The Liturgie of Death in Baghdida: Socio- Anthropological Study

Death is one of the greatest problems in the history of human consciousness.It is regarded as an existential challenge that is an absentee phenomenon in which a human is unable to know his/her essence since the death is part of the other world which is unknown world that by its nature causes panic and dismay. Besides, many interpretations, opinions, beliefs and rituals have abounded from the first moments when an individual feels the inevitability of death and beyond, thus diversifying beliefs and rituals related to death in their connotations, concepts and contents. Among them, death is regarded as the door of pessimism, some as falling within the circle of human feelings, and the other as metaphysical (religious and non-religious) perceptions.
Death in Christianity is a process of transition of spirit where physical bodies dirt and allow the soul to be free from its physical framework. It is lying in the dirt or in the darkness of the grave. Death is a transition from this world to another world and another life where the soul is separated from the body and being far from the relatives and loved ones .
The soul goes to the other place deserved i.e to the place of righteousness or to the place of evil. The last residence of the Christian body is the grave whereas the soul to the eternal residence. This transition is accompanied by a series of liturgies that christians deem necessary for the spirit to cross from the physical world to the intangible world. This is what we will investigate about in this research
The current research includes four investigations or sections :
Section one : - Research Methodology
Second Two: - Death in Christianity
Section Three : - Liturgie of Death in Baghdadia
Section Four : Summary
The important findings of the present research are the following:
1-Baghdida's inhabitants take care of their christian faith, which believes in another life after death when confronted with it.
2- The special liturgies of the death are a mixture of religious rituals, ecclesiastical rituals, and popular beliefs that support each other. The goal of liturgie is to help the alive and friends of the deceased and to strengthen the spirit of the present alive people so that they can pass the state of grief and hope for resurrection and new life.
3-Rituals of death are directed at those who are alive where they help them to accept the idea of death.
4- There have been changes in this ritual due to the changing of socio-economic conditions.
5- The church continues to perform a central role in the death.
6- Baghdida's community responds normally to the death incident and demonstrates through its rituals cooperation, solidarity and synergy among its members.
7- All funeral decrees and ritual symbols try to emphasize that death is not the end of the road or the end of the life , but the beginning of a new and full life.