Pall (funeral)

[2] A pall or palla is also a stiffened square card covered with white linen, usually embroidered with a cross or some other appropriate symbol.

The use of a rich cloth pall to cover the casket or coffin during the funeral grew during the Middle Ages; initially these were brightly coloured and patterned, only later black, and later still white.

[3] The rules for the pall's colour and use vary depending on religious and cultural traditions.

If the remains are to be cremated, the pall-covered casket or coffin will go through a curtain, and the pall will be removed.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church the pall often bears a depiction of the cross and instruments of the Passion as well as the text of the Trisagion hymn.

A funeral procession arriving at a church . The coffin is covered with an elaborate red and gold pall.
From the Hours of Étienne Chevalier by Jean Fouquet .
( Musée Condé , Chantilly )
The funeral of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow . The patriarchal mandyas is draped over his casket as a pall. President Vladimir Putin is seen paying his respects at the coffin.
Hearse-cloth presented in 1539 to the Worshipful Company of Vintners in the City of London by its master John Husee .