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.

Procedure

During the lifetime of the eligible deceased, the Cabinet Office is responsible for inquiring whether the individual wishes to have a public funeral; if in the affirmative, the Cabinet Office is notified when the deceased is nearing death or, in the case of an unexpected death, by the coroner. After the eligible individual dies, his body is embalmed for temporary preservation or, where religion prohibits it, prepared and sealed in a coffin. These preliminary stages completed, the body is moved to the Great Hall of Correspondence, which was once the seat of the imperial court. The family of the deceased is notified in the meantime.

On the second day of the body's arrival, the High Priest (大祝) or Assistant Priest (右祝) formally begins funerary procedures by placing a piece of cloth over the face of the deceased. The piece of cloth is provided by the family of the deceased. An incantation is then sung over the body as incense is lit. The piece of cloth is removed from the body and affixed to a pole, which is then erected in the courtyard of the Great Hall of Correspondence. The Symphony Without (外樂) perform a set programme of pieces with instruments associated with funerals, such as the flute and ocarina. At dusk, the pole is retrieved and is waved in the air by the family, exlaiming the phrase return, return here, would that you return (反 茲反 其惟反). The Symphony Without flourishes as each time the phrase is exclaimed. After each person present has waved the pole, the person's name is written onto the cloth, and those present "sing" the name of the deceased, growing from loud to soft, each rising and covering their mouths with a handful of reeds soaked in sacrificial wine.

As darkness falls, the cloth is detached from the pole and replaced on the face of the deceased. The ground on which the coffins lies is sanctified by spirits. This ceremony was once repeated each day from the initial to the sixth, but in modern times it is only performed on the first and sixth days, so that others may have time to view the body; however, for state funerals, it is still repeated on each day. During this period, the body of the deceased is said to be lying in repose.

On the sixth day, the ceremonies of the first day are repeated in the same fashion, but at nightfall a different ceremony occurs. A bonfire of wood and resin is lit in the courtyard, and the High Diviner (大卜) appears with a tortoise shell inscribed with the name of the deceased. A hot poker is driven through the shell, which is cast into the fire without interpretation. This commences the Sacrament of the Sixth Night (六夕), which requires the family of the deceased temporarily to identify with the deceased. The Orchestra Without accompanies this ceremony with a canon of the Forty Hymns for the Revival (四十興).  The sacrament proceeds from the most closely related to the least. The cloth with deceased's name is placed in a vessel, and a burning resin is placed with it. Family members each breath from the basin and in turn become the apparition of the deceased; the transitioned does not respond to human interaction but pace around the coffin and clap their hands. The person representing the deceased travels clockwise, while the family, joining hands, travel counterclockwise. The family chants the name of the deceased, while the apparition claps in response.

Those not related to the family, including the Emperor or another dignitary, arrives at the Great Hall of Correspondence after the family begins to circle the coffin. Guests bring food and drink for the family for the Protection Offering. The Sacrament continues with sanctification of the onlookers, who then form a third, outer circle around the family and travel in the same direction, chanting the name of the deceased, in unison with the family. The sovereign joins hands with other individuals in the outer circle and at least makes one complete revolution. This affords an opportunity for those wishing to show respect to the deceased circle the family, and the more revolutions made the greater the respect expressed. The Emperor customarily makes only one, as to make two would effectively compel all others to make at least three. The visitor supports the family's ritual to revive the deceased by spiritually and materially, by sustaining them and priests with food and drink.

Traditionally, the circling and chanting does not stop until the dawn on the seventh day, but this is rarely the case today except for the funerals of the most highly-regarded. At morning twilight, the High Priest recites a list of 17 spells over the deceased. These spells are not entirely coherent in meaning, though at least four are meant to ward off corporeal decay. At daybreak, the High Priest lead the family to pass over the body one final time and assists the apparition to transition into their proper identity. The family then kneels over the coffin and ceremonially wail and beat their chests. Upon hearing the wailing, the onlookers bow down towards the coffin but do not begin wailing until the family has ceased wailing. The vessel that contains the cloth scalded by resins is then emptied. The cloth is sewn onto a larger piece of fabric and mounted on the same pole, which is wrapped in coarse linen. The pole is marched out of the Great Hall, through the Gate of State, and the Gate of the Constellations. Individuals passing the procession are expected to remove their hats and bow down to the linen cloth. It is mounted upon the gatehouse, formalling declaring to the public the death of a dignitary.

The Emperor passes a proclamation to courier to every city and province, that the entire realm is acquainted to the loss. In former times, envoys were also dispatched to allied states for particularly important funerals.

After some days, the coffin is loaded upon a hearse. In this ceremony, the High Priest blesses the hearse, the horse or vehicle pulling it, and purifies the ground the hearse is to travel over. The final ceremony occurs whereby the Emperor personally pulls the hearse by a ribbon attached to it for a few paces, followed by others in the public. After a sufficient distance is pulled, the hearse is led off to the household of the deceased, and the coffin would be interred at a time and place of the family's choosing.

See also

• Themiclesia