Смъртта и светостта в православието
Death and Holiness in Orthodoxy

A Look at Some Burial Customs in Northwestern Bulgaria

Author(s): Kameliya Boshlova
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Пловдивски университет »Паисий Хилендарски«
Keywords: death; holiness; Orthodoxy; burial customs; Northwestern Bulgaria
Summary/Abstract: The article contains 4 paragraphs. At first death is regarded as a result of the first-born sin which takes away from human beings the ability to be attached to God's Holiness. The second paragraph presents historically relationship death-holiness in the ancient Greek civilization, and the changes brought by the monotheistic Hebrew religion. The third paragraph sets out the crucial role of the death of Jesus Christ for the Orthodox eschatology, Who, defeating death, turns it into a sacred tool of the believers’ salvation. In the last paragraph the author describes as an eyewitness and participant some funeral rituals, preserved and still practiced by the Vlachs in the village of Gamzovo, Northwestern Bulgaria. Basically the author draws our attention to her vision that, despite their pre-Christian origin, these traditions should not be condemned as superstitions, because they are influenced by the Christian Orthodox concept of death and afterlife.

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