As with other conifers, due to their shape that points to the sky (heaven), cedar trees are often used as a symbol of immortality and elevation. They are sometimes associated with Mary (the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven).
Though this would the main meaning in funerary symbolism, cedar trees also hold some other meanings, especially in other cultures. These include the values ofIncorruptibility (Virgil and other classical writers believed that the cedar represented incorruptibility, claiming that this wood was used to make statues of the gods); Protection (its drooping boughs suggest protectiveness, and Native Americans saw the red cedar as a symbol of protectiveness); or Strength (in Lebanon, due to the size and longevity of the cedar tree, poets and artists have used the tree as a sign of strength and eternity).