Q: Why are graves six feet deep?

A: In Maine, there is no requirement in statute or rule that a grave has to be six feet deep. This is a tradition that began in London, England during plagues of the mid-1600s.

English law once required a burial depth of six feet to ensure the corpse didn’t spread the plague to the living. Of course, this measure was ineffective as fleas infected with the plague probably spread the disease. Also, few diseases are contracted from contact with dead bodies.

The Lord Mayor of London mandated that all graves should be at least six feet deep. This was collaborated by various written accounts, including A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. Defoe notes that the Lord Mayor’s orders were published in June 1665. There were gruesome descriptions of early cemeteries as being “littered with bones and bits of charnel.” Shallow graves allowed scavengers (presumably both human and animal) to easily dig up the remains.

A six foot burial depth may be a common custom, but many corpses are no longer buried at that depth. Many states don’t have a depth requirement for burials, such being the case in Maine. In California, however, caskets must be covered by at least 18 inches of dirt and turf. But somehow “one-and-a-half feet under” doesn’t sound quite as catchy as “six feet under.”