Avoid disaster in the family with these death superstitions

Death superstitions provide a common theme throughout folklore. It’s hardly surprising. Before the advent of modern medicine and health and safety, communities may have felt more at the mercy of life’s whims. Following superstitions gives an element of control.

Indeed, many of them also have mundane roots. Hanging a dish cloth over a door knob meant there would be a death in the family (Bergen 1889a: 16). That said, this could stem from the tradition of tying crape to doorknobs to let people know the household was in mourning.

I’ve covered death superstitions around cemeteries, but these are some more general areas of ‘best practice’ to try and avoid a death in the family!

1. Don’t break a mirror

I know it’s more usual that breaking a mirror brings bad luck. According to Bergen, Beauchamp and Newell, it brings seven years of bad luck in north Shropshire, and it’s even more unlucky to keep the broken pieces. Though in Wellington, it was believed that breaking two more mirrors would cancel out the first breakage! (1889a: 15)

The ‘7 years’ period actually dated back to the Romans. For them, life renewed every 7 years, including the soul. Breaking a mirror damaged the soul it reflected at the time.

The contradictions appear early, since early American folklore recommends immersing the pieces in water for seven hours. Not just any water–it had to be flowing south.

Alternatively, you could grind the pieces into a powder, so bury the broken pieces. Either way, the mirror couldn’t reflect anything any more, and would cancel the bad luck.

But elsewhere, to break a mirror is a sign that there will be a death in the family before the end of the year. In Switzerland, it was said that the last person to look into the mirror will die first (Bergen 1889a: 15).

Babies under a year old just shouldn’t look into a mirror at all (Bergen 1889a: 17).

Speaking of mirrors, keep them facing the wall while the corpse is in the house. If you don’t, anyone who uses the mirror will die within a year (Bergen 18891: 12).

Weekinweird.com add two more death superstitions relating to mirrors.

• If a mirror falls and breaks, someone in the house will die soon.
• Those who see their reflection in a room where someone has died recently will soon die themselves.

2. Watch how you go around funerals

If you arrived at a funeral after the procession had started, it would bring death back to the house. And if you counted the carriages in a funeral that passed, you would die within a year (Bergen 1889a: 14).

Also, whoever the dying person last looked at before death would be the first to die among those assembled at the bedside (Bergen 1889a: 14).

Graves shouldn’t be left open overnight or they would herald another death. Leaving the side of a grave before the gravedigger lowers the coffin means another death will follow. The first mourner to leave the cemetery would also be the first person of the assembled people to die.

3. Be careful with your scissors

According to Jacqueline Simpson and Stephen Roud, if you drop scissors and the points stick into the floor, it’s a sign of impending death (2003: 315).

According to Igglesden, it’s even worse if a seamstress drops her scissors, as it means she’ll soon get an order for mourning wear (1932).

Whereas in Greece, if you leave open scissors on a table, it means that Michael (the Archangel) has opened his mouth to take the soul of a family member (Bergen 1889a: 15).

Though in many places, scissors are hung above or beside a door so their blades fall open, thus stopping evil creatures from coming in!

4. Try to avoid sitting with twelve other people

Having thirteen at a table is generally noted as being bad luck. But Bergen, Beauchamp and Newell note that in Somerville, MA., the person who gets up first won’t last the year. By contrast, in Brookline, MA., the last one to sit won’t die that year (Bergen 1889a: 16).

In Germany, the folklore varies. The unlucky victim can be the youngest, the last to sit, the first to eat (or get up), whoever sits under a mirror, or whoever seems downcast. Best not to sit with twelve others just to be on the safe side.

In Bohemia, the belief specified it only related to Christmas dinners (Bergen 1889a: 16).

The Thirteen Club was created in the 1880s to try and debunk this superstition. It had over 400 members by 1887, including Theodore Roosevelt.

Some believe the superstition dates to the Last Supper. The story could be even older; in Norse mythology, 12 gods arrive at a banquet. Loki intrudes, making it 13, and the beloved Balder dies as a result of Loki’s trickery.

