Who knew this would be or even could be a two parter?! Not me!

This is a follow-up post to A Funeral in England. Last night I was telling Marcus about what I saw because it was the first time I had seen him in a while, being that he was delayed getting home the other night by cattle on the tracks. Anyway, he asked probably the most important question of all and one I neglected to look into which is, why do the funeral directors walk in front of the hearse? That’s why I keep him around, to ask the hard-hitting questions, though usually it’s more like, “Why are there 100 Amazon packages on the front step?”¹

According to the blog, Funeral Costs Help, many of today’s funeral traditions date back to the Victorian era when “society developed strict codes of conduct [for] how a person should be mourned…” The funeral director walking in front of the procession, also known as a “cortege,” is referred to as “paging away” and is meant for the procession to progress slowly, allowing neighbors and others to pay their respects. They also are meant to clear a path in case of large crowds and, eventually, lead the deceased to their final resting place.

There you have it, the reason for why the funeral director walks in front of the cortege, here in the U.K. anyway. I’ve never seen this practice in the U.S. though it’s a big place so it’s possible I’m just not aware.

1. It probably goes without saying that by this point, my algorithm is totally messed-up. I hope Marcus reads this because you’re probably going to start seeing a bunch of suspicious ads and I am definitely not planning your funeral although if you keep questioning my relationship with Amazon we may have some problems. ↩︎