Wrestling with Death: Greek Immigrant Funeral Customs in Utah BY HELEN Z. PAPANIKOLAS
I N THE EARLY YEARS OF THE CENTURY young
immigrants regularly sat in Greek Town coffeehouses to arrange funerals for patriotes killed in falls of coal and ore, explosions, and spills of molten metal. " T h e gold-ornamented Minotaur [industry] of immigrant life is nourished on fresh Greek youth," wrote a Greek woman journalist who toured the bursting industrial camps of Utah in those years. 1 Sometimes a black-robed, tall-hatted priest, bearded and long haired, sat with the men. They did the best they could for each countryman but were able to provide little more than the rites for the dead and, at Mrs. Papanikolas is a Fellow of the Utah State Historical Society and a member of the Board of State History. 1 Maria S. Ekonomidou, E Ellines tis Amerikis opos tons Eidha ("The Greeks of America as I Saw Them") (New York, 1916), p. 37.
Funeral of Mary Georgelas Kelaidis who died in childbirth. She is dressed as a bride. Her three older sons are to the left of the coffin. Further left, seated, are her mother and husband who is unshaven in keeping with ancient custom that deemed vanity in the presence of death inappropriate. The dead woman's father, seated at right with cane, is wearing a black armband. Courtesy ofMelba Georgelas Kouris.
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