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Lychgate
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==Use== In the [[Middle Ages]], before mortuaries, and at a time when most people died at home, the dead were placed on a [[bier]] and taken to the lychgate where they remained, often attended against [[Body snatching|bodysnatchers]], until the funeral service, which may have been a day or two later. The lychgate kept the rain off, and often had seats for the vigil watchers. Bodies at that time were buried in just [[shroud]]s rather than [[coffin]]s. At the funeral, the priest conducted the first part of the service under the shelter of the lychgate. In traditional usage, the gate was "the sheltered point at which the coffin was set down at a funeral to await the clergyman's arrival."<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Veillette|first1=John|title=Early Indian Village Churches: Wooden Frontier Architecture in British Columbia.|last2=White|first2=Gary|publisher=U of BC P|year=1977|isbn=9780774800754|location=Vancouver|pages=90}}</ref> An English commentator, writing in 1899, noted that the lych-gate, "or corpse-gate, with its pent-house roof, is specially provided for the shelter of a funeral while awaiting the priest, but it is only in a few cases that it is exclusively used for that purpose; it is frequently, perhaps, where it exists, commonly, the principal gateway of the churchyard."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Tyack|first=George S.|title=Lore and Legend of the English Church|publisher=William Andrews & Co.|year=1899|location=London|pages=67}}</ref> In some regions of Cornwall and Devon, such gates were called "''trim-trams''" β the spot where a funeral train (or ''tram'') was brought into the proper order (or ''trimmed'') to be ready for the officiating clergyman.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Dyer|first=T.F. Thiselton|title=Church Lore Gleanings|publisher=A.D. Innes and Co|year=1892|location=London|pages=153β154}}</ref> In parts of Scotland, ''Lykerstanes'' (lit. "corpse stones") may have served a similar purpose.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Laing|first=Alex.|date=1891|title=Replies to Queries|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/25516421|journal=The Scottish Antiquary, or, Northern Notes and Queries|volume=6|issue=21|pages=46β48|jstor=25516421|issn=2042-0013}}</ref> Lychgates serve to differentiate consecrated and unconsecrated space, and serve as a [[liminal space]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lych-gates in Newfoundland :: ICH - Other Materials|url=http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ich_other/id/48|access-date=2020-06-28|website=collections.mun.ca}}</ref> Stone lychgates may create an increased aural awareness of the transition from one space to another by creating a tangible contrast between sounds inside and outside.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hedfors|first=Per|date=2004|title=Considering the Authenticity of the Garden Soundscape: Preliminary Research Based on Interviews|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150388|journal=Garden History|volume=32|issue=2|pages=281β284|doi=10.2307/4150388|jstor=4150388|issn=0307-1243|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In England, there was a folk belief that the spirit of the last person buried stands watch at the gate till the next is buried, leading to funeral fights at the entrance to decide which corpse should be buried first.<ref name=":1" /> ===Wedding traditions=== Traditionally in some parts of England, particularly parts of [[Yorkshire]], at the end of the wedding as the bride and groom leave the church the gates are closed (or where there is an absence of gates a rope is held across) by the local children and the couple have to pay them to let them pass. Conversely, in Cheshire and Shropshire, wedding parties would never pass through the lychgate, so as to avoid misfortune.<ref name=":0" />
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