Odd Russian Religious Sect

[Natalie O. Kononenko]

I am responding to the message/query about Molokans who kept hair
clippings and nail parings.  I have been collecting material about
funerals and beliefs in the afterlife in Central Ukraine.  This is for a
book that I hope to finish soon.  My experience indicates that beliefs in
the necessity of keeping nail clippings are quite wide spread.  They do
not exist among Molokans only.  In the area where I work, the most common
belief is that, when the corpse is washed and prepared for burial, any
nail parings must be placed in the coffin with the deceased.
Alternatively, nails are not cut at all.  The reason is that the deceased
is believed to move around in the other world.  Sometimes the deceased
must climb a (glass) mountain.  The nails are needed at that point.  They
are not for getting out of the coffin.

Natalie Kononenko

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