A burial and a cremation service are both ceremonies held after a death, and they are often referred to together as a “funeral.” However, there is a significant difference between the two farewells, and in most cases, it is a cremation service. The decisive difference is, in short, how the coffin with the deceased is handled after the ceremony in the church or chapel. In a burial, the ritual ends with the coffin being lowered into the ground at a cemetery, while in a cremation service the coffin is transported by hearse to a crematorium.

It is the wishes of the deceased and the family—whether for a coffin burial or an urn burial—that determine whether the final farewell will be a burial or a cremation service.