Thanks for your incredibly rich essay Melinda....and I do miss hearing the old church bells for some reason.....On another note your discussion of honoring sculls remind me of something I have just read.I recently told me daughter, Greeks really know how to do funerals! This was based on all the lavishly dressed funeral attendees I’ve encountered in Montreal Orthodox services. Her father/my husband’s family is from Southern Greece, from Laconia. Recently I found some research on Greek funerals in that area, in particular in Mani. The culture has been characterized as militaristic and patriarchal. (There were many pirates from this area during the Turkish occupation.) Young girls until recently were sold for their doweries and spent much of their life slaving in home and field. Elderly women thought reigned supreme at funerals. It was almost as if it was their chance to show power-driven, materialistic, macho men where we all end up.
These old black clad women were more powerful than the village priest and up until the mid-20th century, they were the ones who, after 3 years had passed, dug up the corpse in the coffin, de-fleshed it, and purified the bones with a solution of vinegar and herbs. This was called “The Opening,” and people came from miles around to pay their respects and feast. And although I couldn’t find much about this additional practice, these elderly funeral priestesses used the vinegar purified bones in oracular ways. The bones were then prepared for re-burial, and the village priest did his small Christian part…..For what I read, not doing ‘The Opening” meant disrespecting the dead and abandoning them to rot away.
Apparently Southern Greece was late to be Christianized as were parts of Eastern Europe and into Russia. So these old way continued for a very long time.
Thanks for your incredibly rich essay Melinda....and I do miss hearing the old church bells for some reason.....On another note your discussion of honoring sculls remind me of something I have just read.I recently told me daughter, Greeks really know how to do funerals! This was based on all the lavishly dressed funeral attendees I’ve encountered in Montreal Orthodox services. Her father/my husband’s family is from Southern Greece, from Laconia. Recently I found some research on Greek funerals in that area, in particular in Mani. The culture has been characterized as militaristic and patriarchal. (There were many pirates from this area during the Turkish occupation.) Young girls until recently were sold for their doweries and spent much of their life slaving in home and field. Elderly women thought reigned supreme at funerals. It was almost as if it was their chance to show power-driven, materialistic, macho men where we all end up.
These old black clad women were more powerful than the village priest and up until the mid-20th century, they were the ones who, after 3 years had passed, dug up the corpse in the coffin, de-fleshed it, and purified the bones with a solution of vinegar and herbs. This was called “The Opening,” and people came from miles around to pay their respects and feast. And although I couldn’t find much about this additional practice, these elderly funeral priestesses used the vinegar purified bones in oracular ways. The bones were then prepared for re-burial, and the village priest did his small Christian part…..For what I read, not doing ‘The Opening” meant disrespecting the dead and abandoning them to rot away.
Wow, that's fascinating! Thanks for sharing all of this information, Charlotte.
Apparently Southern Greece was late to be Christianized as were parts of Eastern Europe and into Russia. So these old way continued for a very long time.
This text is an in-depth study of Southern Greece funeral practices......"The Last Word: Women,
Death and Divination in Inner Mani," by C. Nadia Seremetakis. U of Chicago P, 1991.
Thank you so much!