Dancing in the cemetery and meeting with the dead: how different peoples represented the afterlife
Miscellaneous / / July 09, 2023
Find out why the Slavs “warmed grandfather”, and the Mexicans brought burgers and cola to rest.
Psychologist Elena Foer and writer Maria Ramzaeva published a book "Death in the big city». The first part is a historical digression about how people's attitude to death has changed over the centuries, what rituals and traditions were associated with it. The second is a practical guide to help you realize your own mortality and prepare in advance for the last day.
With the permission of Alpina Publisher, we publish an excerpt from which you will learn about how different peoples saw the "other world", why it was an honor to have a grave inside the church and other curious details.
Afterlife
The calm acceptance of death in the traditional approach is connected not only with its proximity, but also with the fact that people knew for sure that the end of earthly life is not the end of life in general. Earthly life is full of suffering: hard work, illness, wars, famine, while in the next world prosperity awaits you and a reward for a pious life.
Despite Christian dogmas, the idea of punishment and subsequent hell with devils tormenting sinners was not common among the common population, adhering to the traditional approach to of death. For them, the Last Judgment was an event postponed indefinitely, which will occur only with the second coming of Jesus Christ. And therefore, from their point of view, nothing threatened a person after death, except for the possibility of becoming a pawn dead.
For the Slavs and for some other peoples, the transition to another world was a transition in the literal sense: the soul still had to get to that world, overcoming obstacles.
Which ones - depended on the beliefs of a particular people. Often the deceased needed to swim across a river or other body of water, and here the motif of a ferrying guide was met - from Charon in ancient Greek mythology to St. Eastern Slavs. Another way to the next world - go along a thin thread over a cliff or a fiery river, and if the burden of sins is too great, you can fall.
Interesting performance Slavs that you need to climb into the next world along a smooth crystal mountain, and lucky the one who during his life did not throw away the sheared nails: they will grow and help climb the mountain. Otherwise, you will have to return to the world of the living and look for them.
Remaining in our world in every possible way helped soul to safely reach the new world and not get stuck in the old one. So, during the removal of the deceased, all windows and doors were opened to make it easier for the soul to fly away. But as soon as the body was taken away, the doors and windows were closed, the floor was washed in the house in order to “wash away” the way back for the deceased, and the things associated with him (dishes, bed linen on which he died) were thrown out into the street.
In the traditional approach, two ideas about life collided after death. At first she is very similar for ordinary life. In it, a person also had a home, a need for food and clothing, and social ties. Posthumous existence largely depended on how, in what and with what a person would be buried. […]
Beautiful, but uncomfortable clothes and shoes prevented the Slavic dead from reaching the other world.
It is even worse if they were buried in a dilapidated and leaky one: even if it does not crumble along the way, other dead laugh. Sometimes, to please the dead in the next world, to his coffin put favorite things and money - for the ferryman or as a way to stake out the grave.
The “other world” itself looked different. So, in the Slavic tradition there were common stories about the other world as a beautiful city, monastery or palace. Each building was built to the glory, and people were happy to do their usual things, without experiencing fatigue and pains, or feasted and enjoyed food. Sometimes it was an indescribable space, full of light and joy.
However, most often in folk beliefs, European and Slavic, the other world represented a beautiful evergreen garden in which everyone lives in peace and prosperity. There are no diseases, grief and suffering in it, people enjoy life and abide in eternal bliss.
The Slavs believed in a close connection between the familiar world and the afterlife. For example, in the other world, souls often ate funeral food. How a person will eat after death was also influenced by his behavior and well-being in a previous life. However, views on this differed.
Some consideredthat rich and full will be the one who gave a lot of alms. Others believed in property stratification in the next world: rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. In accordance with the second idea, after death, people fell into the antipode of life: a place without time, light and sounds. They do not live there, but are in a state close to sleep, or in a full sleep. This is the representation, for example, ancient greeks and the Romans. The afterlife is a place of the night that brings sleep, and the souls of the dead are not full-fledged thinking beings, but shadows.
A similar concept was common in medieval Europe.
The dead fell asleep until the second coming, when everyone, except for terrible sinners, had to wake up and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Just like the pagan dead, they do not feel the passage of time and wake up as if they had just died yesterday. IN legend about the seven youths of Ephesus, the Lord, to put to shame heretics, who do not believe in the possibility of resurrection, revives Christian martyrs, immured 200 years ago. They wake up, as if from a dream, and are amazed at the changes, because, according to them, not even a day has passed.
