Mourning in Palestinian Folkloric Literature

In the first chapter, I discussed the people's stand from death starting from the pre-Islamic period till the Palestinian folkloric human being. Then I attempted to clarify the idea on which the folkloric mind built its philosophy towards death, that idea represented in the duality of Ii Fe and death. The folkloric thought believes in the presence of another life after death, and that death is not more than a gate of the second life. Such idea is derived from the natural surrounding phenomena such as plants, tile sun, and the moon. After contemplating their life cycle, they were sure that they come back to life after their death. In this way, the ancient human being tried to simulate them in his life. The second chapter is dedicated to discuss the ceremonies practiced by the relatives of the dead on their dead person, represented by funeral dancing accompanied by music, beating the chest, tearing the hair, mourning and its aspects, destroying the properties of the dead including their clothes, tools, or horses. This chapter is concluded by explaining the phrase "don't go faraway" in their mourning. I noticed that these ceremonies serve only one idea that attempt satisfy the spirit of the (lead and supply it with happiness in its second life so that it may not harm the living. In the third chapter, I classified the Palestinian folkloric mourning poems according to their occasions. I have found out that the folkloric literature dedicated certain texts to the death of a young person that are different from those cited in the death of women, the martyr, the old and the child. I also added to these types the mourning crying on other occasions such as lamenting banishment, the Palestinian cause, misfortune, and time. In the fourth chapter, I discussed the artistic imagery in folkloric mourning. I dealt with the symbols used by the lamenting women. I tried to refer such symbols to its culture of origin and myths by looking into the artistic indications of such symbols in ancient mythologies. I talked about the tree, the raven, the owl, the lion, the camel, the eagle, the sun, the moon, and the underworld.