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Withoutabox Submit to Film Festivals. Amazon Renewed Refurbished products with a warranty. Amazon Second Chance Pass it on, trade it in, give it a second life. To knock on wood three times after speaking ill will of anything was irish custom for releasing the bad luck that could follow.

November 23, at 7: January 29, at 3: Has anyone heard of a superstition concerning a knife falling to the floor? I had an uncle who died quite young, in the s. His mother- my Irish-born grandmother- was at home at the time working in the kitchen. A knife fell on the floor and she announced to her family that the son was dead. Keith Byron Smith said: February 8, at 2: Birds flying into the house are an omen of death, an owls hoot as well is negative omen. Iron shouls be hung above the door to stop bad luck as well as preventing the fae from entering the home and causing torment.

September 20, at September 23, at 4: September 25, at October 15, at 7: November 5, at I come from a Southern family and I believe the superstitoins. The bird pecking on a window or flying into a window means death will come to someone close soon. I knew it and it happened, Another one my Dad a old cowboy was serious about was not to lay a cowboy hat on a bed.! He would get very upset and said it is a very bad omen. Sometimes there are coins too,? March 11, at 3: Has anyone ever heard of taking a body out of the house on a window shutter? I had a friend whose father passed away and before he did, made the family know that he better be carried out of the house on a one of its window shutters, should he die at home.

Victorian Funeral Customs and Superstitions | Friends of Oak Grove Cemetery

The rescue squad obliged, incredibly! May 4, at My great grandmother is buried in Oak Grove. Hope to visit in person some day soon. May 4, at 3: Maybe its a North East England custom. June 3, at 7: September 1, at 2: Nov 5 entry speaks of not sitting on gravestones.

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In Atlanta it has been explained to me that the Confederate graves are pointed so that people will not sit on them and the Yankee graves are rounded and more comfortable to sit on. October 29, at 7: December 3, at 6: January 23, at 5: I grew up in a small town in County Donegal. I was often told that a robin was the spirit of a dead relative or friend. On the day my Uncle was buried a robin visited my garden. I had all sorts of birds in my garden, but never a robin. This happened a year later when my aunt passed away and again on the day my Mother died. My Mothers robin stayed all week!

There is often a robin perched on Mums headstone too. July 24, at 1: My Mother would take dimes or nickels with her to place on the eyes of a neighbor very soon after death to hold the eyes shut and tie the mouth closed … always to help the undertaker prepare the body for the wake. October 26, at 6: November 11, at 3: Has anyone heard of an old tradition whereby when a corpse left the house after being waked, all the chairs in the room were turned upside down? I am curious what the purpose of this was.

January 25, at 3: The Anglican church still requires that at a funeral a corpse must enter and leave the church feet first. In Russia the mirrors are covered as described here. In nursing homes it is known that the sense of hearing is the last to go and one must be careful what you say as a person is failing. March 4, at Contrary to unfortunately rather too common pronunciation… Internment means to gather or amass into an area like people in camps during wartime for example , while interment means to bury something valuable.

April 24, at 5: There is a section of unmarked Irish and English family graves in Connecticut where no headstones were ever placed, even though the family members were financially well off and could have afforded them during the late s. Have you ever heard of this in graveyard culture? Feet First DV Layton. May 9, at Another good history blog Gudger College Daily. September 1, at 1: Thank you for a charming and captivating collection of customs. When I was a young boy in Central Ontario my grandparents made it a point to shake hands with the gravedigger or the undertaker when attending a burial.

Failing to do so meant the death would strike your family next. October 29, at 9: My Mother died, in my home, 6 months ago to this very day. Several of the Victorian traditions were observed during this time. Photography I know some are horrified at the prospect has been done in my family before.

For some, it can help to face what has happened. Each grieve in their own way. The funeral director pulled me aside and commented on the youth she exuded since was 97, and she had done the work several days before, and that was not the way she looked. The morning of her death, several other of the funeral directors arrived to move her and as they entered the hall, they asked us if we would like to say goodbye and of course, we said yes.

The older funeral director placed his right arm across his abdomen, bowed slightly, and took several steps back. Does anyone know why? After they had gone, I went to her room and found a single red rose lying across her bed pillows……….. January 13, at 4: My family has always believed the spirit lingers 3 days after death…Where does this belief originate? January 29, at To Navan who posted April 24, Perhaps they were Quakers? An old Quaker cemetery in Guilford, North Carolina, where my Quaker ancestors are, never had grave markers either.

More information can be found at http: January 30, at 7: Marie St John said: The wake is a tradition that began during the time of the Bubonic plague. People in all of Europe were dying at such a great rate that the towns began to run out of cemetery lots. Most people of means did not wish to be buried with paupers in mass graves so they paid extra to have an older grave opened and the bones removed so the lot could be reused.

Upon the opening of the boxes they were finding scratch marks on the lids and sides of the box indicating the person who had been buried in it was not really dead. At that time it was popular to drink from tin cups. The alcoholic beverages people of that time drank would chemically react with the tin and could cause the drinker to fall into a deep coma so deep they would be declared dead..

But even then a string would be tied to the dead persons wrist or ankle and then run up out of the grave and tied to a bell on a stick. If the person was not really dead and woke they would begin thrashing causing the bell to ring, thus the term saved by the bell. A man would be hired to walk the cemetery and listen for the bells if he heard one he was to dig up the grave as quickly as possible. March 27, at 1: When a framed work of art suddenly fell off the wall as I passed by it in our house the noise it made was unusually loud.

It had been the gift of my best friend, and I was fond of it. It had fallen face-down, and as I stooped to pick it up, I knew my best friend of 45 years who lived hundreds of miles away was dead— which was unexpected as she was not yet He brother phoned next day to say she had dropped dead of a heart attack at work. When my reclusive elderly Aunt died, I had a floral door-badge put on her front door, requesting that the florist put some white carnations on a background of greenery, and to put on a black bow with long streamers with her name and dates on the swag in stick-on letters.

This was so that the neighbours would know she was dead, and perhaps say a prayer for her. A mourning swag on a door is a good custom and I would like to see people revive it. Three days before my beloved step-dad died of cancer in the hospital, a swarm of bees came and rested peacefully on a dead stump in the front yard of his house. The day he died, they suddenly flew away. I cannot say how comforted, as well as charmed I was by this.

Strange that I did not know this belief, and that a stray book fell open at the relevant page at that time in my life. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Never wear anything new to a funeral, especially shoes.

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Stop the clock in a death room or you will have bad luck. If rain falls on a funeral procession, the deceased will go to heaven. If you smell roses when none are around someone is going to die. If you see yourself in a dream, your death will follow. If you see an owl in the daytime, there will be a death.

If you dream about a birth, someone you know will die. If a bird pecks on your window or crashes into one that there has been a death. If a sparrow lands on a piano, someone in the home will die. Never speak ill of the dead because they will come back to haunt you or you will suffer misfortune. That was very interesting thanks for the info. It is said if it rains at a funeral. Happy is the departed that the rain falls on. Love anything about the Victorian Era!


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Kinda interesting and a little creepy. Thank god i dont hold my breath when i go by a cemetary. In New York we would hang a wreath of fresh flowers on the door. Being Sicilian there are a lot of similar customs and superstitions. Kacey Nicole Harvey said: October 29th, My Mother died, in my home, 6 months ago to this very day. Judy Sue Freeman said: Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email Address never made public.

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