  An introduction to the physics of eta and eta' meson decays is given. A
historical account of the discovery of the mesons is presented. It is followed
by an overview and classification of the common decay modes and the relevance
of the mesons for modern hadron and particle physics. In more detail the
hadronic decay modes are discussed and in particular some interesting features
of the eta-> 3pi0 decay are presented. The last section briefly reviews and
compares reactions used to produce the eta and eta' mesons for the studies of
their decays.
