American Funerals

I read an interesting essay a while back, it was written in the 60s I believe. Basically it was a British lady who went to an American funeral and was absolutely shocked that we have open casket funerals.

I;m curious, are open casket funerals practiced in Europe like they are in America? Personally, i couldn�t ever imagine a closed a closed casket funeral.

My grandfather said that when he was younger (he was born in 1923) people would go to the home to say their goodbyes and would even keep the body in the front room until the burial (which creeps me out).

I'd say burn the body and scatter the ashes along the mississippi  or Hudson river.

Some Dutchies do it apparently, i was never able to figure out if it was more likely to be a catholic thing or not though.
I've heard British expats express shock and revulsion (acompanied by the usual moronic brit-expat Dutch bashing *rolls eyes*) at hearing it was done in the Netherlands too.

some speculation:

it might come down to earlier tradition.  America was generally more rural then a place like britain, so the burials would have to be handled by the family.  There would be no local funeral service, likewise since they were rural the burial could very well occur in their backyard or local church.  This may make people more familiar with the bodies, as likely the family arranged the coffin and burial themselves.

Perhaps if other rural cultures share this then there might be a connection.

How did they bury bodies in the cities in the past?  Did they drive them out to country cemetaries?