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He died when I was six years old. I remember his funeral, which followed all the Jewish rituals. I remember that the synagogue brought little black tables, at which we, the closest relatives, ate for seven days. [Editor’s note: It is customary to openly mourn the death of a close relative for seven days, during which those who are ‘sitting shiva’ – ‘shiva’ is Hebrew for ‘seven’ – sit on low chairs and their family and friends take care of all their physical needs]. The rabbi cut our underwear with a pair of scissors. [Editor’s note: At the funeral, an outer item of clothing, usually a shirt or cardigan, is torn as a sign of one’s mourning.]
Our relatives prepared and brought us food. We ate only salty dishes. [Editor’s note: on returning from the funeral to the home where they are sitting shiva, the mourners eat plain food consisting of an egg and a (round) bagel, to symbolize the cycle of life.]
I remember the horses, which carried the coffin away. They were dressed in black coats decorated with gold threads. I know from my relatives that at the cemetery there is a special room where the deceased is bathed and dressed in special clothing called ‘mortaja,’ a shirt and underwear, which the family had prepared.
When my grandmother Sarina died much later, I saw that she had also prepared for herself such clothing. Since she died in 1965, the rituals weren’t observed, but we buried her in that clothing in the Jewish cemetery.
Our relatives prepared and brought us food. We ate only salty dishes. [Editor’s note: on returning from the funeral to the home where they are sitting shiva, the mourners eat plain food consisting of an egg and a (round) bagel, to symbolize the cycle of life.]
I remember the horses, which carried the coffin away. They were dressed in black coats decorated with gold threads. I know from my relatives that at the cemetery there is a special room where the deceased is bathed and dressed in special clothing called ‘mortaja,’ a shirt and underwear, which the family had prepared.
When my grandmother Sarina died much later, I saw that she had also prepared for herself such clothing. Since she died in 1965, the rituals weren’t observed, but we buried her in that clothing in the Jewish cemetery.
Location
Plovdiv
Bulgaria
Interview
Sarina Chelibakova