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?

*Plenty heads of states have open caskets @MrsDanversGlidesAgain so I don't know why you are so offended by the questionT

Well guess what, the UK doesn't. As a swift google would have shown.

It's a bit like having ossuaries. Nothing essentially wrong with them at all, but haven't been part of British tradition for many centuries. Other peoples valid customs may not be our valid customs but mutual respect on all sides for those differences is important.

I wonder if all members of the royal family have gone to see Her Majesty’s body to say goodbye one final time

Imagine all the ghouls lining up to see her if the custom was for an open coffin.

I’m very glad it won’t be.

The other option is for Queen to be on permanent open casket display. I saw Ho Chi Minh and I wouldn't say he looked well as such, but v well preserved.

I'm sure you're correct and we don't really need to know exactly when the Queen died.

wonder if all members of the royal family have gone to see Her Majesty’s body to say goodbye one final time

Slight difference between family and thousands of strangers; not all of whom will be impelled by feelings of reverence.

In our culture (also South Asian), seeing the body of the deceased is 100% a sign of respect. To offer that body thanks and bid him/her farewell as part of the funeral ceremony is extremely important. My children have been to many such funerals since they were five years old. Definitely no gawping there.

Because it's empty.

I'm in the US and here it's strictly what each family wants. Some have open casket, some have closed. No one thinks the other is 'weird' or 'morbid'. Some of my relatives have had closed, others open. The funeral rites and traditions are for the living and deserve to be respected.

I will say that to the best of my memory, during my lifetime none of our deceased presidents nor others who have lain in state in the US Capitol have had an open casket. No idea why.

i Presumed it would be an open casket, I’m Irish and this is perfectly normal before a funeral

I had no idea that the UK were so opposed to open caskets, although with the length of time between death and the funeral, it’s probably a practice born of necessity.

It’s such a different practice in Ireland. Wakes are less common these days but such warm and friendly occasions and an opportunity to celebrate the best of a person, and to get to hear other aspects of the person that you’ve known.

Helping to prepare the body of a loved one, helping to carry them on their final journey are acts of love and caring, and considered a privilege. And seeing that the body is truly not the person you loved, but only their earthly remains, makes the burial or cremation less horrific. It’s simply laying to rest.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain No need to be so rude to me. You talk about the Queen being head of state and not the OP's nan, but if the OP is used to different cultures where heads of states do have open casket it's not unreasonable she may think there could be an open casket.

No idea why you are so offended by a question. As I said above I really don't like open caskets and am glad there won't be one for the Queen but you can explain to the OP that the Queen won't be in an open casket without being so rude about it. Or ignorant.

My friend's brother drowned age 18 & they had him at home in an open coffin (they are West Indian) Members of their church came from miles around who didn't even know where they lived, they just asked people who lived on the street. Another custom is they take photographs at the funeral, I had never seen it before.

Or the OP could have googled 'lying in state UK' and saved us all this trouble.

No idea whom you are or what my reply was to you and can't be arsed to scroll back.

Re open coffins, during their very early days at their house in France, Dbro and Sil were invited in to a neighbour’s house, for what they thought were drinks (they did speak fairly adequate French) only to find her husband’s open coffin lying on the dining room table.
As Dbro said, they did need a drink after that!

IIRC they’d only arrived back earlier that same day, so weren’t aware that he’d died!

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain or she could ask a question on a forum and not expect such rudeness. Yeah don't bother scrolling back can't be bothered dealing with such a rude, ignorant angry person. Really unnecessary.

In England the funeral director gives you a choice to see the body or not in the funeral home. I went with a friend to the funeral home when dh died and she said if it was her dh she would want to see him and cuddle him. I chose not to as I wanted to remember him how he was. A bit of time had passed by the time he came to the funeral home as he died away for the night on business in another City and had to have a post mortem /have the body identified by a family member and be brought home. The funeral was about a month after as his family in SA had to apply for passports and visas to come over for it.
My mum saw her mum when she was 18 and it upset her. She said her hair had been styled in a way she hadn't liked when alive.
I remember as a teenager in the 80s a friend's brother's body was brought home. They were English but older parents

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain or she could ask a question on a forum and not expect such rudeness. Yeah don't bother scrolling back can't be bothered dealing with such a rude, ignorant angry person. Really unnecessary.

I'm sure you can come up with a few more perjorative adjectives if you try. Frankly, I don't even recall responding to you. Sorry about that.

I'm glad op started the thread as it's interesting learning about different customs.

To clarify in Irish funerals the coffin is open casket before the ceremony whether that’s in a funeral home or waked at home. In the church or crematorium, the kid is closed. Funerals happen within 3 days.

In the US it’s a mix of open and closed even during the ceremony.

In SE Asian cultures, is it open at the ceremony too?

Yeah we don’t have open coffins anymore. I blame Samuel Peypes.

@MoreCraicPlease : from my experience it’s as for Irish (in Hindu & Sikh funerals) - open at home, generally for a day or maybe 2 days to allow mourners to visit. The coffin is closed before it leaves the home to go to the funeral venue, & then the funerals I have been to the deceased’s remains were cremated directly after the funeral service

I am not really familiar with Muslim tradition, only to know that it is burial not cremation, and often the funeral can be quite quickly after the death

Why's that? Something to do with plague deaths?

Just remembered, didn't he see a body part poking out as the plague victims were so piled up in the grave yards it created mounds or something? Late dh used to work near that grave yard