In Russia, a similar idea of posthumous existence persisted as early as the 19th century. In some places, mainly in villages, believedthat after death, souls fall into a kind of wasteland, in which they await the Last Judgment. There is no torment, no joy - a kind of analogue of the kingdom of Hades.
As a rule, both traditional ideas about after death. The beautiful city of the other world often became a place where souls rested after death, waiting for the second coming, and the dead slept in an evergreen garden.
Dancing in the cemetery and meeting with the dead
The ancient Greeks with the Romans and the ancient Slavs did not have a cemetery as such. the dead buried in nature, away from settlements, or right on their own land.
With the advent of Christianity, burials moved to churches. The relics of saints and martyrs were laid in the foundations of churches, and the place automatically became holy. In Rus', princes and their relatives often acted as saints, although the algorithm of actions was somewhat different. Even during their lifetime, the princes laid the foundation of the church, in the walls of which tombs were cut. They gradually filled up and, like the relics of saints, made the place sacred.
The idea of the superpowers of princes ascended even to the pagan Slavic beliefs, as if the very presence of the ruler in the city protected from troubles. With acceptance Christianity the relics of the princes began to be considered miraculous: during troubles they were carried around the city, they were prayed for intercession. And it doesn’t matter how bad the ruler was during his lifetime. In one chronicle tellshow the Novgorodians, dissatisfied with Prince Vsevolod Mstislavovich, expelled him, but after the death of the prince demanded back his relics, so that they would heal the townspeople and work miracles.
Proximity to holy relics brought benefits and after death. Improper burial, as well as desecration of the grave, could lead to a curse, turn the deceased into a pawn, or prevent a subsequent resurrection. The saint extended his holiness to his neighbors, protecting them from possible troubles, and people strove to be buried nearby.
The place inside the church was considered the most honorable, and only the most noble people could afford it: princes and kings, the highest church ranks.
Later, nobles join this list, then people who have distinguished themselves before the country, and everyone who could afford it. Despite the high cost such burial, the floors of the churches consisted entirely of tombstones, turning the temples into a kind of small cemeteries. In Russia, the tradition of burying inside the church survived until the 20th century. Until now, if you pay attention to the floor and walls of many churches, you can see gravestones. Sometimes they are richly decorated, as, for example, the grave of the commander Kutuzov in Kazan Cathedral.
People less noble were content with places next to the church and further in the degree of decrease in their nobility and financial capabilities. The places at the cemetery fence were the least honored, which, however, could not be compared with the graves of the poor. Those who could not pay for a separate burial were waiting for mass graves - giant pits that could hold thousands of corpses. Their used during mass deaths from starvation or disease, but over time, this method of burying began to be used in quiet times due to the limited space of the cemetery. So, in a report on the state of Parisian cemeteries of the XVIII century. are described pits containing more than 500 corpses, and Samuil Kichel in the 16th century. described Pskov mass graves for thousands of commoners.
However, in Europe there was another way to deal with the "overpopulation" of cemeteries. When the cemetery filled up, bones from old graves dug out and stacked or paraded in ossuaries - special places or rooms, many of which have survived to this day. One of the most famous is the Church of All Saints in the Czech city of Sedlec.
Excommunicated, damned or criminals were buried separately or not buried at all. First of all, this concerned the executed, who, as we remember, were the “badest” dead. hanged could hang out in a loop for years, and parts of the quartered bodies were put on public display.
Dancing in the graveyard
Modern people avoid cemeteries, unless they turn into pleasant parks. Cemeteries inspire melancholy, make you think about death, when everyone wants to oust it from life. In the Middle Ages, with its calm perception of the dead, the attitude was different.
Due to the proximity to the church and the large enough space, cemeteries became centers of social life.
On them traded, met with friends, played, made dates. You could find everything there, from knick-knacks to alcohol and prostitutes. It was often at the cemetery that court hearings were held, and if there was not enough space in prisons, criminals could be locked up there. It is in the cemetery of Saint-Ouen in Rouen announced judgment of Joan of Arc.
