Basque ethnography at a glance

Funeral procession; Urduliz, 1970. Source: Gotzon Arrieta. Labayru Fundazioa Photography Archive.

Funeral rites have changed a lot. The loss of faith and abandonment of religious customs is clear, especially among young people. In the past, the living and the dead of a family formed a unit. Death, in Christian culture, is the passage from one life to another.

In households, a special commemoration of the dead was held every day. The formula used, with variations, was preceded by a prayer: etxe honetatik joan direnen alde (for those who have ‘left’ the house). Expanding on this idea, a special aspect of the Biscayan Fueros is that the church tomb is part of the house, and an essential asset of the family.

Nowadays, almost nobody dies at home, but in hospitals, clinics or nursing homes. In the past, the deceased’s home played a leading role, whereas today that role is taken by the funeral home. Cremation is replacing burial.

Body present Christian funerals are very rare, not even with ashes. The number of civil celebrations is increasing, whether in the funeral home, cemetery or other places. There are hardly any external signs or traces of mourning in families or households.

In the past, when a person was in danger of dying, relatives requested the presence of a parish priest to assist in the last moments. The priest would come with holy oils and administer Extreme Unction if the patient was conscious, followed by Viaticum.

After death, the deceased was shrouded, a task assigned to women. The body was washed and dressed, often in the habit of the religious order or, in the absence of such, in a suit or appropriate clothing. The death was announced to the neighbors by the ringing of bells, depending on whether it was a man, a woman, a child or a priest. Today, this is done by placing notices in designated places in the village.

When the priests left the church for the deceased’s house, the bells were rung for the dead. The minimum procession consisted of a priest, a procession cross carried by an altar boy, two other carried candlesticks, and a fourth with hyssop and a bowl. Once the procession reached the deceased’s house, the priest blessed the body and proceeded to the church to amidst funeral songs. There were different types of courtship. It was quite common for the procession cross to take the lead, followed by the coffin and the priests. Next, the mourning men, starting with those closest to the deceased, and the women in the same order. Then the attendees, first the men and then the women.

In urban areas, the procession took the shortest route. On the contrary, in rural areas, funeral paths, andabideak (mortuary roads), were established, stopping at specific places. The anderuak (pallbearers), were usually neighbors or relatives of the deceased or a combination of the two. Moreover, sometimes coworkers. Once at the church, the procession was reorganized in the churchyard, with women behind the coffin, followed by men. Since the Second Vatican Council, significant changes have been introduced. In Gernika, for example, the burials were removed in the mid-1960s.

Funeral services, for those attending a religious ceremony, have been reduced to a funeral mass, usually without the body (before, it was tradition for the mass to be gorputz aurrekoa or with the deceased body in front of the altar). The following, after the olata meza (departure mass), which is held on the Sunday of the following month for the deceased of the previous month, and the mass of the first anniversary, also combined. There was a custom, now extinct, of ordering masses for the soul of the deceased by the families linked to him, which were then reciprocated.

Segundo Oar-Arteta — Labayru Fundazioa