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The cult of the dead constitutes the oldest ritual celebration in the world. In Sardinia Country, an ancestral and mysterious land where ritual has always governed the various stages of life, death has always played a fundamental role in the social life of every community, from the most remote times. Seen as the continuation of life in another dimension, death was celebrated with a series of rites of passage that, with the constant complicity of superstition, were intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife.
Sardinian funerary ritual traditions have preserved a set of practices, gestures and codes that seem to draw from the civilisations of the past, which have taken from this land - Sardinia - but also left so much behind. Nuragic and pre-Nuragic funeral practices mingle with Punic, Roman and Christian ones, creating a fascinating cultural mix that has come down to the present day.
Death and the passage
From the earliest moments, death was accompanied by a precise code of gestures, cries and repeated laments, which went by the name of 'teu'. The fundamental role was always played by women, not by chance in a society that had always been based on a matriarchal culture. Whether it was a husband, a brother or a son, it was the woman who 'took the reins'. The closest relative (a mother, wife, daughter or sister) would light a candle and with it make the sign of the cross in front of the dead man and close his eyelids and especially his lips, so that family secrets would not escape him. In the very first hours following the death, the corpse was washed, dressed and laid out beside the domestic hearth, lying on a table or sometimes on planks mounted like a catafalque covered with a sheet. A small wooden crucifix was placed on the chest. Following the ancient Roman custom, the dead person was also laid out with the feet facing the door, so as to facilitate the passing.
In the following hours, when the coffin was already composed, the first visits from neighbours and relatives followed. From this moment, the wake began, which took on different connotations and names depending on the geographical area. In some areas of the Campidano the wake is called 'sa bisita', in others it is called 'krumpiu', and finally in the Nuoro area it is called 'sa ria'. Again, the main role in the ritual was played by women. The female relatives sat at the dead man's side or squatted on the floor, around the unlit hearth. The men, on the other hand, took their places at the back of the room or in an adjoining room, also in groups. The wake could be accompanied by funeral litanies and prayers said aloud or whispered, but was sometimes silent. The entrance of the relatives into the wake room, however, did not interrupt the 'requiem', and was accompanied by the act of kissing the crucifix on the dead man's chest and sometimes followed the mourning actions: the women remained in the room next to the others already present and the men joined the others at the back of the room or in an adjoining room.
As a sign of mourning, it was customary for women to cover the lower part of their faces with a flap of their headscarf, pulled up to cover their noses.
On the day of death, the neighbourhood families had a duty to send lunch to the family of the deceased. The front door had to remain strictly open, despite cold and bad weather, and the wake dinner was eaten in silence, always by the hearth.
On the seventh and ninth day after death, it was then customary for the relatives of the deceased to distribute meat, bread and pasta ('maccarones') to their neighbours.
In the evening of the ninth day, the family of the deceased would gather for another meal. This custom also draws heavily from the Roman world of the famous coena novendialis.
The role of prefiche
There were also special figures in charge of mourning, the roots of which also go back to Roman times. In the Roman world, the corpse was accompanied to the grave in a solemn procession attended by family members and prefiche, whose purpose was to pronounce litanies and laments, making the moment of mourning extremely dramatic.
These professional mourners were not very different from the Sardinian women called 'attittadoras', who during funerals had the task of intoning funeral laments and praises for the deceased, accompanying the moment with a convulsive and agitated rhythmic gesture, sometimes scratching their faces and pulling out locks of hair to accentuate their grief. This funeral lament, attidu (hence the name attittadoras), had the main purpose of emphasising the dramatic nature of the moment, so as to appease the wrath of the deceased. In ancient Rome as well as in Sardinia, it was believed, in fact, that the deceased were a little touchy and would not welcome a funeral rite without weeping and lamentations.
Roberta Carboni has been a tourist guide and art historian for more than 10 years. She lives in Cagliari and is passionate about Sardinia, which she has loved so much, all her life, which is why she has chosen to tell its story through exclusive thematic tours. In this way, she contributes to making the island known not only to those who do not yet know it, but also to the Sardinians themselves. The tours take place both within Cagliari, i.e. in the historic centre and other parts of the city, and in the surroundings of the city, going also to the south and centre of Sardinia.
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