Death in Osmaniye folk culture

Death is a phenomenon as important as life for people. In the face of death, people have tried to produce some practices in order to eliminate the spiritual void created by the loss of the person. These practices also aim to get away from the fear and anxiety caused by the unknowability of death. When considered in this way, death has been the guiding and driving source of both individual life and social processes in the historical process. In this study, research was conducted on death rituals, beliefs and practices in Osmaniye folk culture. In the study, written sources on the subject were scanned, compiled and classified with the information obtained from oral sources. The relations of the identified beliefs and practices with the Old Turkish belief systems were determined and their connections with the current practices were tried to be established. In addition, it was tried to determine the practices and folk beliefs related to unusual deaths such as pandemic, earthquake and martyrdom in Osmaniye in the last quarter century. As a result of this study, traces of the Old Turks and post-Islamic Turkish culture were revealed in the beliefs, practices and practices of death in folk culture in Osmaniye; It was tried to determine the changing death practices with modernisation. Keywords: Osmaniye, death, folk beliefs, folklore, pandemic, earthquake, martyrdo.