Paper short abstract:

In Orthodox Karelian funeral rites, the preparation of the deceased for the otherworld was an extended ritual process. The paper discusses the inscription of funeral rites onto space and lamenting as communication between the dead and the living.

Paper long abstract:

At the turn of the 20th century, Finnish folklorists encountered in Border Karelia a people that had maintained their old customs and beliefs while the rest of Finland was modernizing. They were mainly orthodox, but their religion was a distinctive combination of elements from vernacular beliefs and the official doctrines of the orthodox church.

Due to the physical absence of the church, the lament singer was the ritual leader of funerals. The preparation of the deceased for the otherworld was an extended ritual process, its main stages being the home, the road to the graveyard, and the graveyard.

The ritual leader used the special language of lamenting for contact with the otherworld. I will discuss the funeral rites by drawing mainly on the data collected in the beginning of the 20th century from the Suistamo-born lamenter specialist Matjoi Plattonen (1842-1928).

The paper focuses on the orthodox Karelian conception of death and its reflection on the funeral rituals, as well as the symbolic inscribing of meaning onto space and place. What was the "sacred language" and how did it build bridges between the communities of the dead and the living? How did it keep the balance between the two? The Karelian orthodox revered the christian church but practised non-christian customs as well. How did these two worldviews meet in the Karelian funeral rites and their inscription onto space?