Mar 26 2007
Lych gate
Many English churches have a Lych gate at the entrance to the graveyard. I have not yet seen a Lych gate in the USA. The brief description of the gate I’ve found repeated across the web is:
a roofed gate to a churchyard, formerly used as a temporary shelter for the bier during funerals (noun)
The corpse waits in the Lych (Corpse) gate for the priest to come to it and start the ceremony. I have not found any online references to the ‘folk’ belief I somehow gathered as a child. My folk belief is that placing the corpse down in the lych gate somehow stopped evil (pagan?) spirits riding the body into the concecrated grounds of the churchyard.
St. Mary the Virgin, Portbury’s churchyard Lych Gate, dustbin and daffodils:
write the first thought on Lych gate
