Marking Transitions and Meaning across the Life Course: Older People's Memories of Religious and Secular Ceremonies in Eastern and Western Europe

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In Western Europe debate has increased about the consequences of religious decline in the last 50 years for well-being across the life course, and particularly in old age. These concerns have been expressed most strongly in the UK. The gap filled by the loss of religious and spiritual meanings may not have been adequately filled by secular alternatives. The former states of Eastern Europe provide interesting test cases for the equivalence of religious and secular ideologies. The communist regimes set up at the end of WWII attempted to subvert religious culture into a socialist one with varying degrees of success. Bulgaria and Romania are examples of neighbouring countries with similar recent histories, but contrasting religiosity. A marked and persisting decline in religious practice took place in Bulgaria but not in Romania. The memories of those older people who lived through the period of communist power and its dissolution provide potentially important evidence on the perceived equivalence of the socialist and civic ceremonies designed to replace religious ritual at key points of life. In this proposal we intend to interview 20 older people from each country, carefully selected to represent the major religious groupings as well as the atheist and non-religious-practising parts of the population. We will ask them to recall the important events of their lives, particularly births, marriages and death, and the role of religious and secular ritual and ceremony in enhancing the meaning of these events. We will also ask them to reflect on the changes that they have experienced in this area of social life since the latter part of the 20th century, and how the decreasing (increasing in Bulgaria and Romania) role of religious and secular ritual and ceremony has affected them and their families. The research will be conducted by a team of oral historians and gerontologists, who will meet regularly to design and coordinate the data collection, analysis and presentation of results in all three countries. The results will be disseminated in oral history, gerontology and social science contexts. This project will help promote the study of religion which has been greatly neglected in oral history and gerontology across in Europe and will hopefully lead to funding of a more representative European study. It should also act as a stimulus to further cooperation between gerontologists and oral historians in understanding the determinants of quality of life and adjustment across the life cycle.