A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Ethnographica 6. (Szeged, 2008)

Czank Gábor: „Jaj, siralmas szomorú szó!" Temetkezési szokások Magyarpécskán és környékén

TÜSKÉS Gábor 1986 „Mert ezt Isten hagyta... " Tanulmányok a népi vallásosság köréből. Magvető kiadó, Budapest. SZÉKELY László 1993 Csíki áhítat. A csíki székelyek vallási néprajza. Szt. István Kiadó, Budapest. Burial Customs in Magyarpécska and its Vicinity by GÁBOR CZANK Magyarpécska is situated in the region earlier named as Csanád county. It is a village in the Banat region that was re-populated in the 18th century, and, since 1920, has been part of Romania. Apart from Hungarians from the Northern Hungarian Highlands, its population is built up of German- and Slovakspeaking settlers. The settlement has grown into a market-town and today has a population of 13000. 4600 residents speak Hungarian as their mother-tongue; there are a minimal number of German-, Serbian- and Slovak-speaking people, and approximately 8000 Romanian living in the town. Among the traditional settlement customs the most vivid ones are those connected to burying. Why these customs can live on is owing to the fact that, except for the major cities in Romania, the tradition of laying the deceased in state at home and the organizing of wakes is still kept up. The stages of burying customs may vary depending on the given nationality or religious denomination. In the study, the detailed description of the Roman Catholic Hungarian customs in Magyarpécska is supplemented by references to the traditions of Protestant Germans and Orthodox Serbs and Romanians. Speaking of death in Magyarpécska and its neighbouring villages is not a taboo. Even the young (in their teens and twenties) do not shudder with fear when they have to help to dress a deceased grandparent or relative and lay him or her in state. The middle-aged and elderly population often discusses their preparation for death, and many buy their coffins, shrouds and graves in their lives. They often organize the circumstances of their burial in advance: they say what objects to bury with them, who should stand by their catafalque etc. In the paper, a broad spectrum of customs and traditions are listed and typified in relation to death, from the signs of death to the mourning following the funeral. The custom of funeral from home preserved several old traditions: taking pre-praying specialists and "singers" (wailers), decorating the room of the home where the catafalque will be raised, dressing the corpse and laying it in the coffin. The way the corpse is dressed depends on the age of the deceased: if the deceased was young and not married, s/he is buried in a wedding wear. Several religious and magical images are attributed to the objects buried with the deceased in the coffin (e.g. a rosary, a prayer-book, a copy of the miraculous image of nearby Radna; and some personal objects: a pipe, glasses, a pack of cards, a bottle of fruit brandy 'pálinka', some medicine, a comb, a handkerchief etc.). Death is also an opportunity for socializing and meeting relatives: unwritten community rules regulate who can be present at the "wake", at the ceremony of the "asking for the corpse" (the part of obsequies carried out at the home of the deceased) and at the funeral itself, and how they must behave. To organize a feast following the burial is a custom well-respected; however, the meals served are not homemade but purchased in stores these days. After the funeral, the house where the deceased was laid in state is re-arranged and the grave is maintained according to the traditional rules. The length of mourning for parents and for children is one year, for grandparents, brothers or sisters it is six months, and for more distant relatives it is six weeks. Mourning women wear black clothes, mourning men wear only a black ribbon on their garment. There are some important participants present at the burial customs in Magyarpécska: they are the "singers". Mainly women take the role of following the dead by singing songs from hand-written lay hymn-books or pontificals from the wake till the entombing itself. For generations, the singers have copied the songs into notebooks for each occasion by hand. These records are akin to the folk songs of religious chapbook literature.