Color of Hay: Maramures 1
Private Dirge for Anutsa, Breb, Maramures, 2000
The first duty for a person who finds a dead body is to light a candle to scare away the spirit of death. That is followed by three days of preparations for the funeral. Villages have no undertakers. Families would rather dress their departed family members themselves. Anutsa’s cousin cries out a sing-song mourning dirge while her relatives prepare for the priest and the village waits in her courtyard outside. She cries the words of ‘mother’ as they do when mourning a female relative.
