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The cortege, in principle, was formed at the home of deceased, from which it left for the church, or it went first to the cemetery and after the burial to the church. As has been described in the removal of the corpse, a small cortege made of the closest neighbours and relatives walked to an agreed point of the location that could be different depending on the neighbourhood from which deceased came. Other members of the cortege and the ecclesiastical chapter would be waiting there. This stop was used by the people to change clothes and shoes. From then onwards, the cortege with all solemnity started or would set off again to the parish. There would be people who joined the cortege along the route, particularly at the stops made at the crossroads or, finally, in the urban centre and the door of the church.
In the past, the organisation of the cortege and the order that each element must have there were rigid, but today the cortege is more diverse and is even chaotic at times. The neighbours had a key place in the cortege in many locations. They sometimes headed it with precedence over the relatives, at other times they shared the lead of the cortege and, circumstantially, the neighbours would replace them in places where the blood relatives did not attend<ref>Bonifacio de ECHEGARAY. “The neighbourhood. Relations that it produces in the Basque Country” in RIEV, XXIII (1932) p. 26.</ref>. Such was their importance in the cortege that in the village of Aduna in Gipuzkia Gipuzkoa they said: ''Leenbizi auzua, gero, progun tokatzen zaiona'' (first, the neighbour; then whichever mourner who followed)<ref>AEF, III (1923) p. 74.</ref>.
Throughout the Basque Country<ref>José Miguel de BARANDIARAN. ''Estelas Funerarias del País Vasco. ''. San Sebastián, 1970, p. 35.</ref>, a distinction was widely made between two groups in the funeral cortege. Those who went as an ''obligation''“obligation”, who were from the household of the deceased or had special ties with it, and those who went out of ''charity''“charity”, who did not belong to the household, but who had ties with its dwellers at another social level, where the common factor was Christian charity.
In the past, the existence of brotherhoods and religious associations for funeral purposes or "post-mortem" assistance was very common. The brothers nominated for the role or the stewards took part with their standards and labara and the remaining brothers carried torches or candles. They also carried the coffin in some locations. Young women and spinsters belonged to congregations and religious associations played a similar role to the brotherhoods by accompanying the coffin along the route of the cortege. If the deceased had been well known, an ecclesiastical or civil authority, the municipal council members or its band would accompany the coffin on its final journey.
No differences worth mentioning were noted regarding whether the deceased was male or female. Some specific features were noted in the case of the burial of children. It was common practice that, as a funeral cortege passed by, people stopped, ''on ne croise pas un mort'', and make the sign of the cross, ''Aitaren aitaren egin'', or prayed. The men would take their hat off, ''gapelua kentzen zuten''.
Neighbours have played, and to some extent continue to play, an more eminent role in rural than in urban areas, in all aspects related both to the funeral formalities and to the help provided to the family to offset the situation created by the loss of the deceased.