Pieśń religijna w obrzędach przedpogrzebowych na Śląsku

The tanatologic problem is associated with the attitudes of people they present in the pre-funeral rituals, which are fostered in small communities. Meetings, called vigils by the dead, are strongly inscribed into the entirety o f the traditional folk culture. Being organized by the family of the deceased, are of family-neighbor scope, which includes the village, district, or parish communities. The pre-funeral, extra-liturgical funeral meetings take place at home of the deceased, or in a graveyard or church chapel. The mourners gather at particular time around the coffin: the family, neighbors, and friends, who - under the guidance of a leader - pray and sing religious songs. The following songs are usually performed during this ceremony: funeral and requiem songs, songs for the dead, Lent songs, passion and Virgin Mary songs (these are songs from song and prayer books). The leader decides on the repertoire and selection of prayers; the leader is the author of the scenario; he is a performer and organizer of the funeral meeting. He uses songs of different content and message, songs, which have a compositional and rhythmic function in the whole ceremony and which give the ritual a character of a formal and solemn prayer for the deceased. The pieces presented in the article are a testimony to the fact, that the leader does not only reach for songs of a imploring character, but also for songs that emphasize the idea of vanitas, memento mori, the patterns of last farewells and significant eschatological explanations. The leader thus becomes a creator of the folk religiousness of the time of death, a religiousness that is of a consolation and therapeutic character, filled with feelings of human unity and solidarity. The pre-funeral vigils, as the acts of common experiencing of the time of death and mourning, showing respect and stately farewell to the deceased, are a significant document of the contemporary social and moral culture of the inhabitants of the Silesian land.