by Chloe Rhodes
Many of the superstitions surrounding the dead in this period stemmed from the idea that the departing soul would loiter on earth for as long as possible before making its journey either upwards to heaven or downwards to hell. During this time of restlessness it would look for other souls to keep it company on its journey, so doing anything to antagonize the newly buried was seen as foolhardy in the extreme. (See also The Covering of Mirrors after a Death.)
By the eighteenth century the superstition had evolved so that a more generalized misfortune would befall anyone who walked on a grave. The English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge puts it succinctly in his 1798 poem ‘The Three Graves’: ‘To see a man tread over graves / I hold it no good mark; / ’Tis wicked in the sun and moon, / And bad luck in the dark!’
The belief remains prevalent in America and across much of Europe. In predominantly Catholic Brittany there is a walled cemetery at the Church of Lanrivoare where 7,727 ‘unnamed saints’ are buried, which is so strict about the superstition that you can enter only after you have removed your shoes. Failure to abide by this rule is said to have once resulted in a visiting stranger falling backwards so that his entrails came out.
NEVER REMOVE FLOWERS FROM A GRAVE
Archaeologists believe that burial rituals can be traced back to the Middle Palaeolithic, when, in Europe, Neanderthals buried weapons alongside their dead. There is some evidence to suggest that plants and flower heads were buried with bodies in this era, and, though this has yet to be proved, the custom of decorating a grave with flowers is known to date back at least to Roman times, when bodies were buried with numerous important possessions that might be useful in the afterlife. Miniature gardens were laid out over burial sites so that the spirit of the newly departed could enjoy their tranquillity once they were at peace, and cut flowers were placed alongside tombs as offerings to the Gods.
The ancient Romans would have considered it disrespectful to both the gods and the soul of the person within the grave to take anything left by the bereaved at the graveside and it is still seen as callous and morally wrong to do so. Since at least the early nineteenth century there has been an added deterrent for any would-be flower snatcher – the superstitious belief that taking flowers from a grave would lead the thief to be the next to be buried.
The belief is especially strong where it relates to the picking of living flowers that are growing naturally on a grave, since these are said to indicate that the person buried within was good. Weeds growing on a grave are said to suggest the opposite, which is why many superstitious people take special care to tend to the graves of their loved ones.
A diluted version of these traditions still survives today and has, in fact, experienced something of a resurgence in the West in recent years, with modern graves being decorated with items of clothing, favourite personal effects of the deceased and plastic flowers. It’s a change that has caused consternation among traditionalists within the Christian church, who believe the metaphorical message conveyed by live flowers – that their beauty, like human life, is transient, has been lost.
IT IS BAD FORTUNE TO USE SCISSORS ON NEW YEAR’S DAY
New Year is celebrated at different times and in different ways, with a huge range of customs and rituals. New Year’s resolutions, for example, can be traced back to the Romans, who made offerings and sacrifices and were on their best behaviour throughout January in order to win favour with Janus, the god of beginnings, and ensure a lucky year. They gave gifts to each other, a custom which continues in Latin countries, and they believed that the beginning of anything, a journey, a chore and especially a new year, was an omen as to how it would unfold.
One traditional belief that survived well into the Renaissance, and that lasts in a diluted form to this day, held that your actions or circumstances on the first day of the New Year set the tone for the whole of the year ahead. This meant that on 1 January (for countries using the Gregorian calendar) cupboards had to be full, fires must be kept burning and any activity that had symbolic links to loss or misfortune had to be avoided.
One such activity was the use of scissors. In folklore, scissors were imbued with special powers to sever more than just the fabric and paper for which they were designed (see Never Give a Knife or Scissors as a Gift). In the Middle Ages they were used as protection against witchcraft and were hidden near a doorway to prevent witches from entering, or secreted beneath a cushion or under a rug to make a witch feel uncomfortable in a room and force her to leave without using her wiles to harm the inhabitants. Their protective powers were thought to be magnified if they were left open in the shape of a cross, adding the divine protection of the crucifix to the strength of the iron or steel and the keenness of the sharpened blades. Using such a powerful instrument on the first day of the year, even for a minor domestic task, was frowned upon as it risked cutting off good fortune for the coming year.
NEVER GIVE A KNIFE OR SCISSORS AS A GIFT
One of the best sources we have of the superstitions and old wives’ tales that governed the lives of our distant ancestors is a medieval French manuscript called Les Évangiles des Quenouilles, which, in around 1470, recorded on parchment the wisdom of six peasant women. The manuscript is a precious resource for those interested in folklore for two principal reasons: firstly, until this time, knowledge of this kind was passed down orally and rarely documented, which means that many of the beliefs and customs of the Middle Ages have been lost to us. Secondly, because it dates from before the vilification of village wise women as witches, the women whose observations appear in it were free to divulge their ancient lore, charms and cures without fear of persecution. Thus we have a richer, more detailed account of the folklore of the time than we could have hoped for once women like the manuscript’s authors were shunned, or worse. In 1507 an English translation of the manuscript, called The Gospelles of Dystaues, or The Distaff Gospels, was published and within its pages can be found early versions of many of the superstitions we’re familiar with today.
