Death Italian style

Preparation of the deceased’s body, wakes, funeral photos, funeral processions, commendations (or funeral masses), burials, coffins, masses in memory of the deceased, mourning or the deceased. In short, topics with little academic research and still treated as taboo. This work seeks to raise and describe various funeral rites practised among Catholics in the city of Urussanga during the 20th century. Beginning even before death, continuing through practices immediately after death, as well as after burial (days, months, years or decades after the act of burial), the research sought to present and contextualise these various rites. The cemeteries of Urussanga and their relationship with these rites were also topics of research, with data recorded on such cemeteries as commonly found rites and also the frequency of visits to these graveyards. To carry out the research, oral testimonies were collected from residents of Urussanga, in addition to written documentation, such as parish records, newspapers, and municipal cemetery records. Images were also used as a historical source in the research, such as the analysis of funeral photographs and the city’s cemeteries.