Notes on the funeral rites of the Bulgarians and Romanians

The article tells about some mythological ideas and ritual actions related to the role of trees in the funeral rites of the Bulgarians and Romanians in order to identity the general and the special. The information provided comes mainly from those territories, where Bulgarians and Romanians live nearby – the border areas of northwestern Bulgaria and eastern Serbia (Timok Valley), where, along with Bulgarians and Serbs, there is a fairly large Romanianspeaking population, Oltenia, Dobrogea etc. Mythological ideas, ritual actions and folklore texts of Bulgarians and Romanians associated with death and burial, in which trees are present, demonstrate a number of common features. The list of trees associated with death in folk beliefs is also largely common – it includes spruce, poplar walnut, various fruit trees, etc. The presence of trees in funeral rites, as already stated, is noted not only among Bulgarians and Romanians, but also among some other peoples of the Carpato-Balkan region – in particular, among the Serbs and the Ukrainian Hutsuls. It can be assumed that all of the listed Slavic peoples borrowed this ritual reality from the Romanians, but this issue requires additional study. The traditional culture of Bulgarians and Romanians also has in common the metaphorical idea of death as a wedding (this idea is also found among other peoples of the region

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