The cemetery had the status of a refuge, and people who had nowhere to go settled there, they even erected buildings, kept shops. The church opposed such disrespectful treatment, but could do nothing. According to Aries, in 1231 The Synod of Rouen, under pain of excommunication, forbade dancing in the cemetery. The same rule had to be recalled almost 200 years later, in 1405: forbidden dance, play games, and put on performances for mimes, jugglers, and itinerant musicians.
They committed atrocities in cemeteries, by church standards, and in Rus'. Yes, Stoglav condemns the tradition of jumping and dancing in the cemetery with buffoons and sing satanic songs on Trinity.
Despite the prohibitions and protests of the church, the cemeteries remained the centers of social life for a long time. Back in the 18th century, until its closure, the cemetery of the Innocents in Paris remained a favorite place for walks and meetings, where in between times one could buy at least a book, at least a skein of thread for embroidery.
Encounters with the Dead
In the traditional view, the boundary between this and that worlds was rather shaky. Either it was believed that on certain days the dead came home to the living, or on these days the living went to the cemetery to the dead. In any case, it was necessary to take care of the deceased. If the souls seemed to be returning back to their home, then during the meal they put cutlery for them. If souls were met in the cemetery, they brought food there.
And in order to warm the dead, bonfires were kindled at the graves or near the house.
Among the Slavs, this tradition was called “warming parents”, “warming grandfather” or even “warming the legs of the dead” and existed until the end of the 19th century. And the tradition of feeding the dead has survived to this day. On memorial days, Orthodox bring sweets, pancakes, bread, eggs, kutya to the cemetery. Some are eaten alive, some remain on the grave for deceased.
However, if among Europeans, including the Slavs, the tradition of “meeting” the dead was reduced to separate actions, then there are still places where such meetings become central event. Funeral days are brightly held in Mexico. On the Day of the Dead, from November 1 to 2, relatives call back their dead, bringing gifts to them. Special home altars or graves, on which memorabilia and clothes of the dead are hung, are decorated with flowers. Sacrificial food is interspersed with the favorite food of the dead, while traditional bagels and Coke burgers can be seen at the same time. At night, thousands of candles are lit on the graves, bonfires are burning, music is playing.
Among the Toraji people in Indonesia, meetings with the dead are literal. During the manene rite, relatives take out their mummified dead people from grave houses, air and clean these houses, cleanse the bodies of the dead, change their clothes. Torajans do it carefully, explaining every action to dead relatives, telling them the news, stroke their hands and faces and rejoice in meeting with the dead just as with living loved ones after a long separation.
When death comes
There is no finality in traditional death. One way or another, people could see the dead. But it is curious that physical death, as a rule, was not considered real.
The Slavs believed that the deceased feels everything until the first handful of earth falls on him. But even then he was not completely dead, and for the first 40 days it was considered normal if he returned. So, in the Smolensk region, the road to the cemetery carpeted flowers for the young dead, or spruce branches for the old. I myself had the opportunity to participate in this ceremony when my Yartsevo grandmother died. Just like in childhood, I ended up next to the deceased and received a bunch of fir branches. The car (yes, progress does not stand still) was driving slowly towards the cemetery, and I had to throw branches back so that my dead grandmother would find her way back to the house.
For returning souls of the dead also within 40 days after death put water - to get drunk, a glass of vodka; honey, bread and salt - to eat.
With the "invention" of purgatory in the XII century. Catholics began to assumethat in addition to heaven and hell, there is also a third space in which the soul stays for some time, and while it is there, the fate of the deceased can be influenced from the outside: by prayers, alms.
Although officially the Orthodox Church does not recognize purgatory and believes that influence the fate of the deceased you can’t get close, there is a doctrine about the ordeals of the soul - those very 40 days the soul wanders and faces trials, and at this time it is recommended to perform all the same actions: read prayers and give alms to help the soul of a loved one, ready to appear before God. Only after 40 days the soul truly leaves the world and the person, as it were, finally dies.
The most amazing example life after physical death is represented by the Toraj already mentioned above. They believe that a person will die only when an animal is sacrificed. Prior to this, the deceased remains in the house, in bed, and they treat him as if he were seriously ill, but alive. They take care of him, talk to him and believe that he understands and feels everything. The funeral rite is carried out only after a few months, or even years, and only then, according to the beliefs of the Toraja, death occurs.
The book "Death in the City" will allow you to learn more about the taboo topic and understand how much you are afraid of death. The authors will help you deal with fears and teach you how to accept the thought of your own mortality.
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