THE PEOPLE ’S PRINCESS: VERNACULAR RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE MOURNING FOR DIANA

Bowmnan, Marion (2001) THE PEOPLE ’S PRINCESS: VERNACULAR RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE MOURNING FOR DIANA. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 46 (1-2). pp. 35-49. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on August 31st 1997, led to extraordinary activity by millions of people as they reacted to the news in unexpected and seemingly unprecedented ways.Among the most fascinating phenomena were the many notes which were left for, about and to Diana, at the many ‘shrines’ which sprang up around Britan. This paper will explore the multivalent nature of these notes –the extent to which they reflected folk belief about sainthood, heaven and divinity; the extent to which they were political comment veiled in the conventions of mourning; the extent to which they were either magnifications of common vernacular practice or a new development within it. These remarkable documents were both personal and communal, public and private; it could be argued that they give a unique insight into popular religiosity in Britan at the turn of the Milennium.

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