Abstract
death, as a feeling and as a fact happened, constituted an interesting topic for the foreign travelers, this which passed through the Romanian Principalities. First of all it can be observed the fact that the death (and dying) is part of the structure which defines an ethnic community. Even though the foreigners’ writings have proven to describe it superficially, yet, the information provided has revealed the social significance of these assemblies of religious gestures and actions.Thus, the ritual of death, understood either as an identity element or as a set of anecdotic aspects which are subordinated to curiosity and to the contemporary need for sensational, contributes at expressing the social, political and spiritual inter and intra-communitarian relationships. This is the premise that is found at the basis of this study.

Keywords
death, ritual, Romania, foreigners’ writings.