Absence of Death Rituals and Its Impact on Grieving Process in Covid 19: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Covid 19 has been a major adversity that we all faced and are still struggling with. A huge amount of lives have been lost due to the same. Due to health protocols, social distancing and lockdown were the immediate precautions taken to curb the effect of the virus. There were no death rituals that were performed as a result. The present qualitative study aims to explore the impact of not having to perform rituals on grieving. It is a retrospective study for which data has been collected through an interview of 5 participants who lost an immediate family member in the first two waves of Covid. Through thematic analysis two themes of deprivation of goodbye and subjectivity of grief have been found. Additionally, the study helped in understanding impact of grieving in isolation.