Working Class Children, Death and Secularity: Belgium in the 1890s

Abstract

The non-religious burial of children has never been studied so far. The topic sheds some new light upon the history of secular funerary culture in Belgium. In 1897, two cases of civil funerals of adolescents (one in Ghent, the other in Mechelen), both in urban settings where the cemetery issue had long received secular solutions by liberal city authorities, led to harsh press polemics and public manifestations, eventually culminating in parliamentary interpellations of the Catholic government by the left opposition parties. In both cases, issues were at stake regarding the nature of these funerals (with old discursive demons showing themselves again) and the possibility of selfdetermination for minors (i. e. the refusal of a priest by one of the dying youngsters, which gave that burial a very particular ring). At the same time, adult role models and secular militancy were at the heart of these polemics as well. In both cases, the contested nature of the funerals proved to be a means for Belgian Catholics to attack public education as an alleged de-Christianising force leading children into eternal damnation.