DOI: 10.3986/Traditio2021500305 TRADITIONES, 50/3, 2021, 99–111
The all-inclusive issue in studies of memorial websites on the 
internet concerns how mourners express their emotions and 
concepts of belief regarding a deceased person’s afterlife. The 
living believe that their ultimate contact with the deceased 
will occur after their own death. In Sweden, this also applies 
to deceased pets. Memorial websites to the deceased generally 
contain far more traditional Christian concepts in Norway 
than in Sweden. In Sweden one observes more of a diffuse, 
general religiosity that can remind one of New Age modes 
of thought in which individualism.
Keywords: angels, faith, heaven, pets, memorial websites, 
suicide
Eno glavnih vprašanj pri raziskavah spominskih spletnih 
mest se nanaša na to, kako žalujoči izražajo čustva in 
katera prepričanja o posmrtnem življenju pokojne osebe 
prevladujejo. Živi verjamejo, da se bodo po lastni smrti srečali 
s pokojnikom in z njim večno živeli. Na Švedskem velja to 
tudi za pokojne hišne ljubljenčke. To lahko razberemo tudi 
na spominskih spletnih mestih, kjer je na Norveškem veliko 
več tradicionalnih krščanskih konceptov kakor na Švedskem. 
Na Švedskem opazimo bolj razpršeno, splošno religioznost, 
ki lahko spominja na novodobne načine mišljenja, v katerih 
je v ospredju individualizem. 
Ključne besede: angeli, vera, nebesa, hišni ljubljenčki, 
spominska spletna mesta, samomor
FAITH, DEATH, AND THE INTERNET IN NORWAY 
AND SWEDEN
ANDERS GUSTAVSSON
INTRODUCTION
Written messages on the internet relating to persons that have died in recent years com-
prise a new medium for expressing concepts of faith (Krawczyk-Wasilewska et al., 2012). 
This new medium affords undreamt-of and hitherto quite unexploited opportunities for 
conducting cultural research by allowing access to the emotions, beliefs, and experiences 
of present-day people (Margry et al., 2011). Such memorial websites have increased very 
noticeably in the past few years. Messages about one and the same deceased person can 
continue over several years in connection with, for example, birthdays, name days, and 
anniversaries of the death. Both relatives and friends can express themselves about and to 
the deceased person. This research deals with fifty-six memorial websites that have become 
available in Norway and Sweden, with the most extensive material being found in Sweden.1 
These memorial websites were set up by people that had recently suffered extreme grief in 
their immediate relationships. This study examines websites that are open to the public. 
Emphasis is placed on analysis of the content of the messages that stress a perspective of 
faith, and the research is by no means quantitative.
1 My sources are recorded in Gustavsson 2011: 161, 180, 196, April 1, 2011.
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The research questions are the following: How are concepts of an existence after death 
expressed? What is the deceased’s status considered to be on the other side? Is any form 
of dialogue possible with her or him? Can the surviving persons at some future time after 
their own deaths be reunited with their dead loved ones? How do the survivors use the 
verbs believe and know when they speak of supernatural matters?
THE EXISTENCE OF THE DECEASED IN HEAVEN
The concept that a deceased person is somewhere in heaven is common. There he or she 
can meet with others that have died. A new fellowship is assumed to have occurred after 
death. Existence in heaven is considered to be very similar to that on Earth. The life that 
is conceived of in the conceptual world is a very concrete and pleasant one. One never 
encounters negative concepts of existence in heaven. This is reminiscent of the neo-religious 
ideas of “the recaptured paradise,” which the Norwegian folklorist Bente Gullveig Alver 
has analyzed (Alver, 1999b; Kraft, 2011).
Deceased persons are believed to be able to continue practicing their activities in 
heaven. This can relate to motocross, such as Marcus loved until his death in 2008 at age 
twenty-three. A message about him said: “We hope you’re happy there among the angels and 
that you do a lot of motocross racing.” A photograph of the young man on his bike is included.
