Procession of the dead explained
Procession of the dead is a motif present in the folkloric traditions around the world. It mostly refers to a march of ghosts, phantoms or souls, sometimes commanded by a creature related to the Otherworld, the Underworld or the Afterlife. The concept is taken to be of considerable antiquity,[1] and is classified in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature as Motif E491, "Procession of the dead".[2]
Overview
According to Carlo Ginzburg, the procession of the dead, as described by Orderic Vitalis,[3] comprised a march of sinners and damned people, being punished for their wrongdoings in life.[4]
Professor Christian Abry listed several alternate names for the phenomenon in Alpine, Southern France and North Italy tradition: curs dj’ànime; La processione dei morti; Tòtòprossenziò (from German Totenprozession); Uncoded languages: italic=no|kór di trapacha (trépassés); procession des revenants; cours di mort; lou cours de i anime (Occitan language); Lou cours d’li mouòrt (in Balme); il corso delle anime (in Traversella); il corteo dei morti.[5]
Professors Fabio Armand, Marie-Agnès Cathiard and Christian Abry suggest that "the procession of the dead", as described in Christian mediaeval literature, is a "remythification" of the Wild Hunt phenomenon.[6]
Europe
Continental Europe
There are various myths of processions of the dead, most related to the Wild Hunt.
A Croatian storyteller provided a tale with the motif of the "procesija mrtvih" ("procession of the dead") in the 1970s.[7]
In a Raeto-Romance tale, a man sees a procession of the dead and the last person is the soul of someone about to die.[8]
Iberian Peninsula
In Galicia and Asturias, it is known as Santa Compaña.
In Portuguese tradition there exists tales about one's double that take part in this procession. There are also tales about incomplete baptized individuals that join this cursed retinue.[9] [10]
Italy
The Benandanti in the Friuli are said to participate in these processions. Female benandanti were seen as connected to the processions of the dead,[11] as beneficient protectors against the malandanti.[12]
Ancient Greece
In Ancient Greece, the festival of Anthesteria was performed to honor and placate the dead, who were thought to walk freely among the streets.
Pacific Ocean Islands
Hawai'i
The Nightmarchers of Hawaiian mythology are also considered to be a version of the "procession of the dead".[13]
Asia
Nepal
Professors Fabio Armand, Marie-Agnès Cathiard and Christian Abry state they have found an occurrence of the theme of the procession of the dead "in the rural areas outside the Kathmandu Valley of Central Nepal". This retinue, called panchabhāya (from pancha 'five', and bhāya 'younger brother') manifest as "five or more spirits" riding on horses and dressed in white.[14]
Americas
Brazil
The motif is also present in cultural traditions of Brazil.[15]
Further reading
- Abry, Christian; Joisten, Alice. "De la migrance ä l'errance ou les Italiens entre «La Mort du Grand Pan» et «La Procession des Morts»". In: Histoire des Alpes = Storia delle Alpi = Geschichte der Alpen. Band 3. Internationale Gesellschaft für historische Alpenforschung IGHA. Zürich: Chronos Verlag. 1998. pp. 75–90.
- Book: Belsey . Catherine . All in the Mind? . 175–194 . Tales of the Troubled Dead: Ghost Stories in Cultural History . 2019 . Edinburgh University Press . 978-1-4744-1738-9 .
- Book: Bennett . John . Eichelberger . Julia . The Doctor to the Dead . 1–55 . j.ctv10tq38h.5 . The Doctor to the Dead: Grotesque Legends and Folk Tales of Old Charleston . 2020 . University of South Carolina Press . 978-1-64336-137-6 .
- Canziani . Estella . Abruzzese Folklore . Folklore . 1928 . 39 . 3 . 209–247 . 10.1080/0015587X.1928.9716783 . 1256186 .
