Bartha Júlia: Lâle. Hagyományok a mai török társadalomban, az emberélet fordulóinak népszokásai – Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 61. (2005)

Shawl money We have already mentioned the money for the bride. The kalim includes possessions, animals and other things, while the bashk parasi (shawl money) is the money paid to the bride's family. In the previous centuries it was very common in many cultures. The law accepts its existence and handles it in a quite flexible way. The man pays one half of the shawl money when he makes his promise, while the other half is due on the wedding. The woman has no right for the money until the day of the wedding. The amount of the shawl money is not fixed; it depends on the parties' agreement. III. Burial customs The popular culture of the Turkish in Anatolia is influenced by 47 regional, ethnical and religious groups. It serves as a basis for having a really rich cult of the dead. Although traditions of Islam have an influence on their funeral rites, archaic elements of the cultures of different ethnical groups are also reflected. There exist three main steps of a funeral and its preparations: - Descriptions of omens of death, views of death, beliefs and activities centred around a dying person. - One of the chapters gives a description of images of spirits, the ways of giving information, ritual washing of the dead and burial rites. - There are also offerings to the dead and rites in his memory and the regional and ethnical variants thereof. The book also introduces mourning and bewail, where the author analyses how the cohesion of the community works during the rites. Turkish peasant art in Anatolia is a representative sample of their respect for the traditions. One of the bewails, that is part of the popular poetry, is given in Turkish. You can also read about the connection between cemeteries and society. The focus on epitaphs is changing throughout the most characteristic eras of Turkish history, taking into consideration the customs of the different levels of society. This volume gives a view of the changing of epitaphs from the 11

th century until today. It is based 162