Doubt and clear denial of any form of existence after death are very rare in the mes-
sages. Some of them do not mention belief in any form of existence after death.
A person’s concept of an invisible existence can change when a sudden death occurs 
in his or her own immediate circle. It seems impossible to believe that everything has quite 
simply stopped. This is especially true with regard to deaths among children and young 
people. Such nascent and completely new ideas occur in the messages expressed by the 
mother of Max and Saga, who were murdered in 2008: 
I have never been a believer. Never believed in God and been fairly skeptical to 
concepts of a life after death. But after this . . . I still am not a believer. But I want 
to believe that something happens after death. I want to believe that Max and Saga 
are well and happy, and that they are with each other . . . I want to believe this, and 
then I do believe it. I do not believe that any God exists. But I must believe that my 
angels are really angels and are happy now.
In other words, belief in an existence after death and in angels can exist even if one has 
no faith in God. This is not a traditional Christian religion that has become tangible in a post-
modern, secular Sweden. Instead, it is a conceptual world that the afflicted persons themselves 
can create to find some form of consolation. An individualism of this kind, which is freed from 
traditional religiosity, is a characteristic of neo-religious trends (Gilhus, Mikaelsson, 2005).
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OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTACT WITH THE DECEASED
It is often thought that the deceased can be contacted by the living and that the living can 
even communicate their messages to the deceased on a computer. A mother wrote to her 
deceased son: “I think of you all the time and wish that I could telephone you and hear your 
voice. Now I’ ll send this e-mail up to heaven instead and hope that it reaches you. If you want 
anything, my dearest boy, I’ ll be sitting here at my computer for a while every day.”
As can be seen in this message, the deceased are also thought to be able to contact the 
living. There is a notion that the deceased also have a computer. The technical possibilities 
of this life are transferable to the existence on the far side of death.
When the deceased are in heaven, they are often believed to participate in events on 
Earth. They both watch over and protect their friends and relatives. Camilla wrote to her 
“pal” Andreas, who died in 2008 at age twenty-three: “I know that when I look up toward 
heaven I am certain that you are sitting there and looking down and keeping all your friends 
out of trouble, because your friends have always been important for you.” The words know 
and certain instead of believe suggests that Camilla is very convinced about the truth of 
what she writes.
The concept of a reunion with the deceased sometime in the future often appears in 
the messages. A new existence and fellowship can begin that will never end. Finiteness is 
replaced by the everlasting, and joy is restored supremely. This is something to look forward 
to as a consolation in one’s state of grief. After Viktor was murdered in 2007, at age forty, 
his girlfriend wrote: “When we meet again we will get married. Love you, try to take it easy 
up there, and some fine day we’ ll be dancing our salsa again.”
Such belief in being reunited is, however, far more diffuse in a great many other cases. 
It is not dependent on any particular religious basis. A mother wrote about her son, who had 
died at age twenty-five: “My only hope is that I will see him again sometime.” The expression 
of faith can be far more substantial in those other cases, which refer to God and angels.
Muslim writers, who are actually not so very numerous in the material studied, speak 
of the paradise named in the Koran. The writers are completely convinced about being 
reunited there. This is indicated by the use of the verb know instead of think. The wife 
of Samir, who died at age twenty-six in 2007, wrote: “I know that we will meet again and 
continue our lives together in paradise, I know that you are waiting for me. . . . My life now is 
just one long transit stage until we meet again.”
Explicit concepts of hell or of punishment after death in the messages are written 
only about those that have murdered a loved one or some other person close to the writer. 
Thoughts of revenge after the death are then expressed clearly, if not very often, in the 
messages.
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THE DECEASED MEETING WITH ANGELS AND OTHER DIVINE BEINGS
Belief in angels occurs very often in the messages. In order to enter their world, the deceased 
must climb an unendingly long stairway that is depicted in some of the messages. 
