Funeral and memorial rituals (as well as maternity, baptismal and wedding rituals) are an effective tool aimed at maintaining and activating the cultural memory of not only individual families, but of the entire community. In the spiritual culture of the Old Believers of the Republic of Moldova, as in any tradition, an important place is occupied by ideas about death and the afterlife of a person, which are embodied in beliefs and superstitions, in special rituals, folklore texts, the system of regulation of the behavior of community members in appropriate situations, etc. The funeral ritual complex of the Old Believers, “being typologically, functionally, structurally and conceptually” (V. Volkova) East Slavic, is divided into three stages: pre-burial, funeral and post-funeral. One of the ways to scientifically study the traditional culture (including such a part of family rituals as funeral and memorial) is to consider it as a semiotic system, the units of which are elements of a number of cultural codes – actional ones (rites aimed at facilitating the transition to another world for the deceased; actions while the deceased is in the house; actions at the cemetery; commemoration, etc.), the verbal code, the character code (those persons who wash and dress the deceased; make a coffin; sew a shroud and other necessary things; read, taking turns, the Holy Scripture all the days and nights before the burial; dig a grave; carry the coffin, its lid and the cross to the cemetery, etc.), object code (a cross on a gaitan – a simple lace, a belt and other items of clothing, as well as a shroud; a “lestovka” (Old Believer rosary) and a “podruchnik” (small rug for prayer), which are placed in the coffin; towels; elements that make up the “pomana”, etc.), culinary code (dishes are prepared according to special recipes: kutya, borsch, boiled rice, noodles), etc.