State and public funerals in Themiclesia

State and public funerals in Themiclesia (賓公, prin-ke.kong and 賓邑, prin-′rep) are conducted by the government in recognition of a deceased person's importance.  A state funeral is reserved for the monarch, the royal consort, the monarch's predecessors, and their consorts, while a public funeral is customary for a range of other individuals of high status. Both forms of funerals see royal involvement and typically involve elaborate public ceremonies, sometimes according to the ancestral cult and other faiths.

Terminology

Mortuary practice according to the Ancestral Cult, in its fullest form, is high complex and not encompassed by the processes of a state or public funeral. Strictly speaking, a public funeral in domestic understanding only refers to parts of mortuary practice in which the state is involved, usually from the point a death is made known to the government and the point where a coffin is removed from public viewing and transported to its final resting place. The state is also not the sole participant of a public funeral, as private ceremonies usually occur in synchronization with public ones; the state has taken a larger role in the past, which has been curtailed in the interest of neutrality towards all religions.

Public funerals

There are three kinds of public funerals according to the authority that declares them: at the royal court, at the viceregal magistracy, and at the palatine magistracy.

Eligibility

The following are entitled to a funeral at the royal court:

• Members of the Senior Civil Service above the rank of Assistant Secretary.
• Holders of honours above the rank of Assistant Counsel.
• Serving Members of Parliament and Peers who died in Kien-k'ang; this automatically includes Cabinet ministers who are either Members of Parliament or Peers.
• The Clerk of the House of Commons and the Clerk of the Parliaments (the chief administrator of the House of Lords).
• The Lord President of the Judicial Committee, the Lord Chief Justice of Appeal, the Chief Justice of Themiclesia, and any Puisne Justice of the superior courts.
• The Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of the Household of the Empress.
• Military officers above the rank of major-general or colonel-general, naval officers above rear-admiral, and air force officers above vice-marshal are eligible at the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Defence; the Commandant of the Coast Guard at that of the Secretary of State for Home Affairs.
• Other individuals are given the honour of a public funeral at the discretion of the Cabinet.

The following are entitled to one at the viceregal magistracy:

• The provincial viceroy, marshal, and attorney.
• The provincial chief minister and other ministers.
• The chief justice of the province.

The following are entitled one at the palatine magistracy:

• Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of Estoria or Helia, as ceremonial heads of the palatine civil service.
• Chief ministers and ministers of the Cabinet of Estoria or Helia.
• Holders of honours from the palatine authority above a designated rank.
• Serving members of the lower and upper houses of Estoria or Helia.
• Chief administrators of the two houses of the Parliaments of Estoria and Helia.
• Chief and puisne justices of the superior courts of Estoria or Helia.
• Other individuals given the honour at the discretion of the chief executive of Estoria or Helia.

See also

• Themiclesia