemetery and Crematory in Mississauga, Ontario, with chimney visible

Modern cremator fuels include natural gas and propane. However, coal and coke were used until the early 1960s.

Modern cremators have adjustable control systems that monitor the furnace during cremation. These systems automatically monitor the interior to tell when the cremation process is complete, after which the furnace shuts down automatically. The time required for cremation thus varies from body to body, and in modern furnaces may be as fast as one hour per 45 kilograms (99 lb) of body weight.

A cremation furnace is not designed to cremate more than one body at a time, something that is illegal in many countries, including the U.S. Exceptions are sometimes made in extreme cases, such as of a deceased mother and her still-born child or still-born twins, but in these cases the mother and child must be placed in the same cremation container.

The chamber where the body is placed is called the retort and is lined with heat-resistant refractory bricks. The coffin or container is inserted (charged) into the retort as quickly as possible to avoid heat loss through the top-opening door. The container may be mounted on a charger (motorized trolley) that can quickly insert the container or on a fixed or movable hopper that allows the container to slide into the cremator.

Burning body in a crematory

Bone-picking ceremony at a Japanese funeral

In a Japanese funeral and in Taiwan, the bones are not pulverized unless requested beforehand. When not pulverized the bones are collected by the family and stored as one might do with ashes.

The appearance of cremated remains after grinding is one of the reasons they are called ashes, although a non-technical term sometimes used is "cremains", a portmanteau of "cremated" and "remains". (The Cremation Association of North America prefers that the word "cremains" not be used for referring to "human cremated remains." The reason given is that "cremains" is thought to have less connection with the deceased, whereas a loved one’s "cremated remains" has a more identifiable human connection.)

After final grinding, the ashes are placed in a container, which can be anything from a simple cardboard box to a decorative urn. The default container used by most crematoriums, when nothing more expensive has been selected, is almost always a hinged snap-locking box of plastic.

An unavoidable consequence of cremation is that a tiny residue of bodily remains is left in the chamber after cremation and mixes with subsequent cremations.

A relic found amid the ashes of Chan Kusalo (the Buddhist Patriarch of Northern Thailand) is placed inside a chedi shaped vial and displayed inside Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai

Cremation allows for very economical use of cemetery space.

Burning ghats of Manikarnika, at Varanasi, India

Crematorium in Bangkok, Thailand

The funeral pyre for Chan Kusalo at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Burning ghats in Kathmandu, Nepal

See also: Antyesti

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term cemetery (from Greek κοιμητήριον: sleeping place) implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are the place where the final ceremonies of death are observed. These ceremonies or rites differ according to cultural practice and religious belief

Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island

A cemetery in Kyoto, Japan

Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore, England