2343 ______________________________________________________________ DOI: https://doi.org/10.33258/birci.v3i3.1182 The Meaning and Symbols of the Batak Karo Ethnic Ritual Ceremony: Study of Semiotics Jekmen Sinulingga 1 , Flansius Tampubolon 2 1,2 Faculty of Cultural Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia jekmen@usu.ac.id I. Introduction Culture is the result of human thought that is passed down from generation to generation and is accepted by the heirs in their daily life. Customs are also rules or norms that serve as guidelines for life for every individual in life in the community and each individual is bound by predetermined norms or rules. In culture, one of the most important is the religious element, which is related to belief in God, God, and Spirit, which is believed to give peace and strength. In the implementation of the religious system, there are various forms of ceremony. One form of the ceremony is the transition ceremony. The transition ceremony is a ceremony that is carried out in relation to the stages of life. Culture is the result of human thought that is passed down from one generation to the next and is accepted by the heirs in their daily life. Customs are also rules or norms that serve as guidelines for life for every individual in life in the community and each individual is bound by predetermined norms or rules. Ethnicity as one that sustains a sense of primordialism is often interpreted as a social group in a social or cultural system that has a certain meaning or position because of heredity, customs, religion, language, and so on. Members of an ethnic group have a common history (ancestry), language, value system, customs, and traditions. Overall, the ethnic group takes an important position in the social interaction of the intermingling process in all ethnic groups of indigenous peoples in the social community. (Angkat, 2019) The traditional death ceremony is a ceremony that is carried out as a sign of final respect for the person who has passed away so that the family left behind always gets blessings in everyday life. The traditional death ceremony for the Karo tribe in Seberaya Village is one of the various cultures that exist in the Karo community in Karo Regency who really pay attention to manners and language methods in its implementation (Pinem, Kamarlin. 2013: 3). Abstract This study aims to describe the meaning and symbol of the Cawir metua ritual ceremony, namely the death ceremony for the Karo community in Seberaya village, Karo district, North Sumatra Province. The method used in this research is a qualitative descriptive method which is done by collecting data by observation and interviews; descriptions that are bold and deep in nature, working with key informants. The theoretical framework used is the Social Semiotics approach, which is to interpret language in the sociocultural context in which culture is interpreted in semiotic terms as an information system. Based on the research that has been done, the authors obtained the results of the research, namely the symbolic meaning of the Cawir metua ceremony is the existence of symbols that have philosophical meanings in the Cawir metua ceremony.are still poor and need to be improved. Keywords: Batak Karoethnic; Cawir Metua; meaning and symbols; semiotics