Is lying in state a closed coffin?

[GreenGreenGrassBlue]

I’m from a country where all our funerals are open coffin so we follow that culture here too and bring the body home for family and friends to visit. I’m assuming it’s a closed coffin due to the number of days for the Queen?

A few people have mentioned the disparity in burial times in England in particular.
If I am Jewish and living in an area where funeral directors are familiar with Jewish tradition, I would be buried within a day or two.
Otherwise it’s 2-3 weeks.. Is that on request of families or is there an express service you can pay for?
(I’d happily pay to be buried express style)

Hi there 😊

It would be the next prayers of the day. But given how some of them only have a few hours between them it’s ok to stretch it to the next prayer. This usually happens when someone has died around Maghreb and with the timing to the next prayer (Isha) being very little the person would almost certainly be buried by Fajr (dawn).

In our culture we are cremated and in this country we would view the deceased body at home. The body then would be taken outside our holy place of worship (not inside) usually in a private outdoors covered area for any of the local community to come pay their respects.

Finally at the crematorium once the coffin had passed through to the back the close family would go round and push the coffin into the furnace. The door closed and then they then press the button and stand for a short period of time before returning to the mourners and back to our place of worship.

Sorry, just to say it can be very intense. A loved one is very much here then gone very soon after. It is beautiful though to see how it comes together and the love people have for those who are preparing their loved one for burial.

Not an unreasonable question to ask as in many cultures open coffins are common and there are plenty of religious and political leaders who have lain in open coffins and even some who have been embalmed and are still on display decades after they deceased.

When I was working in India a respected elder in the village my workplace was located in died, my Indian colleagues all went to see him and even though I had never met him they insisted that I attend too as it would have been disrespectful not to. We had to queue outside his house as so many had come to view him and we all walked almost in a procession into his house where he was lying in bed. We each bowed to him to pay our respects and then left. To me it was surreal as I’d never seen a dead body before and had never met the man so it felt almost wrong to be viewing him in something as intimate as death, but it was obvious that this was an important ritual and that it was bringing some comfort to his family. It did not feel like anybody was attending to ‘gawk’ but rather to wish the man well in death and the man did look very peaceful.

I can see why it absolutely would not be appropriate to have the queen in an open casket and I think it would bring out people to gawk, but that’s because most British people won’t have ever seen an open casket or even a dead body before and so it would be seen as a novel experience to some but of course in cultures when the practice is part of normal tradition people are attending out of respect. I think it would actually make death less taboo and scary if having an open casket was more of a common practice in the UK.

So you hav told him his wishes meant nothing?

@Andromachehadabadday thank you very much for replying. I do get what you're saying about the body being a shell and the person no longer there. That was one of the things that shocked me about seeing my dear grandfather, I had imagined it as his seeming to be asleep, not gone.

The C of E is closed coffin
Not the whole country

Liverpool is 50% Catholic so probably common there.

I'm very glad that the last photo taken if the Queen, shows her Standing, smiling and still going her job. Anything else for her wouldn't have seemed right.

No really not common.

I would imagine her body will have been embalmed to prevent that from happening

We don't generally request 2-3 weeks, it's just down to scheduling, officials being available, and preparations taking roughly 2 weeks.

In our city we have 7 cemeteries and one crematorium, and a average population of 245,000. So scheduling is what takes the time.

Most of my family have had their funeral withing a fortnight generally.

Stillborns (which we have sadly had in the family) however there is an exception, they can be a shorter time or a longer time on the families request, nobody puts a deadline on parents grief and an urgency for a funeral if the parents are not ready in 2-3 weeks. Especially so the mother who will still be recovering from childbirth.

Unless your faith stipulates a certain number of days/hours then that would be observed, but there is no express service via the local church/council.

When my great love died, he had an open coffin, and we took turns to sit vigil with his body until the service. There was a horribly long wait between him suddenly dropping dead, and getting his body back, and I really needed to be able to see his body to make it real. It really helped me. I loved sitting with him - perhaps it sounds odd, but it's such a precious memory.

I’m off to a Removal tonight with an open casket. I’ve never met the deceased.

My only link to the deceased is that one of her daughters has a child on my son’s class at school.

It’s very normal where I live to pay your respects to the family who will be sitting next to the open casket.

I’m English too (and an atheist), so please stop assuming that all English people are the same as you and anyone who follows a different approach is to be pilloried as “not being one of us”.

I never met my Latvian grandfather. When it was part of the USSR, it was effectively shut off from those who like my Dad who had left during WWII. News of his father's death came by letter with a photo of the old man in an open coffin. My Dad was upset, but not shocked. My English Mum was not impressed by the open coffin custom, however.

She will be embalmed

I’d have no issue with open coffins. The U.K. seems to be very squeamish about dead bodies. I have a photo of my dad in his coffin, he looked so peaceful and serene I wanted to remember that. I personally have to see the bodies of my loved ones to say goodbye, not for everyone. The U.K. would never have an open casket funeral for a royal / states person

Dear God, es. Open coffins are ghoulish. I would not go to a service with the deceased in one. There is a story about one of the Russian Emperors who died of cancer. Because no one could travel quickly in those days the funeral was many days later. Despite the many, many lilies in the church the rotting smell was really strong. The coffin was open and the poor relatives had to go in turn and kiss his (discoloured) cheek.

I grew up in Liverpool - open casket (in the "front room") was quite common 30 years ago. In fact, I seem to remember one of the funniest episodes of Derry Girls revolves around the girls going to pay their respects to a distant relative.

I see this has been covered - but as I said, 30 or 40 years ago not uncommon.

What a stupid post.

have you heard yourself?

Both of my parents made it quite clear, they did not wish me to see them after their death. My Mum said bodies change after death and she wanted me to remember them as in life. I followed her wishes and would request the same of my children.

Is the Queen being cremated or interred with Prince Phillip?

They’ll be interred together.

Philip is currently in the royal vault at St George’s. They’ll be interred together, I think in the George VI memorial alongside her parents and her sister’s ashes.