27/8/2021 SLS 2021 Annual Conference

SLS 2021 Annual Conference

116

Requiescat in pace: Analysis of the rules on the prohibition of funerals during

the COVID-19 emergency in Italy
Elena Falletti
Carlo Cattaneo-LIUC University, Castellanza, Italy

Abstract

For centuries art, music, and literature have described the individual and collective backlash due
to a pandemic, even though today our society has forgotten these circumstances, thanks to the
medical and technological advancement, with all the systemic consequences entailed to the
difficulty of stopping the contagion, including burials.
Due to the contagion and the rules that first prohibited public, then limited, religious or civil
cerimonies, funeral were not able to take place according to the usual ritual and with the
collective participation of family members and the local community.
These sad episodes show of how much the limitation of public funeral of whom passed away
was intrusive and affected entire communities, both in countryside villages, and in towns.
The farewell cerimonies to deceased is a deeply felt moment, where the communities gather
together with the affected family for helping each other to mourne the beloved one who passed
away: in fact the burial of dead people is a universal rule. During lockdowns, especially between 9
March and 4 May 2020, Italian law was very intrusive in this severance, forbidding funerals with
criminal penalties. Although the Italian state is increasingly secularized, the farewell cerimonies
are still strongly linked to religious tradition, although secular rites are growing..
The aim of this abstract is to verify what was the impact in Italy of the legal rules about funeral
ceremonies on the life of people who have suffered individuals and, at the same time, collective
mourning.

SESSION DETAILS

Open - COVID-19 and the Law

TLC033
09:15-10:45
Wednesday, 1 September, 2021

https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/2020/submission/116 1/1