Host Week 2025: All Saints' Day, Samhain, Halloween, Sunday of the Dead - all over Europe, lights were lit for the dead, spirits were summoned, banished or betrayed at the beginning of the dark season. A lecture by Denny Neumann.
And the Ranen? The mysterious people who lived on Rügen from the 8th to the 12th century - what rituals did they hold in honour of their dead? The West Slavic tribes, including the Ranen, burned their dead until Christianization. Perhaps to free the soul once and for all. Perhaps to protect them. Perhaps for another reason. Some souls were deceived: miniature houses stood on the burial mounds - houses of the dead. As if the souls were in their old home. Other dead were banished: In Ralswiek, a dead man was found buried under two tons of stones, nailed to a plank - a prisoner in his own grave. What conclusions can be drawn from these and other unusual burials about the Ranen's ideas of the afterlife - and where is the boundary between belief, ritual and archaeological reality?
*The Kurverwaltung Göhren is not the organizer.
Note: Subject to change or cancellation at any time (as of 09.09.2025).