Meeting with angels is described in a clearly positive context for the deceased. After 
Richard died in 2008 at age twenty-seven, his cousin Laura wrote: “Your last journey to 
heaven has taken place and a lot of angels are carrying you there on their wings.” A deceased 
person can also speak in poetic form about how happy he or she is among the angels. This 
can help comfort mourners. When Marcus suddenly died in 2002 at age twenty, his mother 
cited poems in which her son spoke to her from heaven. One poem begins: 
Mummy dear, I see you from my new home, / This home where all the angels dwell. / 
I have so many friends, angels who are young and old. / Here no age matters, / Only 
a great love for one another, / Mummy dear, where angels dwell it is just so beautiful, 
/ Mummy, I want you to know that I am so happy here.
Because it is so good to be “where angels dwell,” Marcus’ mother believes that her son “will 
have a wonderful birthday party up there with the angels. I can see how you smile and laugh on your 
special day.” This was written on Marcus’ twenty-fifth birthday, in 2007, five years after his death.
When angels are the beings most discussed as having a supernatural or divine character, 
this is in keeping with New Age concepts (Alver, 1999a; Kraft, 2011). God is then more distant.
In the memorial website messages, however, there are examples of God and Jesus also 
being mentioned in addition to angels. This is then seen as being a positive element for the 
deceased. When four-month-old Nicolai died, his family wrote: “God had other plans for you. He 
wanted you near him and you left us behind with our despair and loss.” Another expression is that 
the deceased was a gift or a loan from God. In poems in which the deceased speaks, he or she 
often tells of the existence on the far side of death. This is usually an optimistic description of 
how happy they are. Several of these messages mention not only angels but also God and Jesus.
God and Jesus are mentioned far more often in Norwegian than in Swedish messages. 
This is especially noticeable in messages written by teenagers. When Trond was killed in a 
traffic accident at age fifteen, three girls from his school class wrote: “God loves to pick flowers, 
and now he has picked the finest one—that’s you, Trond.” Numerous Norwegian messages state 
that a person’s life is a loan from God, which He can reclaim sooner or later. In crisis situations 
it may therefore be easier to mention and approach God in Norway than it would appear to be 
in Sweden. The secularization seems to have been more prevalent in Sweden than in Norway.
Muslim writers refer to both Allah’s protection and to angels, which are named in 
the Koran (http://www.ne.se, Islam). When five-month-old Mohammed Osmanaj died 
in 2004, his parents wrote: “We seek Allah’s protection from shaitan’s evil mind.” In a poem, 
the dead child is speaking to his parents: “Last night I imagined an angel came / And took 
me by the hand / We flew together far away / Over sea and land.”
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THE DECEASED AS ANGELIC BEINGS
A common concept is that children and young people become angels after death. This is in 
striking contrast to earlier beliefs, in which the deceased were supposed to be souls, not angels. 
The British sociologist Tony Walter (2011) has also found a similar change in England. The 
mothers of dead children call themselves “mothers of angels.” In addition, there is a glorifica-
tion of the deceased by calling him or her the very best, finest, or prettiest angel in heaven. 
The deceased can continue to spread joy and humor in heaven just as he or she had done on 
Earth. The similarities between earthly life and an existence among the angels are obvious.
There are some examples of belief in the deceased already having been an angel while 
on Earth and having acted there as a loan to their relatives and friends. When Madeleine 
died in 2007 at age fifteen, one message read: “you have always been an angel and now you’ve 
got your glory.” The folklorist Bente Gullveig Alver (1999a) has shown that earlier concepts 
of a guardian angel have been changed in modern religiosity to become the angelic wings 
that human beings themselves receive. The supernatural is relocated onto the individual 
from the outside and then accompanies him or her even after death into a new existence. 
Figure 1. Angels guard the stairs that the dead climb into heaven (Gustavsson 2011: 190. https://
www.mdpi.com/humanities/humanities-04-00224/article_deploy/html/images/humanities-
04-00224-g005.png).
