just witnessed an ice cream man’s funeral and all the ice cream vans came and followed in solidarity I AM SOBBING pic.twitter.com/bJhyJj4JoK

— Louisa Davies (@LouisaD__) December 17, 2021

Sorry to bring you all to tears on a Friday afternoon, but I just had to share this footage of an ice cream man’s funeral in south London earlier today. As you can see, the funeral car is being followed by dozens of other ice cream vans blasting the classic ice cream man jingle, which is apparently a tradition in the ice cream community whenever one of them dies.

The amount of joy and happiness the ice cream man brings to people’s lives really can’t be overstated. So when we lose one, it should be a big deal. Although to be totally honest listening to all those jingles mesh together during a cold, British winter funeral was a bit creepy on some level. It sounds like the sort of jingle you’d hear when Satan welcomes you into hell or something. Just such a contrast to the feeling it gives you when you hear that same jingle during the bright summer months. Either way, seeing the ice cream community come together to honour one of their fallen brothers is as beautiful as it is sad. RIP Mr Ice Cream man, whoever you were.

For the gelato shop which has created Pigs in Blankets ice cream in time for Christmas, click HERE.