Religious holidays and ceremonies as points of remembrance of the dead : the case of all saints’ day and all souls’ day in Slovakia

Uhrin, Michal (author)

Since the 20th century, commemorations of the dead in Slovakia have most often been associated with holidays such as Easter, Christmas, and All Saints’ Day, known as Dušičky – a triduum of festive days consisting of All Saints’ Eve on the 31 October, All Saints’ Day on 1 November, and All Souls’ Day on 2 November. This article analyses diverse practices associated with the cemetery, graves, the church, and homes conducted during this period of remembrance of the deceased. The article explores the deathscape (the material expression in the landscape of practices relating to death) of the village connected with the religious holiday, and the deathspace (the spatiality of death involving the landscape, attitudes, and habitual practices of the church, the home, and the cemetery). The article is based on field research conducted between 2023 and 2025 in a village in central Slovakia with a predominantly Roman Catholic Slovak population.

• Language: English
• Keywords: cultural anthropology, ethnology, religious holiday, remembrance of the dead, All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, cemeteries, commemoration, Slovakia
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 73-98
• Numbering: Roč. 113, č. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181305
• UDC: 726.84:393(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 0009-0794
• DOI: 10.21104/CL.2026.1.05
• COBISS.SI-ID: 273770243
• Publication date in RUL: 31.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Český lid : etnologický časopis
• Shortened title: Čes. lid
• Publisher: Etnologický ústav Akademie věd České republiky
• ISSN: 0009-0794
• COBISS.SI-ID: 24599

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: kulturna antropologija, etnologija, letne šege, verski prazniki, spomin na mrtve, Dan mrtvih, Vsi sveti, pokopališča, skrb za grobove, Slovaška

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 101095729
• Name: The roles of the agency of the dead in the lives of individuals in contemporary society
• Acronym: DEAGENCY

• Funder: SRDA - Slovak Research and Development Agency
• Project number: APVV-22-0063
• Name: Reproductions of Religious and Worldview Structures in Slovakia. One hundred and fifty years of changes