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One might expect that only the best individuals would be able to become angels. This 
is not the case, however. There are messages that speak of and regret the deceased person’s 
drug addiction that brought him (they are generally young men) to an early death. A sister 
of Daniel, who died in 2007 at age thirty-three, wrote: “Drugs determined your fate, they 
took you from us. My beloved brother has become an angel, he has left us here below.”
CONCEPTS ABOUT STILLBORN INFANTS IN SWEDEN
When a child dies in the womb, it is not unusual for a mother in Sweden, but infrequent 
in Norway, to write one or more messages on memorial websites. The declaration often 
expressed is that the stillborn infant was an angel. This angel was in a hurry to return 
to heaven, where the other angels dwell. The idea that the infant was a loan occasionally 
occurs. In such cases, God is sometimes named. Angels are most often mentioned, but 
without God being mentioned. Mothers may call themselves “angel mommies.” A picture 
of a child with angel’s wings may be included. This is especially noticeable in messages that 
are written on anniversaries of the delivery. Parents may then imagine a birthday party in 
heaven and even send up a balloon.
A final characteristic of the Swedish memorial websites for stillborn infants is that they 
really do not differ in any way from those websites relating to children that lived and later 
died. In their grief reactions, parents do not differ between a formerly living child and a 
stillborn one. They have been borrowed whether they were born alive or died in the womb. 
After their own deaths, parents anticipate meeting both stillborn infants and children that 
lived on Earth. A future reunion of this kind is depicted in positive phrases and will never end.
BELIEF IN AN AFTERLIFE AFTER SUICIDE IN SWEDEN
Some Swedish memorial websites show that close relatives find comfort in believing that 
a person that died by suicide can have a different existence after death. It is believed to be 
better than the life the deceased consciously chose to leave. However, this new existence is 
conceived as being diffuse. A message about Maja, who committed suicide in 2009 at age 
twenty-six, noted: “She chose to go on to a new life, where she is probably happier than here on 
Earth.” No thoughts of punishment after death are expressed. This corresponds fully with 
the neo-religious concepts of “the regained paradise” (Alver, 1999b).
The surviving relatives are also believed to be able to make contact with the deceased 
person in his or her new existence. After Johan committed suicide in 2005 at age forty-four, 
a sister wrote: “I talk to you every day, hope you hear me, see me, and are with me. Love you 
forever.” Numerous messages also mention the probability of a reunion between the surviv-
ing relatives and the deceased in some vague future. A sister of Pierre, who took his life in 
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Figure 2. The mother of a deceased daughter wrote: “Hugs from your beloved mother.” The angel 
has both a halo and wings, and may be thought to be the daughter (http://www.tillminneav.se/
showPage.php?id=34).
Figure 3. “Light a candle for my angel-child” (October 31, 2009); Figure 4. “Protective angel” 
(November 22, 2009), wrote Ehline’s mother (http://www.minneavehline.blogg.se).
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2005 at age twenty, wrote: “I hope you will meet all of us, one after the other, with wide-open 
arms when it’s our turn to come to the other side because I know you are there somewhere and 
are waiting for us.”
The deceased can also meet angels in the afterlife, who care for him or her. Sometimes 
a “city of angels” is mentioned. The deceased can also be conceived of as being an angel. A 
glorification of the deceased often occurs in which the latter is seen as being the best angel 
that can be found. After Robin took his life in 2008 at age twenty, his mother wrote to 
him: “Robin, now you’re a real angel, the loveliest, most wonderful angel in the whole universe. 
Sleep well, my child, we’ ll meet again someday.” Upon becoming an angel, the deceased is 
thought to be able to watch over and protect the surviving relatives on Earth. 
In Norway one does not encounter concepts of an existence after death for those 
that have committed suicide. Angels are therefore not mentioned either. Glorification or 
expressions of honor are unthinkable because this could lead to others being tempted to 
new suicides. There is not only more reticence in Norway about speaking of suicide; there 
also appears to be more keeping to former negative beliefs about those that commit suicide 
with reference to a coming afterlife. In this respect, the contrast with Sweden is very obvi-
ous. The stability of tradition is clearly more evident in Norway.
