Pall (cloth)

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A pall is a cloth which covers a casket at funerals.^[1] The word comes from the Latin pallium (cloak), through Old English.^[2]

The use of a rich cloth pall to cover the coffin during the funeral grew during the Middle Ages; initially these were brightly coloured and patterned, only later black, and later still white. They were usually then given to the Church to use for vestments or other decorations.^[3]

The rules for the pall's color and use vary depending on religious and cultural traditions. Commonly today palls are pure white, to symbolize the white clothes worn during baptism, and the joyful triumph over death brought about by the Resurrection. The colour is not fixed, though, and may vary with the liturgical season. Traditionally, it was common for the pall, as well as the vestments of the clergy to be black. The pall will often be decorated with a cross, often running the whole length of the cloth from end to end in all four directions, signifying the sovereignty of Christ's triumph over sin and death on the cross.

The pall is placed on the coffin as soon as it arrives at the church, and will remain on the coffin during all of proceedings in the church. If the family members wish to view the decased, this would normally be done previously at the funeral home before the coffin is brought to the church; but customs will vary from denomination to denomination. The pall will be removed at the graveside, just before the coffin is lowered into the ground. But if the remains are to be cremated, there will be a curtain which the pall-covered coffin will go through, and behind which the pall will be removed.

Military funerals often use the nation's flag as a pall. In the United Kingdom, members of the Royal Family or the peerage may use a flag bearing their arms as a pall.

[edit] References

^ "Pall". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^ pall - Definitions from Dictionary.com
^ Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane; Dress in the Middle Ages; p. 151, Yale UP, 1997; ISBN 0300069065