Superstitions About Death

Welcome on this Weird Wednesday! Death is a natural part of life, and humans are naturally superstitious. A deathbed is a highly emotional and sometimes fearful place, so it’s not surprising we’ve developed a slew of superstitions about this inevitable event. So let’s take a look into a room with all the doors open and mirrors covered…

Superstitions about death fall into two main categories: actions meant to ease the passage of a dying person, and actions taken after the death to ensure the soul rests easy (and that death doesn’t visit others in the household).

At a Deathbed

Some superstitions about death work on the belief that physical things can hinder a metaphysical passage. For example, if the deathbed itself is lying perpendicular to floor boards or ceiling beams, it’s thought to keep the dying person from making an easy exit. Deathbeds may thus be moved so the bed is lying parallel to the boards and beams. (In fact, the floorboard thing is said to be so powerful that lying crossways can cause nightmares or even the death of a healthy person.)

Likewise, closed doors in a death chamber can prevent an easy death. Superstition says everything must be opened: doors, windows, drawers, cupboards, and even boxes in the house, no matter the weather. It’s also thought to be bad practice to stand in front of or lean over a dying person, as you might literally be in their way. 

And lastly, for whatever reason, it’s said people can’t die on a featherbed or with a feather pillow under their head, which means you might actually need to move your nearly departed to the floor—parallel to the boards, of course.

After a Death

Remember that open door? Well, you’d better leave it open until after the burial: “shut one corpse out, three corpses in” is the rule (Opie and Tatem, 117). After all, you don’t want to trap the Angel of Death inside your house.

Some more well-known post-death superstitions concern clocks and mirrors. Clocks should be stopped at the time of death and only restarted after the body has been taken out of the house, signifying that earthly time has ceased to matter for the departed, and their spirit should move on. 

Mirrors and other reflective objects should also be covered. It’s said the dead won’t rest if they are visible in a mirror, and their soul might even be trapped there. Even more creepy, if you look into a mirror in a death chamber, you might see the body looking over your shoulder!

And now for some deadly writing prompts!

• Through a glass, darkly. Yep, we’re going to start with mirrors, because I find them incredibly creepy. (I’ve even got a whole post about them.) I think a death chamber with the mirrors covered would make a great set-up for a horror story, because what’s creepier than a mirror? A mirror you can’t see into. Your character would have no idea what’s really showing on that mirror—what horror they’d see if they pulled back that sheet, and the longer they sit there by the deathbed wondering, the more the tension would grow.

• Stay a while. The idea that you can prolong the dying process by placing the bed across the boards or closing doors is also creepy. What if you had a character who wanted to do that…on purpose? Maybe they hate the dying person. Maybe they want them to answer a question. Or maybe they just can’t bear to let them go.

• Final destination. Many of these superstitions treat death as something supernaturally contagious that can spread to other family members, animals, and even plants. Maybe it’s some unknown process, or maybe there’s an actual Angel of Death who might want to linger. Your story could give a reason for Death sticking around: perhaps it has a quota to fill, or perhaps the death is literally contagious and others are infected. Or maybe the Grim Reaper is just hungry.

• What’s the buzz? It’s not just death that you need to announce to family beehives: weddings and births must also be reported. Some superstitions state that wedding favors, funeral crepe, or baby blue or pink ribbons should even be attached to the hives. No one seems to know why, but like all farm animals, bees can be important to the family fortunes, and also clearly intelligent. So perhaps it’s just a gesture of respect. A fictional take could delve into the consequences of not telling the bees of a death: perhaps the bees leave or die, or perhaps death comes to the human members of the family instead. Bees can certainly be deadly creatures…

• Last night I saw upon the stair. Obviously, souls trapped in death chambers, houses, or mirrors make for a good ghost story. What might happen if a ghost is accidentally kept in a house instead of moving on? Would they be visible in reflective surfaces? Would they keep trying to open the doors and windows? Would they want to kill someone else and try to escape with them? And how would you get rid of a ghost trapped in the linen closet?

Thanks for spending your Weird Wednesday here! Wherever you go next, I hope your journey is an easy one.

Check out my related posts on  Omens of death, Deathbed visions, and Crisis apparitions

Sources & further reading:

Opie, Iona, and Tatem, Moira. A Dictionary of Superstitions. Oxford University Press, 1996. On Goodreads

Telling the Bees: Wikipedia