Danica Djokich, Pozharevac
THE RITE OF A POSTHUMOUS WEDDING ON THE TERRITORY OF THE SOUTH SLAVS
The ritual practices related to birth, marriage and death are mutually and closely linked and conditioned. That means, that the performing of a defined rite practice related to one of the life phases was a condition for passing to the next one. If some part of the ritual is omitted from the previous ritual complex it would be performed later on. When a young man, or a girl, dies, a correct and a complete transfer to the world beyond could not exist without carrying out a wedding ritual. The wedding was a condition for an individual's joining the social community as well as the joining to the world beyond and the community of the ancestors. Contrary to this, the deceased would be left to wander between the two worlds turning into a demon being. So an entire comlex of posthumous rites was developed and their aim was to make up for a wedding ritual which could not regularly be performed because of a premature death. A posthumous wedding and various elements of a wedding ritual included in the posthumous rite belong to this ritual complex and they have the same value as the wedding.
The elements of the wedding ritual in funeral rites of the South Slavs can be divided in several groups. They are: burying the deceased in the wedding clothes, the rites connected with the bride's trousseau and wedding gifts (carrying the gifts in a funeral procession, giving the gifts after the funeral, leaving the gifts on the grave and encircling the churches with the linen from the bride's trousseau), then carrying the banner in the funeral procession imitating a wedding procession, carrying a decorated banner branch which reminds of a wedding branch, making and carrying the wedding wreath, including the persons from the wedding ritual, for example the bride, the bridegroom and the brother-in-law in the funeral procession and dancing folk dances during the funeral. We can consider these elements as a reduced form of a complex rite ceremony - a posthumous wedding.
The rite of a posthumous wedding contains almost all the mentioned elements united in a unique ritual complex. Besides those elements of the wedding ritual, music and shooting from firearms also appear in the rite of the posthumous wedding as it is always done during the weddings. Earlier with the Serbs in eastern Serbia, as well as with Bulgarians, the "singers" also took part in the ritual of the posthumous wedding. But on that occasion sad songs were played and sung. The posthumous wedding, as a complete ritual, was spread among the Serbs in Srem and southern Banat, among the Serbs, Vlachs and Shops inhabitants in eastern Serbia and among the Bulgarians. The posthumous wedding or "black wedding" is, even today, a vivid ritual among the Vlachs of the northeastern Serbia, thanks to their rooted belief in life after death.
Quelle:
Codes of Slavic Culture 3