In ancient Rome, a ''refrigerium'' () was a commemorative meal for the dead, consumed in a graveyard.
These meals were held on the day of burial, then again on the ninth day after the funeral, and annually thereafter. Early Christians continued the ''refrigerium'' ritual, by taking food to gravesites and
catacombs
Catacombs are man-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire.
Etymology and history
The first place to be referred ...
in honor of
Christian martyrs, as well as relatives.
The early
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
theologian Tertullian used the term ''refrigerium interim'' to describe a happy state in which the souls of the blessed are refreshed while they await the
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
and their definitive entry into
heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
.
Later Christian writers referred to a similar, interim state of grace as the "
Bosom of Abraham" (a term taken from
Luke 16:22, 23). Tertullian's notions of ''refrigerium'' were part of a debate on whether the souls of the dead had to await the
End of Times and the Last Judgment before their entrance into either heaven or
hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, or whether, on the other hand, each soul was assigned its place in the eternal afterlife immediately after death (see
particular judgment
Particular judgment, according to Christian eschatology, is the divine judgment that a departed person undergoes immediately after death, in contradistinction to the general judgment (or Last Judgment) of all people at the end of the world.
...
).
In
C.S. Lewis's ''
The Great Divorce
''The Great Divorce'' is a novel by the British author C. S. Lewis, published in 1945, based on a theological dream vision of his in which he reflects on the Christian conceptions of Heaven and Hell.
The working title was ''Who Goes Home?'' but t ...
'', the concept is described as "the damned have holidays".
[Lewis, C.S., "The Great Divorce" (HarperOne, 946, 67. ] In the book, the damned take an excursion to heaven (for refreshment) where they are invited to stay.
References
* La Piana, George, ''The Tombs of Peter and Paul Ad Catacumbas'', The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan., 1921), 53.
* Lietzmann, Hans, ''The Tomb of the Apostles Ad Catacumbas'', The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr., 1923), 147.
*
Jacques Le Goff, ''The Birth of Purgatory'', (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986). {{ISBN, 978-0-226-47083-2
Ceremonial food and drink
Funeral food and drink