Clearfield County Paranormal Investigations

Burial:

The business of interring the remains of the dead has always exercised great fascination, and the folklore of every culture is heavy with taboos and rituals tha must be observed if the souls of the deceased are to prosper and the living are to be untroubled by their ghosts.

One of the most widespread traditional beliefs is that the body should be buried in as complete a state as possible. If a limb is missing, for instance, the deceased risks spending the whole of eternity without it, and in the past people often preserved their lost teeth and so forth so that they might be buried in the grave with the rest of the body when they finally died. In northern England the dead person was often buried with his own Bible, hymn book and Sunday School class ticket, and elsewhere even with treasured personal belongings. Some people still balk, however at the idea of a wife being buried with her wedding ring or with other peices of jewelery, on the grounds that this will cause offense in Paradise.

The business of transporting a corpse to its final resting place is governed by a welter of taboos. When it comes to the actual interment yet more superstitions apply. Sites towards the eastern and southern boundaries of a graveyard are the most desirable, the northern quarter (colder and less open to the sun) being reserved in former times for criminals and suicides.  In the past, the opening of a new graveyard sometimes posed a significant challenge, for no one would volunteer one of their deceased relatives for the "honor" of being the first to be interred, despite the free choice of location. The reason for this reluctance was the widespread belief that the Devil always claims the sould of the first corpse for his own.  The difficulty was usually overcome by burying an animal of some kind first.

In eastern England, the burial of a woman is sometimes regarded as a cause for considerable local concern, reflected in the saying "If churchyard opens for a she, it will open for three." In France, meanwhile, the last person to be buried in the year becomes a symbol of death, and their image will be seen by those fated to die the following year.

Most curious of all is the ancient British business of symbolic burial, which involves the faked burial of a living person (usually a sick child) in the belief that this will fool the evil spirits causing the malady and promote the patient's recovery. In Ireland, the custom is particularly linked with children born at Whitsun, who are allegedly fated to kill or be killed. Similarly, "dipping" someone repeatedly into an open grave is said to be effective in the treatment of fever, whooping cough and rheumatism, among other ailments.

Lastly, it is maintained in many societies that great misfortune will attend anyone who destroys a graveyard or otherwise disturbs the dead.

Calling the Dead:

A person who calls out the name of a deceased person in a dream or fever is presumed in both US and African cultures to be close to death.

If a dying person speaks the name of someone living this too is ominous, for the person named will be next to die. German superstition claims that calling out the name of a dead person three times on Christmas Eve is sufficient to cause their ghost to appear.

Caul:

The amniotic membrane that sometimes covers a newly delivered baby's head. Cauls have always been much prized by the superstitious, especially by sailors, who believed among other things, the person would be protected from death by drowning. It is maintained by some that a caul should be buried with its owner when he or she dies, or the ghost of the deceased will walk abroad in search of it.

Churchyard Watcher:

The spirit of the person most recently buried in a churchyard, whose duty it is to watch over the people buried there until the time comes to summon another living person to the grave and thus to be relieved. In some rural areas there may be contrversy when a churchyard is closed; the relatives of the last person buried there may complain that this means the deceased is comdemned to watch over the churchyard forever. In past times unseemly brawls would sometimes break out when two funeral parties met in the churchyard at the same time. Each would try to ensure that their own friend or relative was not the last to be laid to rest and thus delayed from departing this Earth. The sound of the churchyard watcher's cart making its way down country lanes was much feared in many communities. Variants on the tradition around the world include the Ankou figure of Breton folklore, who is said to lay an unseen hand on those who are doomed to die or to scythe down anyone who comes within his reach.

Clock:

Timepieces are inextricably linked with the coming of death due to the passage of time, so most of the superstitions associated with them are of a dark hue. Many legends talk of clocks that chimed or otherwise stopped at the moment when someone died, and it was once the custom on both sides of the Atlantic for all the clocks in a house to be stopped manually when there was a death in the household. They were not rewound until the body had left the house.

A church clock that strikes while a hymn is being sung is an omen of a death in the parish within the week. It is also deemed unlucky if it should strike during a wedding service, suggesting the death of one member of the couple within the first year; some brides will refuse to enter the church until the clock has finished chiming.  A town hall clock that chimes while church bells are ringing is a warning that a fire will shortly break out in the vicinity.  If two clocks strike together, a married couple in the parish will shortly meet their deaths.

Coffins:

European tradition warns that it is wreckless in the extreme for anyone to lie in a coffin, even for a joke, before their time has come. In addition no corpse should be laid in the coffin wearing clothing belonging to a living person; as the clothing rots, so the owner of the clothes will suffer a decline in health. It is customary for coffin lids to be nailed shut, but some people prefer to leave them loose, so that their occupants may be able to escape more easily on the day of resurrection. Any chair or table upon which a coffin rests should be tipped over when the coffin is removed, to guard against another death occurring in the household in the near future. Amulets and rings made from the metal fixings of old coffins are said to prevent cramps, while coffin nails banged into the bedroom door will ward off nightmares.