Bier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A bier is a flat frame, traditionally wooden but sometimes made of other materials, used to carry a corpse for burial in a funeral procession. In antiquity it was often simply a wooden board on which the dead was placed covered with a shroud. In modern times, however, the corpse is almost never carried on the bier without being first placed in a coffin, though the coffin is sometimes kept open.

[edit] See also

• Catafalque

• N.B. Bier is also the German and Dutch word for beer.