Dead and buried: funeral rituals at the university (2024)

6 June 2024

One of the most difficult things I have had to do in my career at the university was speaking at the funeral of a colleague who had died much too soon. Besides it being emotionally taxing, you lack grip, a fixed form which can help you in such a sad task. Still, there were times in which the university actually did have rules for displays of bereavement.

The funus: a guide in times of mourning

In times of drastic events such as a bereavement, people have created rituals and protocols. They give direction during emotional moments and make the suffering – at least at that moment – bearable. Such rituals are culturally determined and within that framework, subcultures often have their own ways of dealing with strong feelings. When it came to death, the university had its own death rituals for a long time, the so-called funus.

When a student passed away, professors would often walk in mourning clothes to that student's house and then to the cemetery.

Beadle's staff shrouded in black fabric

However, it was the intention that the professors would be in the back of the funeral procession. From the Senate Hall, which was a little building next to the Auditorium of Utrecht University Hall at the time, where the corridor to the Faculty Club currently is, they would hold a procession to the house of the deceased. In front of or next to the Rector's carriage, the two Beadles would walk with their staffs shrouded in black fabric for the occasion. From the house of the deceased, the procession would proceed to the graveyard. If a student had died, the professors would sometimes also proceed to this student's house in mourning clothes and then to the graveyard.

As it is often the case with rituals, they become rigid and rusty. In the eighteenth century, for instance, there was commotion about the professors' place in the procession. They were being moved further and further to the back of the line and the gentlemen did not like that. This was followed by the founding of an actual commission to investigate how more and more persons came to take up positions at the front of the university delegation.

Professors’ eulogies sometimes ended in a display of scholarship and eloquence.

The funus was taken over by students

In the nineteenth century, the students took over the funus, so to speak. Just like they had taken over many university traditions: they, too, had a ‘rector’ and a ‘senate’ in their associations by that time. And if a fellow student died from that point onwards, the family were asked if they would appreciate a funus and if they wanted it to be big or small.

In a big funus, all members of the association would join in mourning clothes with a bow in the faculty colour on the arm. The coffin would then be carried by fellow students. In a small funus, only a small student delegation would attend. The procession would then pass by the then-current university building at the Munsterkerkhof, which is currently the Dom Square. There, the Beadles would then be standing outside with their staffs shrouded in black fabric and make deep bows to the hearse.

Death struck often among the students. There were years in which four or five students died ‘of a destructive illness’, the almanac would then often note. Some already stated on their sick beds to not want a funus, but there were also foreign students far from home who brought their own customs.

Funeral by torchlight

In 1843, the German student Friedrich Haas was buried in the evening at 10 pm by torchlight. A music band playing mourning music walked in front of the hearse. The procession also featured a small number of students in special costumes sporting half black, half white sashes and a sabre in each right hand. Another song was sung next to the coffin and after the grave was closed, the torches were thrown on top of it. Finally, a last song was sung.

But the students' funus eventually eroded too. In the 1880s, especially the drink afterwards turned out to become more important than the service and there were talks about abolishing the funus. What did remain for a while were well-known professors' big funerals. For instance, F.C. Donders' funeral in 1889 at Oud Zuilen was a true happening.

Thousands of people attended for Nicolaas Beets

The funeral held for church historian Nicolaas Beets, the famous author of Camera Obscura, in 1903 was even a society event of sorts. Representatives of Queen Wilhelmina and Queen Mother Emma rode at the front of the procession. Thousands of people attended when the procession starting from his residence at the Boothstraat passed Utrecht University Hall on the way to the grave.

Photographs show a tightly packed crowd. Beets was a beloved Utrechter, but his funeral was kind of a spectator show. This kind of ritual barely has a place at the academy today: in that sense, well-known academics have become more private persons too.