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Short abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic influences dying, death practices, and mourning. People are often reduced to data points. Using a qualitative approach, we study the experiences and emotions of persons who had to undergo the death and funeral of close family members during the strict lockdown in Croatia. Long abstract: There were numerous and significant challenges in the process of death, dealing with death and bereavement during the pandemic. We explored the experiences and emotions of persons who had to undergo the death and funeral of close family members during the strict lockdown (from March 20th to May 6th) and the most restrictive measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Croatia. Guidelines regarding handling bodies, carrying funerals, and burials affected dying, death, and mourning, resulting in changes in funeral practices and rituals. Recommendations included silent funeral within the closest family circle, and mourning in isolation. Semi-structured in-depth, face-to-face interviews with family members who lost loved one during the strict lockdown identified dying and grieving alone in isolation as the most important issues. Bereaved have different experiences if death was caused by COVID-19. Furthermore, there were differences in silent funerals and mourning traditions between rural and urban areas. Mourners accepted the new rules and adapted to them by modifying the grieving process and inventing new practices. Also, they found forms of opposition to changed funeral practices and subversion of given regulations. The lack of known rituals, traditions, and grieving practices caused feelings of insecurity and even guilt among the bereaved.

Since the emergence of the new disease in November 2019, the life of people around the world has changed. The COVID-19 pandemic had an impact, not only on activities of daily living but also on traditions, customs and practices that had to be changed and adapted to the new circumstances. Although it seemed that COVID-19 would soon be brought under control, we have entered the second year of the pandemic. Due to the high mortality rates, daily death reports made death more ubiquitous and noticeable in our everyday life. The deceased were presented with numbers ; they were depersonalized, without names, faces, and identities. In the context of the pandemic, death and dying have become predominantly medical and biological processes, while at the same time other very important aspects were almost completely excluded – psychological, sociological and cultural aspects. People were unable to be with a loved one when they die, or unable to mourn someone’s death in person with friends and family, what is a part of our culture and one of the most important determinants to maintain good mental health after a loss. Such circumstances had led to dysfunctional grief and changes in the bereavement practice. In Croatia pandemic started in February 2020, when the first positive case was detected. Since then we have witnessed three pandemic waves. Each wave was unique with its characteristics and pandemic guidelines. Implemented epidemiological measures included several restrictions on funerals and services. The new rules were very strict in the first wave and prohibited certain death rites, rituals and practices. Even though the measures were less strict in the second and third wave, they led to disregard for the dignity and rights of the dead and their families. In our research, we compared the epidemic measures from each wave and how they affected the known death-related rites and rituals. We investigated how the COVID- 19 pandemic has affected the bereaved family members through their narratives of the death of their loved ones, through their personal experiences of loss, grief and mourning. Bereaved adapted to the rules by creating new strategies and new forms of funeral gatherings and burial ceremonies. The absence of basic and constitutive processes of grieving created a space for considering the need to find new models of individual and more private rituals.

The aim of this preliminary study is to analyze genetic specificity of Kosovo Albanians comparing with neighboring populations using new genetic tool - MEDISCOPE gene chip, to investigate the feasibility of this approach. We collected 37 DNA samples (9 Croats, 17 Albanians from Croatia and 11 Albanians from Kosovo) from unrelated males born in Croatia and Kosovo. Additionally, samples were expanded with female individuals and mtDNA analysis included a total of 61 samples (15 Croats, 23 Albanians from Croatia and 23 Albanians from Kosovo). This pilot study suggests that the usage of the MEDISCOPE chip could be recognized as an efficient tool within recognition of the population genetic specificity even within extremely small sample size.