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Paper short abstract:

The ritual of sealing the grave of the deceased plays an essential role in Ukrainian burials. The paper aims to describe how inner migration and urbanization contributed to the transformation of the sealed grave ritual, as well as delineate local people influence on Church and vice versa.

Paper long abstract:

The ritual of sealing the grave and the departed is an essential part of Ukrainian funeral. Urbanization, inner migration, and accelerated tempo of life contributed to changes in funeral service, as well as to the performance and interpretation of the sealed grave ritual. Also, recent events in Ukrainian Orthodoxy brought on ideological shift among folks. In turn, it caused changes in funeral service performance.

The paper aims to describe recently collected narratives about burial customs throughout different perspectives. It delineates intertwined relations between the Church, people and politics, and ritual transformation as a result. The performance and meaning of the sealed grave vary from region to region, and from urban area to countryside. The difference in whether it is possible to seal the grave of suicides and when exactly, can be seen too.

The paper is based on fieldwork material, collected in 2020-2021, and represents point of view both Church and local people. It also represents differences between Moscow Orthodox Church in Ukraine and Ukrainian United Orthodox Church.