Funeral procession

A funeral procession is the line of vehicles that travels from the house or the funeral director's premises to the church, crematorium or cemetery, with the hearse carrying the coffin at the front. The funeral director's car leads it, the family's cars follow, and other mourners join at the back.

In the UK the procession has no legal standing on the road, though other drivers usually give way and the funeral director drives slowly for the first part of the route, often past the person's home. Flowers are carried on or beside the coffin in the hearse. A horse-drawn hearse, a motorcycle hearse or a police escort can be arranged where a family wants one.

A direct cremation has no procession; the coffin is taken to the crematorium by the funeral director, without the family present.

Arriving with the hearse

At a crematorium the hearse arrives at the time of the booked slot, and the family's cars come in behind it. Other mourners wait outside or in the waiting room until then. The coffin is carried in by the funeral director's bearers, or by relatives who have asked to carry it, with the family walking behind and everyone else already seated.

The cars and the cost

A hearse, and limousines for the family if they want them, are part of a traditional funeral's bill, and one reason it costs what it does. A family who wants the service without the cars can ask the funeral director for a plain funeral by name, for a good deal less than the average.

Children on the day

Bereavement charities say children can usually come if they want to and someone prepares them. It helps to give one adult the job of looking after the child that day, and nothing else.

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The day itself, from the procession to the wake, is in funeral etiquette in the UK. Whether children should be part of it is in should children go to the funeral. A funeral with no procession and no service is a direct cremation.

Related terms: Burial ceremony and Wake. Every term in the funeral glossary.