The Columbarium (urn repository) at Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Four decades ago, less than 5% of Americans were cremated. Now that figure stands at nearly 50%.

The textbook way we treat our dead is that someone passes, they’re buried, and a headstone marks their place out among the rows in the borough of the departed.

But there’s another part of the cemetery – the crematorium/columbarium – that fewer people see, though that is rapidly changing as our cultural attitudes about death continue to evolve.

This article is about how cremation actually works, and the cultural shifts that change the way we memorialize our dead.

Click here to read the entire article at PopularMechanics.com!