"A workplace remains empty today." A New Ideology of Death and Funeral Ritualism during the State Socialism in Bulgaria (1950s-1970s)
"A workplace remains empty today." A New Ideology of Death and Funeral Ritualism during the State Socialism in Bulgaria (1950s-1970s)

Summary/Abstract: The author deals with the processes of the ideologization of the traditional Christian rituals by the totalitarian communist state. Scenarios for new funeral rituals were design to overcome the “remains of the past” and the “reactionary influence” of religion. In the new ideology, a person did not have any other value except as "a laborer" and "a reproductive unit". Of course what was considered most valuable, was his/her loyalty to the Party and the socialist state. Nevertheless of the Party control and suppression the new rituals did not play the task they were meant for – to affirm new concepts of death and life.

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