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== The bearers. Hil-ohezaleak ==
The bearers were the people who carried the stretchers or pushed the platforms on which the body was taken from the house to the church and to the cemetery to be buried. By extension, and in more modern times, this same name was applied to the bearers of the coffin or casket which has replaced the old transport method.
In the past, according to the information gathered in the surveyed locations, there was a widespread custom that the neighbours of the home of the deceased would carry the stretcher or coffin. In those places with a strong tradition of brotherhoods, if the deceased was the member of one of them, the bearers of the stretchers were his fellow brothers. If the deceased owned several properties, it was common for the tenants to be tasked with bearing the corpse.
In Álava, according to tradition, the bearers were the youths of the neighbourhood or place where the deceased lived. They were also in charge of preparing and distributing the “charitable handout”. The surveys found that the custom of the coffin bearers being married or single neighbours according to the civil status of the deceased was common in Bizkaia. In the northern Northern Basque Country (lying within France)<ref>Michel DUVERT. “Données Ethnographiques ethnographiques sur le vécu traditionnel de la Mort mort en Pays Basquebasque-nord” in ''Munibe, '', XLII (1990) p. 481.</ref>, the coffin bearers, ''hilketariak'', were also neighbours of the house where the person had died. In general, the first (closest) neighbour, ''lehenauzoa'', was chosen and he had to carry out this mission with care so as not to leave out anyone who should have been involved.
With the passing of time, the old custom of the neighbours being the coffin bearers, even though it has not completely disappeared, has given way to the relatives and friends of the deceased being the ones tasked with carrying the corpse.
This has always been entrusted to men or youths, never to women. The only exception to this general rule was when a child had died, in which case the bearers in the northern Northern Basque Country were always of the same sex as the deceased. In other locations, it was also discovered that girls helped to move the remains of a young girl.
There is evidence that in certain places in the 19th century, the body was moved by professionals to whom the family paid a fee. More recently, the custom of people expressly dedicated to transporting the coffin was found in some places.
{{DISPLAYTITLE: X. TAKING THE CORPSE TO THE CHURCH}} {{#bookTitle:Funeral Rites in the Basque Country|Ritos_funerarios_en_vasconia/en}}
