Funeral Processions - closing shops

Factual Questions
1

I attended a funeral yesterday in a small North Queensland (Australia) country town.

It was the first time I’d attended a funeral where the deceased was being buried. (Pure happenstance I suppose that every other funeral I’ve ever attended have all been cremations). Being a small town the funeral procession went from the church down the main street of the town, and out to the cemetery. I was interested (and very impressed) to see many of the store owners & staff standing respectfully out on the footpath outside their shops, having temporarily closed the shop.

I was told it is an old tradition in country towns, which isn’t necessarily observed anymore, and not necessarily for everyone. The funeral was for a lady from a family with a long history and roots in the town in question, so I can see this observance would have been made for her.

Getting to the point of my post, and the factual question part, I’m curious if this tradition/concept of shopkeepers temporarily closing for the procession is just a Rural Australian thing, or is it seen elsewhere around the world. My Googling turned up a reference that suggests it might be a tradition in Ireland, but I didn’t have a lot of success from the web.

2

My WAG would be that it’s a common enough thing in small towns, especially if the deceased was well known/thought of.
I see it as a sign of respect from people that would not otherwise attend the funeral.
I’ve noticed similar type behavior in small towns here in Texas and Louisiana. As a funeral procession drives down the road, all traffic, on both sides of the road, will pull to the shoulder and stop until the procession has passed.

3

It was a tradition in Ireland and I suspect still goes on in country towns here. I’ve never noticed it in the town I live in but it is a suburban commuter town. I did experience it when I was a child on a number of occasions, in country towns. My mother informs me that when her store was on a main road in this town she’d close the door for a few minutes. This would have been in the 1980s though.