Tetiana Oksetivna Levchenko, village of Korolivka, Makarivs'kyi region. Photos taken November 9, 1998. It is traditional to prepare for one's own funeral by setting aside a full set of clothes. Since married women are supposed to have their hair covered, a new kerchief is usually part of the funeral packet of any married woman.
Tetiana Oksetivna Levchenko is not originally from Korolivka. She and about twenty other families were forcibly resettled here from the Chornobyl' region after the nuclear disaster.
The funeral bundle should include a full set of clothes. Some people chose new, western style clothing; some save their best traditional hand-made items, such as the vest which Lidiia Mykolaivna is showing Nataliia Havryliuk here.
Tetiana Oksentivna is showing Nataliia Havryliuk the two crosses she has prepared for her funeral bundle. The large black and white cross is to be placed in the hands of the corpse. The small cross which she holds in her hands here will go around the neck.
It is necessary to have the right "papers," as well as the two crosses. The papers are a strip printed like a crown which is placed on the corpse's forehead and a prayer which is folded up and placed in the hands. The prayer is a "passport" of sorts. The deceased must present it to St. Peter to gain admission into heaven. The Soviet internal passport may have had some influence on the way this large "passport" prayer sheet is interpreted.
Tetiana Oksentivna was an excellent narrator on all subjects.
Maria Petrivna Onikienko, village of Kopachiv, showing her funeral bundle. Usually all of the items that have been prepared are literally tied together in a bundle using a large kerchief.
A traditional hand-made folk skirt of the type typical of central Ukraine. This is from a funeral bundle in Korolivka and is being demonstrated by Nataliia Havryliuk.
In the home of Antoniia Mykolaiivna Shmyka, village of Iablunivka, Kyiv region. Photo taken November 11, 1998. Antoniia Mykolaiivna reads the Psalter over the deceased while they lie in state in the home. This period is anywhere from one night to three. The bread pictured here is the "payment" she received for one such Psalter reading.
A ritual towel embroidered to help prevent the return of the unquiet dead. Anyone who died young, especially someone who died violently, was believed to be capable of becoming unquiet and haunting the living. One method of gaining peace for such a person was to embroider a towel of the type pictured here. Such towels were never displayed, but kept in special linen chests. This towel seems to have been made for a soldier who died during World War II by his sister.