[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.