- Hutton . Ronald . The Wild Hunt and the Witches' Sabbath . Folklore . 2014 . 125 . 2 . 161–178 . 10.1080/0015587X.2014.896968 . 43297752 . 1983/f84bddca-c4a6-4091-b9a4-28a1f1bd5361 . 53371957 .
- Book: Hutton . Ronald . The Hosts of the Night . 120–146 . j.ctv1bzfpmr.11 . The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present . 2017 . Yale University Press . 10.2307/j.ctv1bzfpmr.11 . 978-0-300-22904-2 .
- Lecouteux, Claude. Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and Ghostly Processions of the Undead. Translated by Jon E. Graham. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions. 2011.
Notes and References
- Milne, Louise. “Pieter Bruegel and Carlo Ginzburg: The Debatable Land of Renaissance Dreams”. In: Cosmos 29 (2013): 93.
- Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 257. .
- Book: Joynes . Andrew . The Fragmentary Tales of the Monk of Byland . 166–174 . 10.7722/j.ctt169wfv4.31 . Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies . 2001 . Boydell & Brewer . 978-0-85115-817-4 .
- Ginsburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventh Centuries. Translated by John and Anne Tedeschi. Routledge. 2011. pp. 67-68.
- Abry, Christian. “Sur les traces des sentiers des âmes dans les outre-monts: in memoriam Gaston Tuaillon”. In: Nouvelles du Centre d’Etudes Francoprovençales. Saint-Nicolas (Aoste, Italie), vol. 64, 2011. pp. 58-62, 67-68.
- Armand . Fabio . Cathiard . Marie-Agnès . Abry . Christian . Death Divination within a non-Delusional Myth: The Procession of the Dead from the Alps to Himalayas… When a Theoria of 'Phantom-Bodies' meets its neural veridiction Theory. Trictrac . 13 June 2016 . 9 . 10.25159/1996-7330/1211 .
- Zečević . Divna . Usmena Kazivanja U Okolici Daruvara . Oral Narrative in the Surrounding of Daruvar . Narodna Umjetnost . 15 May 1970 . 7 . 1 . 27–68 . hr .
- Pult . Jon . 126. A Centre of Raeto-Romanic Culture in the Engadine . Man . September 1947 . 47 . 117–119 . 10.2307/2791488 . 2791488 .
- Book: Da Silva . Francisco Vaz . Extraordinary Children, Werewolves, and Witches in Portuguese Folk Tradition . 255–268 . 10.7829/j.ctv10tq58g.15 . Csonka-Takács . Eszter . Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions . 2008 . Central European University Press . 978-963-7326-87-5 .
- Vaz da Silva . Francisco . Iberian Seventh-Born Children, Werewolves, and the Dragon Slayer: A Case Study in the Comparative Interpretation of Symbolic Praxis and Fairytales . Folklore . 2003 . 114 . 3 . 335–353 . 10.1080/0015587032000145379 . 30035123 . 10071/614 . free .
- Milne . Louise . Pieter Bruegel and Carlo Ginzburg: The Debatable Land of Renaissance Dreams . Cosmos . 2013 . 29 . 59–126 .
- Eason, Cassandra. Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols: A Handbook. Greenwood Press. 2008. p. 108. .
- Book: Kirtley . Bacil F. . The Dead . 236–268 . j.ctvp2n3hb.12 . A Motif-Index of Traditional Polynesian Narratives . 1971 . University of Hawai'i Press . 10.2307/j.ctvp2n3hb.12 . 978-0-87022-416-4 . 240935243 .
- Armand, Fabio & Cathiard, Marie-Agnes & Abry, Christian. (2016). "Death Divination within a non-Delusional Myth: The Procession of the Dead from the Alps to Himalayas… When a Theoria of "Phantom-Bodies" meets its neural veridiction Theory". In: TricTrac: Journal of World Mythology and Folklore Vol. 9, No. 1. pp. 11-12, 14-17. 10.25159/1996-7330/1211.
- Web site: Procissão cultural encena lendas do folclore popular nas ruas de Mariana. 26 March 0312.