**Three days of ceremonies to commemorate US Senator Edward Kennedy are due to begin with a family Mass at the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts.**Mr Kennedy’s body will then be driven to Boston, where his coffin will be placed for public viewing ahead of a memorial service and a funeral Mass.
Mr Kennedy’s death from cancer on Wednesday prompted a flood of tributes from the US and around the world.
He will be buried on Saturday evening at the Arlington National Cemetery.
After Thursday’s private Mass at the family compound in Hyannis Port, a motorcade carrying Mr Kennedy’s coffin will drive past some of the sites in Boston linked to his life, before delivering his coffin to the John F Kennedy presidential library and museum.
After the public have paid their respects, there will be an invitation-only memorial service at the library on Friday evening.
On Saturday, President Barack Obama is expected to address a funeral Mass for Mr Kennedy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston.
Mr Kennedy will be buried on Saturday next to his brothers, John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy, at the Arlington national cemetery in northern Virginia.
In the US, Mr Kennedy’s death has been seen as the end of an era.
The charismatic senator had long been the leader of one of America’s great political dynasties, following the assassinations of his brothers in 1963 and 1968.
In a televised tribute on Wednesday, Mr Obama called Mr Kennedy “one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy”.