CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH DEATH AND BURIAL AMONG THE ROUMANIANS.
(Read before the Society, April 16th. 1919.)
The following account of customs connected with death and burial among the Roumanians is derived from three sources :
1. My own observations during eleven years’ residence both in town and country in Roumania—I have come in contact with at least the most ordinary customs.
2. My husband’s observations during a life-time of travel in all the countries inhabited by Roumanians, including Bessarabia, where he was doing geological work in 1917 and 1918.
3. T. Stratilesco’s book, From Carpathian to Pindus, to which I shall refer as “S.” In this is found a description of many customs as well known to us as to all Roumanians, and some which neither my husband nor myself has seen.
The subject is of special interest at present because of the great number of deaths during the war, and the inability of relations to perform the customary rites. This is to the peasant one of the greatest tragedies of the war.
The attitude of the Roumanian peasant towards death is not one of great fear; he talks quite calmly of “when I shut my eyes,” and is even inclined to welcome the rest after his long toil. Care is taken that the proper arrangements for a fitting death are made, but the state of mind at death is not supposed to have any influence on the eternal future. There is a great deal of fatalism in the attitude both towards death and any other misfortune. It
