Superstitions on Graves / Mourning

Superstitions about the hearse:

Journey:
• A hearse stopping at someone’s door on the way to the funeral-death omen for the householder.
• A hearse having to be turned around on the way to the funeral –death omen of another family member.
• Interruption of a funeral procession – unlucky.
• A hearse returning to the house after the funeral –bad luck.
• Being the first person to drive a new hearse – unlucky.


Seeing a hearse:
• Seeing an empty hearse coming towards you-lucky.
• Turning around to watch a hearse go by –unlucky.
• Keeping your head covered when a funeral procession goes by –unlucky.
• Counting the number of cars in a funeral procession-unlucky.
• Looking at a funeral through a window-unlucky.

Superstitions about graves:

Touching:
• Walking on grave –unlucky.
• Pregnant woman treading on a grave-her child will be club-footed.

Pointing:
• Pointing at a grave – will make your finger rot.

Meeting:
• Meeting at graveside-unlucky.

Flowers:
• Picking a leaf or flower from a grave.-unlucky.

Digging:
• Digging a grave north and south-unlucky.

Open:
• Leaving a grave open a Sunday-unlucky and presages another death.

Disturbing:
• Using the headstone or other materials from a grave for building purposes-unlucky.
• Digging, plowing, or planting on ground in which a body has been buried-unlucky.
• Collecting epitaphs from tombstones – unlucky: you risk losing your memory.
• Exhuming a body that has been interred – this is a death omen for members of the deceased’s family.

Cures:
• Being near or in an open grave –curses all manner of illness including toothache, boils, and incontinence.

Superstitions about Burial:
• Being the first to be buried in a churchyard-unlucky.

Last buried:
• The spirit of the last corpse buried –remains there to watch over the others.
Position:
• Burying a corpse in the north side of a graveyard-unlucky.

During burial:
• Throwing a rose into a grave-unlucky.
• Burying a corpse in the north side of a graveyard-unlucky.
• Running during a funeral-unlucky.
• Sun shining on the face of a mourner-death omen.
• Leaving the door of the deceased’s house open during the burial-lucky.
• Being unable to fit the coffin into the grave-misfortune for the mourners.
• Having someone from the deceased’s hometown present at the burial-allows the deceased’s soul to rest in peace.

Postponing:
• Postponing a burial-unlucky.

                              Superstitions on Mourning

Relatives:
• Relatives of the deceased must not appear in public places or wear jewelry in case the evil spirits take them too.

Plants:
• Tying a piece of black ribbon around plants on someone’s death –prevents then dying too.

Speaking:
• Speaking ill of the dead – unlucky.

Clothing:
• A mourning veil worn by a widow –prevents death catching her too.
• Falling in love while in mourning clothes-you will never marry.

Color of mourning clothing
This differs between countries, some examples are: