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?

I think a lot of people saw unburied coffins and people during the plague outbreaks. There was a shortage of grave diggers, not least because few were willing to do the job.

You’ve answered your own question really

saved us all this trouble

Fgs, nobody forced you to reply. Quite an interesting thread actually, apart from the bits where you keep chiming in to huff at the OP

Fgs, nobody forced you to reply. Quite an interesting thread actually, apart from the bits where you keep chiming in to huff at the OP

So sorry, I didn't realise I needed your permission to post, but I've made a note to that effect.

So I'm in Wales, and we had a service at home in 2009. Coffin was not brought in to the home though for the service.

The family member had died at home only young 39 of cancer, we all paid our respects to her (the deceased/my aunty) whilst she was at home.

Me and the other close female family members including my grandmother (deceased's mother, my mother (deceased's sister) washed her face, dressed her, and removed her jewellery before the undertakers took her away.

My grandfather (deceased's father) stayed downstairs for this part, but before that was at her bedside saying goodbye.

We had a family own service at home with the vicar and immediate family,. About 25 of us, and then we travelled to the crematorium where friends and wider family were present.

It was a loving and caring end.

There are many closed-minded people on this thread. OP asked a perfectly legitimate and appropriate question. There are many cultures in British society who have open casket wakes or funerals - those of Irish descent, travellers, those with parents from Southern Europe, and those from certain Asian and Caribbean backgrounds. People really do need to be more respectful of other people's cultural traditions- it's extremely inappropriate to voice disgust at someone else's cultural way of marking a death.

I know a white British family who have open coffin at home. In fact theirs was one of the first dead bodies I saw, I was terrified before I went in but found it profoundly humbling and almost calming once I saw them. It has removed some of the taboos around death for me, meaning I have fared better when some of my own relatives died recently.

Oh and @MrsDanversGlidesAgain the Queen would be appalled at your stinking attitude. Do one.

Oh and @MrsDanversGlidesAgain the Queen would be appalled at your stinking attitude. Do one

That's a remarkable insight into the views of HM. As to doing one - nah, I don't think I will, thanks. And your views on my attitude interest me not at all.

Very much so

i think the only time you see an open casket in the uk is occasionally at funerals of black people and p.o.c

Thanks for that, @Blackheath95. Suitably chastened. 😆

And Irish, sadly a lot of us have a weird attitude to death

Thanks for that, @Blackheath95. Suitably chastened.

Or chastised, whatever the word is.

My family are British at least for the past couple of generations but both sides of my lot are historically Irish Catholic so I think a lot of our family 'culture' and traditions are influenced by that (my husband's lot are all very English and prior to getting involved with him I never realised there could be such cultural diffences between 2 white british families!)

Before a funeral we bring the body home and in most cases have an open coffin whilst they are at home. We certainly don't gawk at our loved ones, we gather and pay our respects, share stories and normally a lot of laughter and night before the funeral the priest will visit and a rosary is said.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain I think you need to remember that our country is made up of many cultures with many traditions and that 'our' Queen was also Head of State for several other countries. You are coming across as aggressively territorial.

Your turnaround from death to cremation is faster in Asia than here. I think that's another reason. You normally go individually to the funeral home to see your deceased open casket here. By the time you get a date for the funeral two weeks or more than a month might have passed.

Mil was telling me in her country ( Asisn) a British man was cremated a bit later and he was 'juicy' and dripping. I'm not sure I will cope when I have to go to her funeral. I don't think we would time to book flights out there

I found this and he did see an open coffin in the street. Might be what @Fluffygreenslippers was referring to
www.history.co.uk/article/lessons-from-samuel-pepyss-plague-diary-living-through-an-outbreak

I think open casket is kind of good because once you see the person gone they don’t look the same so you know in your head they are no more. Because you’ve seen it.

Everyone has their own views. I didn't see my mother after she died as I wanted to remember her as she was the last time I had seen her - alive and well. I didn't need to see her in a coffin to know she had gone.

The Queen is lying in state which is not in the least bit comparable to a wake. It has a completely different purpose to a wake (and to me, but appreciate I appear to be in the minority, would seem disrespectful to her and her family that 1000s of strangers were able to see her in death). Just feels a bit off.

Open coffins aren’t traditional here OP but lots of people do have their loved one home and spend time with the lid off prior to the funeral or visit them at the Chapel of Rest.

My family did that and family and friends would come by to pay their respects. For the service the lid would of course be on prior to the journey to the church.

What is the significance of the coffin being lead lined please?

Someone else will know for sure but it could be for preservation but somewhere in my head it’s about not being able to accessed (so someone’s body can’t be stolen - but I could be completely wrong on this)

How do people know this kind of stuff, it amazes me! I consider myself fairly well educated but then this type of general knowledge I just don’t know! And it wouldn’t cross my mind to learn the intricate details about things like coffins

Slows down the decay. It's a tradition more than a necessity these days.

But back in the olden days there weren't many ways of preserving a body like there is today. And as the monarch is always laid in state with days between death and burial to avoid "issues" the coffin would be lead lined.

I would think as they know they are getting lead lined coffins they probably don't embalm the deceased.

Princess Diana's coffin was lead lined and weighed like 200+ kg apparently 😳

We had a 4 week wait for my grandads funeral, we just got a standard coffin, why didn’t we have “issues” then? (Im genuinely curious, not being picky)