Abstract · The rituals and traditions of grief (including vigil and lamentation) of traditional Hungarian peasantry whithered gradually in the last decades. The purpose of our research was to investigate if Gipsies in Hungary still keep their former traditions accompanying death and the period thereafter. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 interviewees of Roma / Gipsy identity (5 Vlach, 9 Romungro, 1 Boyash, average age: 40 years, man-woman proportion: 10:5). Their analysis shows that most of the mourning rituals described in the past by ethnologists and anthropologists are still living traditions. On the one hand, these rituals show similarities with certain mourning traditions of Hungarian peasants (for example vigil and some rules and prohibitions concerning the period of mourning), on the other hand, the Gipsy people keep their own traditions that are different from their environment. Therefore, funeral and mourning traditions play an important role in identity formation and identity preservation. Traditions specific to the Gipsy people are apparent during the funeral (e.g. the expansive use of grave goods, emphasis on the role of the Gipsy orchestra) and in the period of mourning as well (e.g. pouring some drink on the grave, burning of the mourning garments at the end of the mourning period). Among Vlach Gipsies, expectations regarding the preservation of traditions are stronger, there are rituals that are living only among them. Beside the old traditions there are some newer ones, like taking the dead to the house before the funeral (this was brought forward by the medicalisation of death), or the tradition of burying someone into a tiled grave or to a mausoleum set as a room.

Abstract · This study aims to examine the Hungarian legal background of end-of-life practices, including the rejection of medical treatment, and the application of end-of-life practices in medical practice, and their comparison to the European conditions. A further aim of this study is to introduce some promising foreign and domestic initiatives (End-Of-Life Planning Foundation, Death Cafe) related to the advance care planning (ACP). The topics of these initiatives are closely related to end-of-life decisions. This summary also reflects on the 2014 decision of The Constitutional Court of Hungary on the rejection of medical treatments.