Presentación
This volume is devoted to customary funeral rites. It opens with the omens of death, next come the throes, and finally the actual death. Care and attention given to the dying person, causes for the death throes dragging on and remedies to stop them dragging on are likewise accounted for. The administration of viaticum and sacramental anointing of the sick, Christian rites of passage from life to death, are also described.
All activity ceased in the house of the deceased when death occurred. Attention is given to the following: mourning of the bereaved household and notification of the death; washing and shrouding of the corpse, wake or vigil, room with the deceased, laying out of the corpse, and coffin; and corpse ways, bearing of the corpse to the church, bearers, and funeral cortège.
A description of the events that took place in church follows: obsequies and the funeral mass, obsequial days and anniversary masses; offerings and suffrages at the church grave; act of burial and bereavement prior to and after the burial; return of the cortège to the house of the deceased, funeral feast and refreshments for the attendees; duration of the mourning period and mourning apparel; commemoration of the dead and religious brotherhoods for the dead; burial places and internment methods; and lastly, beliefs and popular legends about ghosts and wandering spirits.
Trabajo de campo llevado a cabo en 85 poblaciones (Álava: 18; Bizkaia: 17; Gipuzkoa: 13; Navarra: 18; Vasconia Continental: 19). Campaña de investigación realizada en 1990. Publicación del tomo: 1993, reedición: 2005). Fue primordial la información obtenida en el País Vasco continental en el bienio 1987-89 por el grupo Etniker Iparralde, beneficiario de la beca de etnografía José Miguel de Barandiaran, que aplicó la encuesta en 69 localidades de los tres territorios norpirenáicos; para esta obra se tuvieron en cuenta fundamentalmente los materiales de 19 encuestas seleccionadas.
