What do you call a funeral car?

What do you call a funeral car?

A hearse is a vehicle used to carry the dead in a coffin/casket. In the funeral trade of some countries hearses are called funeral coaches.

What do you call a horse drawn hearse?

Sometime in the 17th century, people starting using the word to refer to the horse-drawn carriages that conveyed the casket to the place of burial during a funeral procession. Advertisement. Hearses remained horse-drawn until the first decade of the 20th century, when motorized hearses began to appear.

Why do hearses have windows?

The original vehicle to convey the casket to the cemetery was a horse drawn carriage, or “coach” (which is why hearses are also commonly called “funeral coaches”). The side windows, landau bars and lights were both functional and decorative elements designed to draw attention to the social event known as death.

What happens old hearses?

Once the procession is over, the hearse moves on to the next before being retired or junked like any other car—but some, eventually, enter the world of curators, scholars, and collectors. The specialized vehicles can be seen and treated as design objects—ornate, even ostentatious.