By the end of the American Revolution funerary traditions began to transform themselves, adapting to the preferences and beliefs of the new nation. The former traditions, rooted in European rites, began to give way to the Puritan religious beliefs that were predominant in Colonial America. The Puritans burial process entailed sending out public announcements, receiving mourning friends and family to view the deceased in their home and finally a funerary procession and religious service was held before internment in the church cemetery. After the burial, women and children carried out the mourning process by dressing in black, removing themselves from social activities, writing letters to distant relatives to announce the death and keeping a solemn air about them for the period of one year.

By the mid 19th century the country found itself divided by civil war and the funerary traditions again began to shift. During this time many of those young men who went to off to fight for their ideals and families returned home in a pine box. Many families felt that, in order to properly honor their loved one and the sacrifice that was made – especially for those young men who were cut down in the prime of life – bigger and more elaborate visually oriented funerals were in order. Mourning continued to be the responsibility of women and during this time women added mourning jewelry containing a lock of hair and a photograph of the deceased to their traditionally black attire. Additionally, for those who had the available funds, séances and post-mortem photography became another in-vogue tradition for those families in mourning during this period.

In early 20th century postwar America discomfort with death created a dramatic increase in commercial funerary preparations that would take the rites of death out of the home and into funeral parlors where the services were supervised by a funeral director or an undertaker. It was during this period that the personalization of the last rites, photo collage displays of the deceased or even performances of their favorite music began to work their way into the memorial services.

During the last three centuries much has changed in American funerary rites but one common thread runs through each of these time periods: the superstitions and beliefs that have been passed down by oral tradition from generation to generation. Compiling a complete list of folklore and superstitions about funerary lore would be nearly impossible, so, in lieu of that I present a list of some of the most popular funerary traditions and superstitious folklore that has been a part of the American fabric since Colonial times. These superstitions have popped up in one corner of the country or another for the past three centuries and now they are being passed on to you.


• A raven or other black bird seen on the house of a man who is ill is a harbinger of death’s coming.

• When a photograph or painting of a person falls from the place where it was hanging for no apparent reason it is said that that person will die soon.

• A clock in the house will stop working at the moment someone in the house dies.

• Old sailors have said that if a man is ill the ebbing tide will take the remainder of his life with it, back into the sea.

• It is unusual for a white rose to appear in autumn, however, if one blooms this foretells of death in the house where it has bloomed.

• If you drop a mirror in which you have just been looking you have shattered the reflection of your soul, and thusly doomed yourself.

• At night, if a dog is facing you and it howls you will soon die.

• Sailors believe that a sick man on board a ship will not die until land has been sighted.

• The tapping sounds of the Death Watch Beetle foretells of a death in the house.

• If a dead person’s eyes are left open, he will find someone to take with him.

• Mirrors in a house where a person has died should be covered otherwise the next person who looks into the mirror will see the deceased and will be the next to die.

• Funerals held on a Friday portend another death in the family later in the year.

• Unexplained knocking sounds are an omen of death.

• Taking ashes out of a stove after sundown will bring a death in the family.

• If a broom is rested against a bed the person who sleeps there will die soon.

• If a woman is buried in black she will return to haunt the family.

• Thunder following a funeral means that the deceased person’s soul has reached heaven.

• If a rose blooms twice in the same year it portends death.

• If a cow moos after midnight someone in the house will die.

• A white moth either in the house or trying to get into the house means that someone in the house will die in the near future.

• If a person dreams of a white horse someone close to that person will die soon.

• Dropping an umbrella on the floor means that there will be a murder in the house.

• If you hear an owl hoot during the day there will be a death in the family, this is especially so if the owl looks into the window or tries to get into the house.

• If someone dies in a house and there are any locks that are locked the soul of the person will not be able to escape the house and go to heaven.

• If a bird flies into the house, someone in the house will die soon.

• Traditionally, after sundown, when the evening meal is set and served after a deceased individual’s funerary rites have taken place a chair and place setting is left vacant in remembrance of the recently departed.


Before the advent of modern medicine, when a person died and was buried, a string was tied to the finger of the deceased that was run up from the coffin to a bell above ground. This step was taken as a precaution since, as it turned out, some persons who were unconscious for whatever reason had been buried alive – as scratch marks on the coffin lid indicated when the individual was disinterred. Should a person be buried alive, when they would wake up they would panic and the string would ring the bell, hence the term dead ringer. The family member who was assigned to sit in the cemetery overnight and listen for the bell was said to be on “the graveyard shift.” Perhaps some of this old folklore has a “ring” of truth to it afterall…


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