Among the Csángós of Gyimes, a Hungarian community living in Romania, it is not rare for people to dream about their dead relatives and acquaintances. These dreams provide one of the main channels for communication between the living and the dead, and thus are central to the cult of the dead: they maintain and regulate the relationship between the two groups, reinforce or mould ideas about the afterlife, and make people observe rituals related to the dead. (cf. Järvinen et al. 1996; Järvinen 1998). In this article however, I will focus on the communicative aspects these dreams have within the living community, when narrated to others. My arguments are based on an eight-month fieldwork trip among the Csángós.

To understand the communicational significance of the dream narratives, a few words have to be said about the local discourse. In Gyimes – as in many other close-knit communities – there is a communicational paradox. On the one hand there is an expectation that people should mind their own business and shouldn't care about others' affairs. On the other, they have to be informed about village affairs in order to effectively negotiate social relationships and their positions in social space. Thus, as everyday conversations show, communication does centre on the acts and problems of fellow villagers. To solve this paradox, people in Gyimes tend to express themselves indirectly.