Funerals, Graveyards, Lichgates, and the Boshof.

"There lies our Johnny pale and grinning bold
I hope I again see him, but when I've grown old!
A whiskey for the widow, a rum for the way,
a beer for the bearers and our brave manerray!"
~Common Maecodian wake toast

History

Any Archaeologist worth anything can attest to the fact that burial traditions have remained largely unchanged since the Age of Myth and the time of the Grimhii Empire.
A number of theories exist as to why the tradition has stood so long, but the most accepted is that it simply deals with the natural phenomenon of shade portals in such a way that most people don't need to worry about them most of the time.

Execution

In Maecodian tradition, the dead are preserved with an herbal ointment and tincture. They are left to wake for one week’s time where the loved ones (or the undertaker) of the deceased watch for any sign of false death (and recovery) or undeath. Throughout this period, friends and family will come to pay their respects and comfort the grieving, often telling stories of the deceased and even more often imbibing alcohol. If the body has not stirred, the funeral occurs wherein the deceased is placed in a coffin and carried to the graveyard. It is then lowered into an individual grave, which is then covered and marked with a stone at the head, facing away from the body. Behind the stone is planted a star magnolia, which is a primary ingredient of herbalist kits.
Bodies that cannot afford such treatment as the holy oils are defleshed and boiled clean at the end of a few days’ wake. In the center of the graveyard is an ossuary, where the bones are cemented into the walls. This ossuary usually takes the form of a spiral staircase going straight down for quite some time, with occasional landings that connect to larger rooms. These rooms represent times of mass burials, and often have a plaque detailing the plague or conflict that caused it. The ossuary is where the minerray lives with any apprentices they may have, either in a small shack at the entrance to the shaft or within the rooms of the ossuary itself.

Corpses considered high-risk for undeath are kept in a special graveyard on the grounds. This graveyard is called the boshof and is surrounded by a blessed, wrought-iron fence designed as a barrier to the undead. The name for this barrier is the lichwall, with the entrance known as the lichgate. Bandits, executed criminals, the excommunicated, and suspected witches are all potential inmates in the boshof. Cadavers bound for the boshof likely receive no wake at all, instead being defleshed and physically nailed to the underside of their coffins. When they are buried, they will have a brick or stone placed in their jaws. Once buried, the ground over the grave is raked smooth.