Phoebe Cates for anyone who wants to know.
Well, i am old enough to have seen her do this in the movie, in a theater. Old enough to know her from memory. Old enough to know her husband, too. But hey, the picture never ages!
Probably because many Bakers are taking the day off to dig. Just my guess.
You're not wrong. In the early days of Christianity, they would meet underground. Supposedly, "where no one else would meet" so they could enjoy privacy. So yeah, around disease-ridden rotting corpses.