To think that cheering and clapping the Queen's coffin as it passes by is inappropriate and downright weird....

[Tuilpmouse]

It seems such a strange reaction. It's as though many people have no sense of reverence or respect, and treat everything, even the Queen's coffin passing by, as a spectacle to be gawped at as they video the thing on their mobiles (that they'll never actually watch!)

I find it strange too but I imagine people are clapping to show their appreciation of her and what they perceive she has done in her lifetime?
As with all things surrounding her death on MN you will most likely be told you can’t tell people how to behave or what to do…

We've had his thread before, haven't we? Why not post on one of those instead of starting another one?
My view is that it's very hard to know how you'd react unless you are there. Living members of the royal family are behind the hearse, so you might be cheering them. Or showing appreciation for the Queen. We don't really have a sound for this, do we?
There's a lot of negative language of a particular sort being used to look down on people who went considerably out of their way in many cases to be there.

I guess it's up to people how they react. Maybe it's encouragement for the family. Or a thank you to the Queen. However they wish to grieve.

I get clapping but some were whooping and hollering like you would have at Jubilee or royal wedding. It was clear from Huw Edwards commentary that he was a bit flummoxed by it but stumbled around talking about "ways to show appreciation". Not great really. Also some of the crowd shown on TV were obviously just there for the spectacle and to be "part of it" rather than a show of respect. If you don't care she died, think the royals are just celebs then fine, but the hearse passing by is not the time for anything other than solemnity.

I mean, each to their own.

Saying that, for any of us that are anti monarchy it's very painful having to sit through what seems like an endless irrational circus. I wouldn't enter 10 days of mourning for old Sidney at the end of our road even though he was a lovely bloke - so why would I do it for the Queen? And as lovely as an old lady she seemed to he, she was a figurehead for colonial repression and people are now being threatened with jail for daring to say anything negative (holding the sign up saying 'not my King', etc) so I guess the repression is set to continue.

Anyway point being, if people want to go to see the coffin then that's their right, and let them...and while that's happening it'll continue to be grim for anyone who is having what feels like a funeral turned PR mission thrust in their faces 24/7. The whole thing just feels grotesque to me.

YANBU. She's not a competition winner.

My dad was a deeply religious man (it was his job) and when he died we had clapping and celebrating at his funeral. To people who are religious and who have dedicated their whole life to their beliefs (like the queen) to them it is their final reward to be with God. There is a saying "Good and faithful servant, well done" upon dying and them being with God finally. I think the queen would have liked the clapping personally. It is a show of appreciation for her life.

PS. I'm not religious, but the above is how a lot of religious people think.

I don't mind the clapping but I am not so keen on the cheering. Clapping sounds respectful but cheering (to me) doesn't.

The whole thing is strange.

The crowd seems to act differently if it is just the hearse or when the RF are walking behind.

They started this clapping business at Lady Di's funeral and we were told by the commentators it was a French custom. They threw flowers as well.

I've mixed feelings about the cheering.

I find it strange that we are in enforced mourning for a 96 year old lady that most of us have never met but there you go

We clapped my grandmother out of the church in Spain for her funeral (she was clapped in by gitano musicians, like flamenco clapping). It was not happy cheering clapping, it kind of sounded like the roar of the sea and I didn't mind it at all. Whoops and whistles would have been pretty strange though.

Really there should be weeping and wailing.

Like at Kim Jong-il's funeral.

There was a male voice whooping and whooping. I wondered if it was so he could rewatch the footage with friends and hear himself. It’s like when you are walking and see a hearse go past , you pause don’t you not whoop!

Same here

who is in enforced mourning?
surely you are only mourning/attending if you want to, otherwise business as usual

Well people and societies are weird, it’s just that we only notice at unusual moments.

But they are clapping to show appreciation of her so that’s not weird, and they are videoing because it’s a habit and because they think it’s something they might show their grandkids, so that’s not hugely weird either.

When you lose someone you love, many go through wildly swinging emotions. In the first few days after my mum died suddenly, we swung between utter despair and then suddenly giggling hysterically at something funny she'd done, before clanging back to despair again. It was exhausting but it was the full range of emotions.

As a lady who lived to 96, lots of people are sad but are also able to simultaneously celebrate who she was. I think that's ok! It wouldn't be right in the context of a funeral, but last night (to me) was the public saying 'welcome home your Majesty'.

I get the clapping but all the whooping and cheering was inappropriate, in my view.
It seems that the people in the crowd wanted to express their feelings somehow and didn’t feel that just clapping was enough.
It emphasises that people are not taught how to behave in social or public situations any more. And that our famous British reserve has been out of the window for some time.

It’s the world we live in unfortunately.

Lots of snobbery, at its finest

Youre comparing bewildered grief at the loss of a beloved ^parent^ to the death of a 96 year old figurehead who has never been so much as glimpsed in the flesh by most of her subjects…?

It’s official mourning for the head of state.
It’s not weird.

And you don’t have to engage with it, I’m not.

I don’t know what’s with all the weird labelling, ‘weird’ is not everything we don’t like as individuals.

But you are not?