Procession of the dead

Overview

According to Carlo Ginzburg, the procession of the dead, as described by Orderic Vitalis, comprised a march of sinners and damned people, being punished for their wrongdoings in life.

Professor Christian Abry listed several alternate names for the phenomenon in Alpine, Southern France and North Italy tradition: curs dj’ànime; La processione dei morti; Tòtòprossenziò (from German Totenprozession); ; procession des revenants; cours di mort; lou cours de i anime (Occitan language); Lou cours d’li mouòrt (in Balme); il corso delle anime (in Traversella); il corteo dei morti.

Professors Fabio Armand, Marie-Agnès Cathiard and Christian Abry suggest that "the procession of the dead", as described in Christian mediaeval literature, is a "remythification" of the Wild Hunt phenomenon.

Europe

Continental Europe

There are various myths of processions of the dead, most related to the Wild Hunt.

A Croatian storyteller provided a tale with the motif of the "procesija mrtvih" ("procession of the dead") in the 1970s.

In a Raeto-Romance tale, a man sees a procession of the dead and the last person is the soul of someone about to die.

Iberian Peninsula

In Galicia and Asturias, it is known as Santa Compaña.

In Portuguese tradition there exists tales about one's double that take part in this procession. There are also tales about incomplete baptized individuals that join this cursed retinue.

Italy

The Benandanti in the Friuli are said to participate in these processions. Female benandanti were seen as connected to the processions of the dead, as beneficient protectors against the malandanti.

Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, the festival of Anthesteria was performed to honor and placate the dead, who were thought to walk freely among the streets.

Pacific Ocean Islands

Hawai'i

The Nightmarchers of Hawaiian mythology are also considered to be a version of the "procession of the dead".

Asia

Nepal

Professors Fabio Armand, Marie-Agnès Cathiard and Christian Abry state they have found an occurrence of the theme of the procession of the dead "in the rural areas outside the Kathmandu Valley of Central Nepal". This retinue, called panchabhāya (from pancha 'five', and bhāya 'younger brother') manifest as "five or more spirits" riding on horses and dressed in white.

Americas

Brazil

The motif is also present in cultural traditions of Brazil.

References

References

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2. Thompson, Stith (1977). ''The Folktale''. University of California Press. p. 257. {{ISBN. 0-520-03537-2.
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4. Ginsburg, Carlo. ''The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventh Centuries''. Translated by John and Anne Tedeschi. Routledge. 2011. pp. 67-68.
5. Abry, Christian. “Sur les traces des sentiers des âmes dans les outre-monts: in memoriam Gaston Tuaillon”. In: ''Nouvelles du Centre d’Etudes Francoprovençales''. Saint-Nicolas (Aoste, Italie), vol. 64, 2011. pp. 58-62, 67-68.
6. (13 June 2016). "Death Divination within a non-Delusional Myth: The Procession of the Dead from the Alps to Himalayas… When a Theoria of 'Phantom-Bodies' meets its neural veridiction Theory". Trictrac.
7. (15 May 1970). "Usmena Kazivanja U Okolici Daruvara". Narodna Umjetnost.
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11. (2013). "Pieter Bruegel and Carlo Ginzburg: The Debatable Land of Renaissance Dreams". Cosmos.
12. Eason, Cassandra. ''Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols: A Handbook''. Greenwood Press. 2008. p. 108. {{ISBN. 978-02-75994-25-9.
13. (1971). "A Motif-Index of Traditional Polynesian Narratives". University of Hawai'i Press.
14. Armand, Fabio & Cathiard, Marie-Agnes & Abry, Christian. (2016). "Death Divination within a non-Delusional Myth: The Procession of the Dead from the Alps to Himalayas… When a Theoria of "Phantom-Bodies" meets its neural veridiction Theory". In: ''TricTrac: Journal of World Mythology and Folklore'' Vol. 9, No. 1. pp. 11-12, 14-17. 10.25159/1996-7330/1211.
15. (26 March 2016). "Procissão cultural encena lendas do folclore popular nas ruas de Mariana".