Necrolog is the term used for printed death notices and its a Bulgarian tradition (and also observed in Serbia) that can be difficult to understand for foreigners, especially if you don’t understand the Bulgarian language.
At the entrance of the houses or apartment buildings, you’ll eventually come across printed papers with people’s pictures on them, some dates, and a little bit of text.
I hear foreigners sometimes think they’re wanted posters or missing person posters, but it’s not. This is how Bulgarians show and share their grief when someone passes away.
It’s traditional for family members to print these and put them up all around the area where the person lived. This custom is observed all around the country and effectively omnipresent in everyday life.
They are issued after a person’s death, and have a short biography of the person, along with the information on the date of death, memorial services, etc.
It is the way that the family to commemorate passed loved ones. They provide necessary information to the community as well for the many people who don’t have access to newspapers or other forms of information.
They are strange to see at first, but slowly we began to appreciate the way that the families of the departed honor and remember their loved ones. They pretty much stay posted until the time or the elements remove them, so many of them are several years old, and many families will tend to them and reapply newer ones so they won’t be forgotten.
The words from relatives and families are often beautiful, a heartfelt expression of the value that the person brought to their lives. They remind us of the people we have lost, and they ensure that a person is remembered in their neighborhood for many years after their passing.
Bulgarian funerals and their rituals
For each deceased after the funeral, commemorations are made by visiting the grave until one or 3 years after death.Orthodox Christians relatives of the dead visit the cemetery on the third, ninth, twentieth and fortieth day after death.
On the 40th day the grave is leveled and then the memorials are less often and made at 3, 6, 9 months, and one year.
In the initial period after the funeral, the closest women visit the grave daily, early in the morning before sunrise, sometimes twice a day in the morning and evening.
These daily visits to various places last until the end of the first week, until the 9th or the 40th day.During this period the deceased is called afresh souland during their visit, the women perform standard ritual actions at the grave – they burn incense, light a candle or chandeliers, pour water and wine over the grave, distribute food for the soul of the deceased.
A thirdis called a visit to the tomb the 3rd day after the funeral, which takes place early in the morning, before sunrise in complete silence.
The food brought by the women for the dead is eaten by them in silence at the grave.Then the women disperse.
It is believed that until the third day after death the soul remains in the house, and then until the 40th day it travels around all the places where the deceased went during his lifetime.That is why the remembrances are made more often during this period because it is believed that the deceased as a “fresh soul” has not yet left the world of the living.
When people go to the grave, varied food is distributed for “God forgive”.
Among the foods are ritual bread, boiled wheat, fruits according to the season, cooked dishes, and favorite foods of the deceased.Usually, the first ripe fruits are brought to the grave, from which the living can eat only after they have given to the dead.At all memorials the tomb is smoked, a vessel of water is left for the soul to drink, candles or chandeliers are lit to light it on its way to the afterlife, the tomb is poured with water and wine.
The 40th day after death is especially solemnly celebrated when the tomb is leveled. If the funeral is an act in which we say goodbye to the physical body of the deceased, then on the 40th day they say goodbye to the Soul.The old people say that on the 40th day the soul is forever transferred to Heaven, where it remains forever or until the Second Coming.
The commemoration of the year after a death is also celebrated solemnly, in the presence of more people and a priest, and in different places, it is called ananniversary
In addition, it is obligatory to make memorials for the deceased of all Assumption, which are a total of three times a year, the largest being the Archangel’s Assumption.
In addition to the relatives, who came to honor and pray for their loved ones, they also offer to the people around the neighboring graves, so that they can ask God for forgiveness for them, as well as we for their loved ones.