A more obvious degree of secularization clearly plays a role in Sweden. Another factor 
is the individualism that in many ways has been shown to be more evident in Sweden than 
in Norway. In Sweden there is often a tendency to regard what is new as positive.
FAITH ABOUT DECEASED PETS
This study of the internet on attitudes toward deceased pet cats focuses on pet owners’ 
expressions of their faith. Can concepts about an existence after death for animals also be 
perceived?
Swedish memorial websites for deceased pets began to appear at the turn of the mil-
lennium, in 2000. Their number has noticeably increased since 2005. During the 2000s 
they also began to appear in Norway, even if not to the same extent as in Sweden. A total 
of eleven such memorial websites are examined in this study.
One expression is that a deceased cat has passed over the “rainbow bridge” to another 
world, the “Rainbow Country,” where there are only positive properties. This world is 
described in a poem by the author Paul C. Dahm and is cited in some of the internet 
contributions. The internet site www.regnbagsbron.org has the subtitle “Memorial site 
for beloved pets.” In some cases a rainbow is depicted as well as a “rainbow bridge” that 
winds up toward the clouds. The assurance about a new existence in heaven can be clearly 
expressed without involving any form of doubt. Vendela wrote to her cat Tigger: “Some 
people say we don’t go to heaven when we die, but you can be certain that you will. Because 
your heart is made of pure and solid gold.”
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An expression that is often encountered concerns a feline heaven. There the deceased 
cat will also quickly meet other cats, among them those that have died earlier and that the 
cat knew during its earthly life. As the owner of the cat Lotus wrote: “Now you are together 
with seventeen-year-old Svante, running about in green fields and chasing butterflies.” The 
cat is thus believed to have acquired a new life that has a strong resemblance to its former 
conditions of life on Earth. Earthly life is in this way projected onto an assumed existence 
after death like the situation for deceased humans. 
A motif that often recurs in Swedish statements is the concept of a reunion or a meet-
ing with the cat and its owners in a future transcendent existence. In other cases, a future 
meeting can be expressed as being very specific, like the words to the cat Emil (1996–2002): 
“Husse and matte [the owners] hope we will meet you again on the other side. We hope you will 
greet us at the door when it is our turn to go through the pearly gates.”
After this kind of future meeting, no painful parting would ever occur. The following 
was written by its owner to Rasmus, a kitten a few months old: “I know we’ ll meet again 
after a very long time . . . Then we will always belong together. And, when that day comes, 
nothing will ever part us again.”
Figure 5. “All dogs go to Heaven.” An image of the rainbow bridge that connects heaven with earth 
(©JimWarren, Jimwarren.com).
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There are also some instances in Sweden, as well as a few in Norway, of a cat being 
ascribed an angelic character. This shows an obvious similarity to that which has become 
usual on memorial sites dedicated to humans. The cat Mitzi is characterized as being “an 
angel in cat heaven.” Other angels in heaven can express joy because the dead cat now 
enjoys a new existence. The two Norwegian examples of the use of “angel” do not men-
tion a possible future existence in Heaven. Such expressions of faith are reserved solely for 
deceased persons in Norway, in keeping with the older Christian tradition that has not felt 
the influence of religious modes of thought in recent years.
Evidence has also been found in Sweden, but not in Norway, that grief-stricken owners 
have conducted conversations with their dead cats on the internet in the hope that the cats 
will be able to hear the communications. The cat Isa, which died at age fifteen in 2001, 
received the following message from her owner: “I want you to know that I keep a picture 
of you on my bedside table and that I chat with you every evening and say good night, have 
you heard me?” An expressed Christian faith can be conveyed in some cases in Sweden. 
After the three-year-old cat Zhiney died in 2002, its owner prayed: “May God bless her. 