Among them is this still commonly held belief that giving a knife or a pair of scissors as a gift will result in the bonds between the giver and the receiver being severed. The Distaff Gospels put it like this: ‘If a man offers a knife to his mistress as a New Year’s gift, you should know that their love will cool off.’
The only antidote to this was for the recipient to give a coin in return. This was seen to count as ‘payment’ for the knife and ensured that it wasn’t technically a gift. All early references to the belief focus on knives, but by the early 1700s the superstition had extended to include scissors, which were also believed to have the power to cut ties between people, their friends and their fortunes. (See also It Is Bad Fortune to Use Scissors on New Year’s Day.)
ITCHING PALMS
We all like a superstition that presents the possibility that something beneficial might be coming our way and the modern version of this belief allows for a bit of optimism: if your left palm itches, you will soon receive money. Perhaps as a result of our desire for good news, combined with the fact that this is a superstition based simply on an observation rather than an action, it has stood the test of time, though few of us pay much heed to an itch on the right palm, which is said to indicate the imminent loss of a substantial sum.
Some sources suggest that the origin of this belief lies with the Anglo-Saxon practice of rubbing diseased skin with silver to cure it. The first documented use of silver in medicine dates back to the eighth century, when silver filings were used to purify blood and ease heart palpitations and by the twelfth century, the word ‘silver’ had evolved from the Old English ‘seolfor’ and it was being used widely for medicinal purposes. Modern scientists now understand the anti-bacterial qualities of the silver ion and it is still used in wound dressings, especially since the rise of antibiotic-resistant infections like MRSA.
However, while we consider an itchy left palm a lucky thing, our Elizabethan forefathers saw it as a curse, linking it to greed and cove
tousness. Even if the money flowed in, the desire for money, which they believed was indicated by an itching palm, was seen as a very bad quality. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus observes: ‘Let me tell you Cassius, you yourself are much condemned to have an itching palm.’
While we certainly prize wealth in the modern age, we also recognize the perils of preoccupying greed, and though we don’t think of an itching palm as a sign of avarice, we do still say ‘he’s got itchy palms’ of people whom we suspect of trying to swindle money out of us.
LIGHTED CANDLES AND EVIL SPIRITS
Candles have been associated with spiritual activity since pre-Christian times. They were used in pagan ceremonies and the late Egyptians used them in magical rituals in which they stared into the flame before sleep in the hope of seeing the truth in their dreams. By the twelfth century candles had become part of religious tradition and began to appear on church altars and in blessings. Within the Catholic Church they were also used in rituals designed to exorcize demons, and it was this association with the spirit world that gave rise to the belief that a flame would go out in the presence of evil.
A candle spluttering out during a ceremony was said to indicate the presence of a malign spirit, especially on All Hallows Eve, when evil spirits were thought to roam freely. In East Anglia, where Halloween was known as ‘Lating Night’, candles were traditionally lit by villagers just before midnight and carried though the fields and common lands. If the flames guttered and the candles died out, evil was afoot; if they went on burning steadily, the villagers could rest in the knowledge that they’d escaped a haunting.
The power of the candle against dark forces was cemented by their inclusion in the list of weaponry prescribed by the Dominican prior and inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, whose treatise on witchcraft and how to repel it became a handbook for the witch-hunters of the Middle Ages.
Later, a candle was customarily placed at the bedside of the sick to keep demons at bay and if it burned blue, it was taken to mean that a ghost had entered the room, perhaps to escort the soul of the dying person to the next realm. If it sputtered out for no apparent reason, it was taken as a sign that the patient was about to pass away. A candle is also often left in a room after someone has died, but this is where European and American folklore diverge. In the US it is considered unlucky to leave a candle burning in a room in which there is no living guardian of the flame, some saying it invites the death of a friend or relative.
BURNING CHEEKS MEAN SOMEONE IS TALKING ABOUT YOU
This superstition is still recited often today if someone feels a burning sensation in either their cheeks or ears. The nature of the words being spoken about you varies in some interpretations: some say a burning on the left side means someone is speaking ill of you, while on the right means you’re being praised. In Pennsylvania if both sides burn it’s said to mean two people are arguing over you.
All versions have their roots in early superstitions about witchcraft and the ability of wise women to cast spells on people. ‘Cheek burning’, as it was known in the Middle Ages, was an indication that some sort of magical influence was at work on the sufferer, so this counter-curse was recited to rebuff the spell:
Right cheek left cheek, why do you burn?
Cursed be she that doth me any harm:
If she be a maid, let her be staid;
If she be a widow, long let her mourn;
But if it be my own true love – burn, cheek, burn!
A curse like this would usually have been made only by women, so the final line was included in case the spell had been cast by a witch at the request of the afflicted woman’s sweetheart hoping to make her fall more deeply in love with him, in which case she would gladly allow the magic to do its work.
