[His mannerism is composed, merely formal, as if explaining a cultural quirk rather than a rather personal ritual.]

It's traditional to burn a lock of hair. [... a memory, still hazy, almost gone, of Cordelia a few days ago...] Sometimes more, if lock doesn't seem enough. Items of worth, symbolic or otherwise, often are included, as well as incense.

Sometimes, words are spoken, memories, curses, sometimes, hopes.

And then most go out to eat- we fast, beforehand.