Heavenly Peace.”
Norwegian internet sites also contain some examples concerning a fairly diffuse 
existence after death for deceased cats, but far from as many as in Sweden. In Sweden, no 
general inconsistency is felt between having a Christian faith and practicing such forms of 
anthropomorphism. That the spiritual dimension after death is much more pronounced 
in Sweden must be regarded as an expression of a more obvious secularization in Sweden 
than in Norway. A main result is that the previously strict boundaries between humans 
and pets have increasingly disappeared in Sweden, whereas they continue to exist in 
Norway. Norwegian contributions sometimes indicate a direct criticism toward “human-
like characterization.”
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This study has shown that much information is available to scholars in cultural science 
about concepts of faith through a study of memorial websites for deceased persons and pets 
on the internet. The attention given to stillborn infants in Sweden is similar to that given 
to children that lived and then died. In Sweden, the differences between suicides and other 
deaths have been increasingly erased. Boundaries between humans and pets are also in the 
process of being obliterated on the memorial websites. This demonstrates an obvious dif-
ference compared to the previously maintained distinctions that held animals outside the 
spiritual and religious sphere. Equality, not differentiation, should apply to all, according to 
the dominant political and medial norms that have become increasingly strong in Sweden.
An examination of the messages’ content often reveals a concept of some form of 
belief in a heavenly existence after death. This is seldom denied. Ideas about a supernatural 
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existence vary on a scale ranging from the diffuse to the fairly concrete. In heaven, deceased 
individuals or pets can become acquainted with other deceased persons and animals even 
if they have not had previous social contact. Association and fellowship can then arise. 
The heavenly existence also includes angels that are thought to care well for the deceased. 
The deceased can also become angels. The concept of angels has replaced the earlier usual 
concept of souls. Existence among angels is entirely positive. Neither darkness nor punish-
ment occurs after death. Opportunities for contact between the living and the dead can take 
place through the dead being believed to be able to read what is written on the memorial 
websites. The verb know, rather than believe, is used in such connections. The deceased 
can also contact the living by watching over them like guardian angels.
The living believe that their ultimate contact with the deceased will occur after their 
own death. Then the relationship will be everlasting. In Sweden this also regards deceased 
pets. Finiteness is replaced by the everlasting. This is something to look forward to, and 
this belief is often expressed on the websites.
In Norway, the boundary between suicide and other deaths is marked in an entirely 
different manner. Glorification or expressions of honor are unthinkable because this could 
lead to others being tempted to new suicides. In Norway there are no concepts of a bright 
afterlife or of angels in connection with suicides.
Older traditions have been shown to survive longer in present-day Norway than in 
Sweden. In Sweden there is a greater tendency to adopt innovations and set aside longstand-
ing traditions. Memorial websites to the deceased generally contain far more traditional 
Christian concepts in Norway than in Sweden. This concerns, for example, references 
to God and Jesus. In Sweden one observes more of a diffuse, general religiosity that can 
remind one of New Age modes of thought, in which individuals and the brightness of a 
coming existence have a prominent position.
It can be difficult to give an explicit answer as to why former traditions associated with 
the deceased in general and to suicides and pets in particular have a stronger position in 
Norway. A more obvious degree of secularization clearly plays a role in Sweden. Another 
factor is the individualism that in many ways has been shown to be more evident in Sweden 
than in Norway. This is especially noticeable in the choice of symbols on gravestones in 
recent times (Gustavsson, 2011: 39). In Sweden there is often a tendency to regard what is 
new as positive, and to focus on the cheerful events emphasized by the media. The result 
can be that one covers over anything that is sorrowful. Life’s darkest moments can be given a 
brighter shape. In this respect, Norway can be seen as being more realistic in its preservation 
of older traditions and in not merely rejecting life’s darker sides without further discussion.