As belief in the power of witchcraft lessened, the phrase was used to refer to people who might be criticizing the sufferer and several less potent antidotes were devised. The Pennsylvanian solution was to bite the corner of your apron, which was said to make back-biters bite their tongues. A more widespread American custom was to lick the tip of your finger and press it on the burning cheek while reciting the names of anyone you suspected; the guilty party was the one whose name was on your lips when you felt your cheek grow cool.
A SUDDEN CHILL THAT CAUSES A SHIVER MEANS SOMEONE HAS STEPPED OVER YOUR GRAVE
We’re all familiar with the sensation: you might be merrily chatting away about some inconsequential thing or other when suddenly you shudder, icy fingers creep up your spine and your skin tingles. ‘Ooh!’ you might exclaim, ‘someone’s just stepped on my grave.’ Few of us actually believe it, but when the phrase was first in use – by at least 1738 when it first appeared in print in Simon Wagstaff’s A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation – they really meant it (Wagstaff was one of many aliases of the satirist Jonathan Swift). The saying comes from an earlier legend that the site of your future grave was pre-determined, and that if someone walked over the place where that grave would one day be, you would feel a deathly chill and shiver in response.
This notion relied on the medieval acceptance of fate or destiny. It wasn’t until the Renaissance that the concept of individualism began to take root and people started to believe that they could change the course of their lives, who they would become, and where and how they might die. Most people living in the Middle Ages believed that their life paths were predetermined by God and that their final resting place was therefore set. They also believed that the veil between the living world and the afterlife was thin and porous, allowing spirits, and prophetic sensations, to move freely between the two.
As time went on the phrase spread to America and became established in the legend-rich Appalachian Mountain region. Soon variations began to appear; by the turn of the twentieth century a Welsh version held that the shiver was caused by a donkey walking over the grave, while in Newfoundland it was a goose. This latter version is thought to be an example of a kind of retrospective modification: the shiver induced goose bumps, or gooseflesh, so, gradually, a goose took the place of a person in the phrase. Then, when people began to wonder about the origins of words and phrases, they found themselves asking ‘which came first, the goose or the gooseflesh?’
IF A BROKEN CLOCK SUDDENLY CHIMES, THERE WILL BE A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
Many death omens date back to before the scientific revolution of the Renaissance, but this one is comparatively recent. It wasn’t until the late sixteenth century that clocks began to appear in people’s homes; before then early mechanical clocks were used in church bells (the word ‘clock’ comes from the French word ‘cloche’, meaning bell), which were the only means, aside from the movement of the sun, for people to tell the time. In Tudor times it was only the wealthy who could afford a complex time-piece and for most people, working in the daylight hours and resting at dusk was as accurate as they needed to be with their time-keeping.
Grandfather clocks were becoming popular in the homes of the rich by the middle of the seventeenth century but it wasn’t until the mid-eighteenth century that mechanical clocks were a regular feature of ordinary homes. These early clocks needed regular winding to keep time and the winding mechanisms were vulnerable to damage. Over-winding or winding the wrong way could cause the workings of the chime to become unsynchronized or cause the clock to stop completely. To many people, this seemed a sinister sign: having relied for so many generations on the position of the sun to tell the time, the notion that time might stop was alarming. A stopped clock was associated with a life at its end and if one that had long been silent suddenly chimed, it was taken as a message from beyond the grave that a death was imminent.
A book written by the American minister Reverend Samuel Watson in 1873 called The Clock Struck One, and Christian Spiritualist: Being a Synopsis of the Investigations of Spirit Intercourse by an Episcopal Bishop, Three Ministers, Five Doctors, and Others, at Memphis, Tenn. illustrates how seriously the superstition was taken. As its curious title suggests, th
e book is a collection of what we might now call ‘paranormal’ events, including several accounts of old clocks striking just before a death, including before the deaths of Watson’s wife and two of his children.
‘It is popular with some people to ridicule facts when they have no evidence of disproving them, or argument to overthrow them,’ Watson writes. ‘There are many things occurring equally “singular and mysterious” but people do not like to be called “superstitious” and hence rarely mention them.’
WRAPPING A NEWBORN CHILD IN ITS MOTHER’S CLOTHES UNTIL IT HAS BEEN BAPTIZED
While there are still countless superstitious beliefs surrounding childbirth and newborn babies, this one is likely to be less familiar to modern readers. In fact, only just over half of newborns are christened in the UK and America these days, which shows just how much times have changed since this custom was common practice. In the Middle Ages, baptism usually took place within a week of the birth but the many who died before they had been baptized were believed to exist in the ‘limbo of infants’ – a section of hell set aside for those still sullied by original sin but too young to have committed any personal sins that would consign them to the ‘Hell of the Damned’. Similar beliefs existed in European countries; for example, Scandinavian folklore said their souls became will-o’-the-wisps that drifted like mist over marshland.
