Desmond7 Posted 28 July , 2005 Share Posted 28 July , 2005 No pennies in my experience Harri. May have been done years ago? As has been noted elsewhere .. one of the comments genuinely and regularly made at such a viewing is :- "Aw, he/she looks well." Don't ask me!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philary Posted 2 August , 2005 Author Share Posted 2 August , 2005 To Everyone Thank you for all your responses, it provoked a very interesting discussion. Clearly the probability of a photo of my Great Uncle in his coffin is neglible, ao I must be remembering something else. Regarding the use of pennies on eyes, they were used to weight down the eyelids after death to keep the eyes closed. Once the body had grown cold the pennies were removed. It was part of the laying out process, in the same way that the jaw was tied up with a bandage! Hilary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeppoSapone Posted 2 August , 2005 Share Posted 2 August , 2005 No pennies in my experience Harri. May have been done years ago? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Pennies on the eyes is before my time too. However, it did give us a well known expression when I was a kid. Said of a crook: "He would steal the pennies from a dead mans eyes". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philary Posted 2 August , 2005 Author Share Posted 2 August , 2005 Just one more piece of information you may be interested in. Most parish churches still have a Lych Gate. The purpose of this was, in "the olden days" as the person was taken in to the churchyard to be buried, the vicar had to view the body to make sure he was burying the right person and to ensure no other body was secreted in the coffin! The viewing was always done on entry to the churchyard under the Lych Gate - this was the purpose for the gate with a roof to protect the party. I don't know how recently this practice continued. Probably when the present registration and code of practice for funerals and burials was put in place to ensure there was no mistaken identity or improper burials Hilary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 2 August , 2005 Share Posted 2 August , 2005 heres the link, quite sad some of the pictures, not soldiers or WW1 but the death photography theme: http://ame2.asu.edu/projects/haunted/ISA%2...ad%20photos.htm <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What an interesting site! One thing that stuck in my head when looking at them photos was (i think) the middle one on the bottom row. A real rarity for the Victorian photograph - the woman holding the dead child is actually smiling!!!! (Or is it actually the woman who's dead and is being propped up by a sleeping child? ) Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 2 August , 2005 Share Posted 2 August , 2005 In Kentucky open caskets are the norm at funeral home, nowadays usually not at service though. There used to be a phrase in rural area, " When mama was a corpse" meaning time between death and burial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now