# Is covering one's head for a funeral a religious thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 18, 2011, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133 "2011-08-18T08:25:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/1 "2011-08-18T08:25:49Z")
I am attending a funeral for a secular humanist friend later today. As I was getting ready this morning I asked my husband to pass me the small black cloche I bought for a (religious) friend’s father’s funeral last year, and he sounded a bit surprised and said “Oh, I didn’t think it was going to be a religious ceremony.” I have never thought of covering my head for funerals as a religious thing, but maybe that’s because I’ve only ever been to one funeral (which was religious) and most funerals shown in films are religious as well. I do feel slightly uncomfortable about the idea of having my head uncovered, because it feels disrespectful, but I think it would be much more disrespectful to my friend to bring religion into a space he wanted to be secular humanist. I’m trying to decide whether to wear the hat or not. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/2 "2011-08-18T09:05:36Z")
… it would depend on the religion, the location and even on the covering. In general and baseball caps aside, I would say that wearing a covering is more formal / respectful than not wearing one. Religion got nothing to do with that. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/3 "2011-08-18T09:24:24Z")
The hat is a very simple black cloche, like [this one](http://www.next.co.uk/x4810372s2). The funeral is humanist and is being held at a council cemetery. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/4 "2011-08-18T10:05:32Z")
The two funerals I’ve been to, nobody covered their heads. They weren’t particularly religious, but they weren’t irreligious either. I’ll be honest, I think you’re putting a bit too much thought into it. If you feel more comfortable wearing the hat; and it is a very nice, plain hat I’m sure nobody at the funeral will be standing there going “How dare she cover her head at this humanist funeral?!” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/5 "2011-08-18T10:12:29Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > The hat is a very simple black cloche, like [this one](http://www.next.co.uk/x4810372s2). The funeral is humanist and is being held at a council cemetery. I was thinking more of the difference between Catholic ceremonies (where men other than a bishop would be expected to doff any headcoverings) and Jewish ones (where men would be expected to wear at least a yarmulke), and of the difference between a mantilla (which are a bitch to remove, so once it’s on you only take it off if it will stay off), a small hat like yours (which under Spanish etiquette I’d expect to come off pretty much any time its owner is off the street and under a ceiling) and a pamela (removed under a ceiling if the owner has a place to leave it). The first division is actually between two different religions, the second one has nothing to do with religion. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/6 "2011-08-18T10:14:24Z")
I’ve not really encountered anyone wearing those, but I did notice when I googled that people seem to wear one just as a fashion accessory, now, too. So I can’t see how anyone would assume you were wearing it for religious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/7 "2011-08-18T10:21:59Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > I’m sure nobody at the funeral will be standing there going “How dare she cover her head at this humanist funeral?!” Maybe not, but I am very conscious that religion and religious practices do tend to intrude especially in life cycle events where they aren’t necessarily wanted, and I don’t want to be insensitive. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/8 "2011-08-18T10:27:45Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > Maybe not, but I am very conscious that religion and religious practices do tend to intrude especially in life cycle events where they aren’t necessarily wanted, and I don’t want to be insensitive. That’s true, but it’s not like it’s a head covering with an overt religious association like a yarmulke or a hijab, it’s just a rather sedate hat. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/9 "2011-08-19T15:49:38Z")
Well, I was the only one there with any kind of hat or head covering, and I felt quite awkward, especially when someone came up to me at the wake and said, “GREAT hat! Where’d you get it?” I will have to figure out a way to cover my head that is neither overtly religious nor likely to be perceived as a bold fashion statement. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-covering-ones-head-for-a-funeral-a-religious-thing/593133/10 "2011-08-20T04:29:48Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > I will have to figure out a way to cover my head that is neither overtly religious nor likely to be perceived as a bold fashion statement. Wear a wig. Truly, seeing someone wearing a wintry-type hat in the summer heat is probably more startling than seeing a bare head especially at a non-hat-wearing-non-religion ceremony. Even my Catholic relatives don’t wear hats to funerals, nor head-coverings of any type. Maybe your discomfort is just from your lack of funeral-going experience.