Ilona L. Juhász Wedding and bridal in a cemetery. Contributions to the Jewish folklore
The author has found three articles about a wedding ceremony of a young Jewish couple held in a cemetery, which appeared in a series of the Ung paper published in 1918 in Uzhgorod. The aim of the ritual held in an unusual place was to halt the spreading of the Spanish flue pandemic taking so many fatal victims by then. According to the Jewish folk belief, a wedding held in a cemetery will stop the spread of the disease. The cemetery bridal attracted great attention, and, to clarify certain misunderstandings, the rabbi of Uzhgorod gave a position on the deal himself. The author presents, describes the transition rites according to the press reports and mentions some similar examples from other regions connected with cemetery customs and points out interconnections between a bridal and funeral, bridal and cemetery in the Jewish people´s faith. In the annex, the mentioned articles are also attached nearly in their full content, to give a picture according to them on the spirit of the times and to make us have a nuanced sense on the differences between the Jewish folk faith and Jewish religious laws.