Holy crap, there’s an incredible markup on caskets! My mom passed away in October and the wooden casket we bought at the funeral home was about twice as expensive as the ones on the website. And it wasn’t any fancier. Maybe I should pre-order one for myself. Although storage might be problematic.
Also the head of the household during the Passover seder.
Not in every family, although it’s a common custom. Of the four families I’ve ever had sedarim with, I think only one has been led by someone in a kittel.
My father and brother don’t even wear a kittel on Yom Kippur, as this is not our family’s custom. They both wore them at their weddings (I think this is universal among Ashkenazim), but I don’t think either has ever taken it out since. Not wearing a kittel on Yom Kippur is fairly unusual.
The linked caskets look much fancier than any I’ve ever seen at an Orthodox funeral, FWIW. They’ve always been made of unfinished wood that’s squared-off rather than rounded on top, with no handle-rods running down the sides. I doubt they’ve got silky padded lining, either, although I’ve never seen the interior (we don’t do open-casket funerals).
Actually, a kittel would only be used for men, and not all men are buried in a in one. We’ve had many buried in just the tachrichim, the multi-part burial clothing. (I am a member of our community cheva kadisha, or burial society.)
This the greatest mitsvah of all.