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?

Someone mentioned further up thread about women not attending the service at the graveside. I'm from Wales and that was certainly the case in my family until my parents generation. The women would stay with the coffin in the home and the men would go to the service and the internment.

I know from conversations with my parents that when their grandparents died their coffins were kept in the "best" front room for a day or two before the funeral for visitors to pay their respects. I think they were closed casket but apparently when my Dad's Dad passed, my Nan wanted an open casket but was talked out of it.

DH is Hindu. When his uncle passed away last year, MIL explained there would be an open casket with a ceremony at his home and stressed that if I didn't feel comfortable, I didn't have to take part. (DH had told me about what happens at Hindu funerals but hadn't mentioned this aspect because every funeral he'd been to was open casket and thought that was the norm for everyone). I was ok with the thought of it but bottled it when it came down to it. Me and some of the other (white) family members sat in the kitchen and listened to the ceremony from there. Everyone was fine with it as they knew it wasn't our norm.

I never ever wanna see a dead person in a coffin anymore.
I prefer the memory of them being alive

@YfenniChristie also the case in Northern Ireland that traditionally women didn't go to the graveside. They stayed at home/in the church hall for that bit and organised the tea and sandwiches for the wake.

I don't know why the word "gawp" is being thrown around it's so disrespectful to people who have been to see their deceased loved ones

It says way more about the person who used the term than it does about anyone who’s traditions involve open caskets prior to burial or cremation. Just ignore it.

Im british, never known an open casket for any funerals here but did assume lying in state meant open casket. Likely due to the only times i have known that term used is for other heads of states in countries where the casket has been opened.

Thank you @GreenGreenGrassBlue for this thread it has been enlightening.

I’ve often wondered why burials can take place so soon after death in Ireland and it can take weeks in the UK. I’d much prefer the 3 days but in the end I’ll be buried within hours of my death according to the practice where I live.

I'm from Welsh heritage and the women didn’t go to our family funerals until recently. I recall as a child staying at home with my Mum and aunts while the service took place. I can’t remember if the widow went or not. Nowadays we all go and I did the reading at Mum's funeral recently.

The ceremonies and customs associated with death vary so much. My friends couldn’t understand why we didn’t attend but that was just how it was and I had no answer for them

Wait till the people shocked about open caskets learn about Victorian funeral tradtions....right here in the UK.

We do tend to closed caskets in this country, OP, but its a relatively recent thing, and by no means universal.

I’m not convinced that the Queens body would be in the coffin. Likewise, I don’t believe Diana’s body was in the casket driven for miles after her funeral. I think a lot of the ceremonial things about royal funerals is just that, ceremonial for the public. This is just my opinion though

Thats an interesting thought. But can you explain where you think they are/were at the time.

In Islam the person is prepared for burial at home and this is carried out by their closest loved ones, my daughters will take care of me but they will have other close female relatives with them to help and give them support.

Following on from that the person is laid out in a room and people try their best to bury them by the next prayer time following their death. Of course it can take longer if mourners have to travel to the funeral but I’ve never known it to go beyond two prayer times following a death.

I might be wrong, but I thought that Prince Philip and HMQ will be together in the vault at Winsor. That’s why the coffin is lead lined because it goes in the vault. Royals aren’t buried like us. They are kept in vaults, preserved as they have higher status. That is what I have always been lead to believe anyway. In churches, cathedrals you have vaults all around and underneath of the great and the good. Because then they are within the house of God. When PP was lowered into the vault during his funeral that’s where he would stay. It’s the same as a burial at that point, but underneath the floor there is a vault and he would be moved to the final resting place for his coffin.

It certainly is an interesting subject.

i find all this ‘this is how we do things in the UK’ on this thread utterly awful. Open caskets are very common in many communities in the UK. It’s how things have always been done in my family, and their wider community.

It might not be how state funerals are done in the UK, but it’s narrow minded nonsense to pretend it’s some weird ‘foreign’ practice that would be distasteful to the people of the UK.

You now fine well that they do.

Not sad at all.

Once one of the married couple goes, at their time of life, the other partner follows quickly after. They had a full and happy life and both had a good death surrounded by their large family. It's as good as it gets.

Saved who what trouble apart from you being rude?

I've actually found this thread quite interesting as I hadn't realised open caskets were quite so widespread. So OP - thank you for asking the question.

@SudocremOnEverything of course I do. I was being sarcastic.

The casual racism on here to other cultures of people who live in the uk and are British is shocking. This is just one example. Nothing gets done about it by MNHQ and it's a bloody disgrace. So much "othering" of those who aren't the right sort of British.

Where does that happen?

@blepp based on @SudocremOnEverything 's username I'd assume she's Irish and in full agreement with you. British = English is so common on here.

I’m not Irish. I’m Scottish.

but totally in agreement with you about this.

Yes, we’re a closed coffin country.
I think open casket is rare over here

Who do you mean by we’re?

As if you catholic in Scotland the coffin is very much open and will be laid to rest at home/funeral home for 3 days in a open casket.

I believe Ireland do the same also and England also.

Not sure where the as* came from

Hmm, embalming or some kind of funeral directors magic. I imagine embalming for the Queen. I think they will keep temperatures as low as possible too.

My mum died this year and due to a post mortem the funeral was 6 to 7 weeks after her death. She wasn't embalmed and no discernable smell at the funeral.

Thanks for the support, I felt I didn’t ‘read the room’ very well last night! But seems like I am not from a culture that is the minority on our funeral rituals.

You read the room just fine, and asked a reasonable question in a reasonable way.

Yes, exactly. It was a reasonable question asked with honest intent.

Lots of twats on here unfortunately.