Notebook of Ghosts

Welcome to a new series: Indiana Folk Beliefs. For the next five weeks (we are on week 4), I will be sharing a new theme each week. These will be short and sweet posts. You’ll notice some of these folk beliefs expand beyond the Hoosier state.

This week’s topic is death. Which superstitions or folk beliefs also appear in your community’s folklore?

• Dream of death, you will hear of a wedding.
• Turn the mirrors to face the wall, when there is a corpse in the house. Or place veils over mirrors.
• Stop the clocks if there is a death in the house.
• It’s bad luck to have a grave open overnight.
• A dog howling while sickness is in the home is a sign of death.
• Sneezing at the breakfast table is a sign there will be a death in the family within a week.
• A picture falling from a wall is a sign there will be a death in the family soon.
• A bird flying in the house is a sign of death.
• Ticking in the wall is a sign of an upcoming death in the family. It’s called the “death watch.” I’m assuming this is a reference to the deathwatch beetle.
• A ringing in the ears is a sign of death.
• Someone died on Sunday? There will be another death in the community before the week is over.
• Looking for a drowned body? Bring a sheet from that person’s bed and lay it on the water. It will float above the location of the body and then sink. Or use their shirt, which will remain stationary over the body’s location.
• “Dream of the dead, hear from the living.”
• Touch the face of the dead and you will not dream about them.
• If three people light their cigarettes from one match: the third smoker will die, the youngest of three will die first, one of them will die soon, and one of them will die before the year is out. I guess don’t share a match.
• If two people sweep the floor together, one of the brooms should be thrown out or one of them will die.
• If two people make a bed together, a member of a family will die.
• If you miss two consecutive rows when planting corn, someone in your family will die by the year’s end.
• If a comb is dropped on Sunday, a death will occur the following week.
• If you trade chickens, a member of your family will die within the year.
• Don’t count the number of cars at a funeral or someone in your family will die.

Sources

Busse, Ora S. “Indiana Folk Beliefs, Omens, and Signs.” Hoosier Folklore, vol. 6, no. 1, 1947, pp. 14-26.

Halpert, Herbert & Paul G. Brewster. “Folk Beliefs and Practices from Southern Indiana.” Hoosier Folklore Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 2, 1943, pp. 23-38.

Halpert, Violetta Maloney. “Death Beliefs fro Indiana.” Midwest Folklore, vol. 2, no.4, pp. 205-219.