The internet contributions studied here provide opportunities for establishing a number 
of fundamental ideas about contemporary people. It is obvious that intense emotions need 
to find expression in words and not be suppressed within the systems and thoughts of the 
separate individuals. A process of grief must be allowed to be shared with others even if 
this is not done verbally within one’s immediate circle of friends and relatives. It is not 
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unproblematic to converse with just anyone at all about one’s innermost feelings and trau-
matic experiences. Here the internet can serve as a public sphere providing welcome relief 
when struggling to endure the difficulties of a grief process. Mourners can sit at their PCs 
in the privacy of their homes and express their innermost feelings and beliefs, and they can 
communicate these to a large number of mostly unknown people.
REFERENCES
Alver, Bente Gullveig. 1999a. Fra englevagt til englevinger [From angel watch to angel wings]. In Myte, magi 
og mirakel i möte med det modern, eds. Bente Gullveig Alver et al., 183–199. Oslo: Pax.
Alver, Bente Gullveig. 1999b. Paradise Recaptured: Experience, Interpretation and Narrative. In  Folk 
religion: Continuity and Change, eds. Anders Gustavsson and Maria Santa Montez, 325–334. 
Lisboa: Universidade Nova.
Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, and Lisbeth Mikaelsson. 2005. Kulturens refortrylling: Nyreligiøsitet i moderne samfunn 
[The enchantment of culture: New religiosity in modern societies]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Gustavsson, Anders. 2011. Cultural Studies on Death and Dying in Scandinavia. Oslo: Novus.
Kraft, Siv Ellen. 2011. Hva er nyreligiøsitet [What is new religiosity?]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Krawczyk-Waasilewska, Violetta, Theo Meder, and Andy Ross, eds. 2012. Shaping Virtual Lives: Online 
Identities, Representations, and Conducts. Lódz: Lódz University Press.
Margry, Peter Jan, and Christina Sanchez-Carretero, eds. 2011. Grassroots Memorials: The Politics of 
Memorializing Traumatic Death. New York: Berghahn.
Walter, Tony. 2011. Angels not Souls: Popular Religion in the Online Mourning for British Celebrity Jade 
Goody. Religion 41 (1): 29–51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2011.553138.
VERA, SMRT IN SVETOVNI SPLET NA NORVEŠKEM IN ŠVEDSKEM
Eno glavnih vprašanj pri raziskavah spominskih spletnih mest se nanaša na to, kako žalujoči 
izražajo čustva in katera prepričanja prevladujejo o posmrtnem življenju pokojne osebe. Pregled 
vsebine sporočil največkrat razkrije koncept določene oblike vere v nebesa in v življenje po smrti; 
le redko je opazno zanikanje. Ideje o nadnaravnem obstoju so zelo različne, od razpršenih do 
precej konkretnih zamisli. Na splošno pa angeli obstajajo, po smrti se ne zgodi niti tema niti 
kazen, živi pa verjamejo, da se bodo po svoji smrti srečali s pokojnikom in z njim večno živeli. 
Na Švedskem velja to tudi za pokojne hišne ljubljenčke. Prej še stroge meje med posmrtnim 
življenjem ljudi in hišnih ljubljenčkov na Švedskem vse bolj izginjajo, norveški prispevki pa 
občasno kažejo na neposredno kritiko »človeške karakterizacije« domačih živali. Pokazalo se je, 
da danes na Norveškem starejše tradicije preživijo dlje kakor na Švedskem, kjer je bolj navzoča 
težnja po sprejemanju inovacij in po odmiku od dolgoletnih tradicij. To je mogoče razbrati tudi 
na spominskih spletnih mestih, kjer je na Norveškem opazno veliko več tradicionalnih krščanskih 
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konceptov kakor na Švedskem. Na Švedskem gre za bolj razpršeno, splošno religioznost, ki lahko 
spominja na novodobne načine mišljenja, v katerih je v ospredju individualizem, kar kaže na 
višjo stopnjo sekularizacije.
Dr. Anders Gustavsson, University of Oslo, anders.gustavsson@ikos.uio.no