Lying in state is the tradition in which a coffin is placed on view to allow the public at large to pay their respects to the deceased. It traditionally takes place in the principal government building of a country or city. While the practice differs among countries, a viewing in a location that is not the principal government building is referred to as lying in repose.
Read more about Lying In State: Canada, North Korea, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City
Famous quotes containing the words lying in, lying and/or state:
“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“Here lies I and my three daughters,
Killed by drinking the Cheltenham waters.
If we had stuck to our Epsom salts
We’d not be lying in these vaults.”
—Anonymous. From H. J. Loaring’s Curious Records (1872)
“One usually dies because one is alone, or because one has got into something over one’s head. One often dies because one does not have the right alliances, because one is not given support. In Sicily the Mafia kills the servants of the State that the State has not been able to protect.”
—Giovanni Falcone (1939–1992)