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== Washing and shrouding ==
In Basque society, it was the neighbours, ''auzokideak'', who would gather around the family when a death occurred. Nowadays, neighbours reach out in such circumstances but tentatively “out of respect and not to get in the way"way”. When their presence is requested, nobody refuses.
In general, the shrouding was the work of women. The nearest or first women neighbour would often require the help of a man or other female neighbour to move and prepare the corpse properly.
Families can now be said to entrust the shrouding to funeral or health professionals, but the neighbours will step up when their help is needed.
=== Ways of washing the corpse. Gorpu-garbitzea ===
In general, the washing of the corpse was and continues to be cursory; it involves cleaning those parts of the body where the traces of the death throes are most noticeable: face, hands and feet. The corpse is only washed completely, usually with soap and water, in those cases where the dying person has “soiled” themselves at the end, ''libratzen danian'' (Azkaine-L).
A very widespread custom was to place on the body the scapular or medal of the congregation or brotherhood to which the deceased had belonged. The most frequent were the scapulars of El Carmen, of the Third Franciscan Order, the medals of the Marian congregants and the Daughters of Mary sashes.
=== Death indulgences. Hilen buldak ===
In the southern Southern Basque Country (lying within Spain), the "death indulgences", which could be bought in all the parishes along with the Bull of the Crusade, were of great religious importance in the past<ref>The Bull of the Crusade was a papal bull granted to the Kingdom of Spain in the 16th century. It was proclaimed annually in the parishes and was bought by means of alms given in proportion to income. The holder was the beneficiary of different graces and favours. These included being exempted from the general law of fasting and absence and the application of a plenary indulgence in case of death. The latter was known popularly as the “death indulgence”.</ref>. The Church thus granted a plenary indulgence for the soul of the decease for whom one was sought. The person seeking the indulgence had to confess and commune within eight days.
In Bizkaia and GipzukoaGipuzkoa, the family of the deceased generally collected the indulgence forms (summaries) from the parish and placed them on a table in the funeral room. The people who visited, if they wanted to, took one and placed it on the coffin and left the relevant amount of money on the tray that was then given to the church. In NavarraNavarre, the family bought the death indulgences from the parish office and gave them directly to the people in charge of closing the coffin to place them in it.
=== Secular objects ===