I’ve got a fuller article on why people fear the number 13 if you’re interested in this superstition!

5. Don’t carry tools through the house

In Mansfield, OH., it’s the hoe that becomes the unlucky harbinger of death (Bergen 1889a: 16).

If you do carry a hoe, you can reverse the bad luck by carrying it out again while walking backward. Alternatively, take it back out of the door you came in.

In the UK, it was more likely to be the axe, or any sharp tool – and it only applied if you carried it on your shoulder. Spades were especially bad luck due to their association with gravedigging (Bergen 1889a: 16).

We all know it’s considered bad luck to open an umbrella indoors. It only becomes a death omen when you then hold it over your head (Bergen 1889a: 17).

6. Avoid making plants bloom out of season

Bergen, Beauchamp and Newell note the blossoming of fruit-trees out of season as being a sign of impending death, as is leaving a single fruit after gathering the rest. But in Oldenburg, Germany, the blooming of a fruit-tree, or a rose, in autumn means someone in the house is not long for this world (1889a: 21).

It’s clear that there are no doubt good reasons for some death superstitions. As for the fruit, some berries in particular are susceptible to moulds or bacteria after their natural season. Coming up with a superstition as to why people shouldn’t eat them was an easy way to avoid the illnesses associated with the fruit.

7. Watch out for certain animals

Dreaming of a white horse was a death omen in both Bohemia and England. More specifically in Sussex, white animals that appeared mysteriously at night also warned that death was imminent (Bergen 1889a: 13). Bergen suggests this might be because both certain early gods and some saints, like St Walburga, were said to ride white horses.

If a bat circles your head three times, it predicts a death (Daniels 2011 [1903]: 575). An Illinois superstition claimed a bat getting into the house and staying “for a long time” meant a death would occur in the house. If the bat left soon after, “a relative would die”. In Arkansas, just dreaming about a bat flying into your house was enough to kill a dear friend (McCracken 1992).

There’s a superstition that if a moth flies to a candle and puts out the flame, it means someone in the house will die (Daniels and Stevans 2003 [1903]: 665).

8. Listen for strange noises

If bells ring of their own accord, it foretells a death. Likewise, if broken clocks suddenly strike or tick, it also means death is coming. Hearing three raps somewhere in the house means a family member has died. And, perhaps most famously, the sign of ticking in the walls means a death will happen in the house. That said, one further version of this is that the tick must happen only three times each time it occurs for it to be counted (Bergen 1889a: 18).

There is a belief that the knocks must be heard in threes at regular intervals. It’s supposed to be Death knocking at the door to be allowed in (Bergen 1889a: 19).

Meanwhile, the ticking is more likely to be the sound made by the deathwatch beetle. They actually make this sound while they’re hunting for a mate!

Watch out for unoccupied rocking chairs that move of their own accord. One superstition claims that this means a death in the family, while another says it’s because a spirit of a family member has returned to claim the next to die (Bergen 1889b: 105).

But over to you! What death superstitions have you heard?

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References

Bergen, Fanny D., Beauchamp, W. M. and Newell, W. W. (1889a) ‘Current Superstitions. I. Omens of Death’ in The Journal of American Folklore, 2 (4), pp. 12-22.

Bergen, Fanny D., Beauchamp, W. M. and Newell, W. W. (1889b) ‘Current Superstitions. II. Omens of Death’ in The Journal of American Folklore, 2 (5), pp. 105-112.

Daniels, Cora Linn, and C. M. Stevans (2003 [1903]), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, Vol. 2, Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific.

Igglesden, Charles (1932) Those Superstitions, London: Jarrolds.

McCracken, Gary F. (1992), ‘Bats in Belfries and Other Places’, BATS magazine, 10:4, http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/bats-magazine/bat_article/562.

Simpson, Jacqueline, Roud, Stephen (2003), A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford: Oxford University Press.