Intersection of the Religious and the Secular: The Cemetery Festival in Latvia

Anita Stasulane

doi:10.3390/rel12020069

Abstract

This article addresses the commemoration of the deceased by examining a peculiar Latvian religious tradition—the cemetery festival. Latvian society is moving down the path to secularization. Participation in religious ritual practices could be expected to decrease in a predominately secular society. Nevertheless, the tradition of the cemetery festival practiced in Latvia shows that the relationship between the religious and the secular is much more complex than simply being in opposition to each other. The analysis is based on data obtained by undertaking fieldwork at cemeteries in Latvia. Participant observation and qualitative in-depth interviews were the main research tools used in the fieldwork. Through an analysis of the fieldwork data, this article explains, first, how honoring of the deceased currently takes place in Latvia; second, the factors which have determined the preservation of the cemetery festival tradition despite the forced secularization of the Soviet period and the general secularization encountered today; third, the relationship between religious and secular activities and their transformation at the cemetery festival.

Highlights

For a long time, the conviction has been expressed in contemporary Western society that our ability to rationally control nature, the human body, and social order is increasing with each passing day
With its place rooted in Western culture, is moving down the path to secularization, inspired by modernization
The traditional secularization thesis criticized by several researchers has been seriously contested by Habermas

Summary

Introduction

The conviction has been expressed in contemporary Western society that our ability to rationally control nature, the human body, and social order is increasing with each passing day. Science and social security have, respectively, made people’s lives much safer and more protected. New dimensions of risk have appeared: new epidemics, the degradation of our natural environment, global warming, and the threats of biological war and nuclear disaster (Couch 2000). Existing in parallel with people’s everyday lives, death has lost its taboo status (Jacobsen 2020), and this has influenced death rituals, funerals, and commemorative rituals for the deceased

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