Une coutume moins analysee présente dans le cadre du ceremonial funebre chez les Roumains. La liberation a l’eau

Abstract

Unlike other Romanian traditions, the funeral ceremony and the beliefs woven around it have changed little in time and have been preserved almost unchanged. The third stage of the funeral rite – the integration in the world of the dead and the resetting of the social balance broken after the departure of the deceased – generates a whole series of customs according to the Romanian popular beliefs concerning the funeral ceremony: the daily prayers during 40 days (pomenirea), the daily alms during 40 mornings (diminetile), the delivery of water (caratul apei), the saying goodbye to the soul at the water (datul drumului apei) (6 weeks after the moment of death), this last custom symbolizing the final departure of the soul of the deceased person and a first moment of reestablishment of the social balance (the renunciation to the black veil hung over the door of the house, the renunciation to the black clothes of mourning, the shaving of the beard worn by men) and a resuming of the usual daily life.