Funeral and Death Superstitions Around the World
Death superstitions have a habit of making ordinary things suddenly feel much less ordinary. A clock stops at the wrong moment. A bird comes into the house. Someone hears three knocks at the door, but there’s nobody there. A dog starts howling in the middle of the night. In folklore, any one of them could be taken as a warning that someone was going to die.
Then there are the rules that begin after a death has happened. Cover the mirrors. Open a window. Carry the coffin feet first. Don’t look back on the way to the graveyard. Tell the bees what has happened. In some places, even going straight home after a funeral could supposedly bring a spirit back with you.
You find beliefs like these all over the world. The details change enormously between Scotland, Jamaica, Norway, Guatemala, Japan and everywhere in between, but death is one subject where people have always been particularly wary of ignoring a warning or getting a ritual wrong.
Why were clocks stopped when someone died?
If someone died in the house, one old rule said the clocks should stop too. Sometimes only the clock nearest the person was stopped. In other families, every clock in the house was halted and left that way until after the funeral.
The custom has been recorded in Britain and Ireland and travelled into parts of North America. Some explanations are fairly practical, like the stopped clock preserved the time of death. Folklore gave it a more unsettling meaning. Allowing a clock to continue ticking could supposedly bring another death into the household.
The Bexhill Museum records stopping clocks among Victorian death superstitions, along with covered mirrors and several supposed signs that somebody was about to die.
Ireland gives us more detailed examples. One account in the National Folklore Collection from County Louth says all the clocks in the house were stopped at the hour of death and weren’t wound again until the funeral was over.
Why cover the mirrors after a death?
If you stopped the clocks, there was a good chance the mirrors were about to disappear under sheets or cloth as well.
One of the best-known explanations says the dead person’s soul could become trapped inside a mirror. Another warns that whoever saw the corpse reflected in one would be the next person to die. There are versions where even seeing your own reflection while the body remained in the house was considered dangerous.
The same County Louth account records the mirrors being covered until the body had left the house. Similar beliefs turn up elsewhere in Europe too, although the reason for covering them isn’t always the same.
Mirrors already had an uneasy place in superstition long before they entered the funeral room. If you want to follow that particular trail, there’s a separate history behind why breaking a mirror is supposed to bring seven years of bad luck.
Opening a window gave the soul a way out
Another old rule was much easier to understand. When someone died, you opened a window so their soul could leave the room.
The belief was recorded in Britain and Ireland and travelled into North American folklore too. If the soul needed to move on, shutting every door and window around it apparently seemed like a bad start.
There was sometimes a warning attached. If you didn’t give the spirit a clear way out, it could remain in the house instead. That turns what looks like a simple household action into something much more important, which was, you weren’t letting in fresh air, you were making sure the dead actually left.
Why is the coffin carried out feet first?
You may have heard the expression about leaving somewhere “feet first.” Funeral folklore gives it a particularly literal meaning.
One traditional warning says the body should be carried from the house feet first so the deceased can’t look back through the doorway. If they left head first and looked back at the people still inside, they could supposedly call another member of the household after them into death.
There are perfectly practical reasons for moving a body feet first, especially through doors and down stairs, but that didn’t stop a supernatural explanation attaching itself to the habit. Once the dead person was leaving, nobody wanted them choosing company for the journey.
Scotland had a particularly grim churchyard superstition
Scottish folklore had plenty to say about death, and one belief recorded in Aberdeenshire made being the last person buried in a churchyard an especially unfortunate position.
The ghost of the most recently buried person was supposedly forced to guard the churchyard gate until the next burial released them. That meant if two funerals were due at the same graveyard on the same day, neither family wanted their coffin arriving second.
An account from 1799 quoted by the University of Edinburgh’s Statistical Accounts of Scotland project describes funeral parties actually racing to get their dead buried first. According to the account, if they reached the gate together, matters could get physical while the coffins waited.
The reason wasn’t about getting the best grave. Nobody wanted their relative condemned to spend the time until the next funeral acting as the churchyard’s ghostly gatekeeper.
You were supposed to tell the bees when someone died
If a beekeeper died, somebody still had one more piece of bad news to deliver. The bees had to be told.
In the custom known as “telling the bees,” someone would go to the hives, announce the death and sometimes cover the hive with a piece of black mourning cloth. The bees could also be told about marriages, births and other major family events.
Leaving them out was supposed to have consequences. The Museum of Cambridge records the belief that bees which weren’t informed might leave, stop producing honey or even die.
The superstition crossed the Atlantic and appears in North American folklore as well. Bees weren’t being treated as ordinary livestock here. They were members of the household, and apparently they did not appreciate finding out about a death late.
New England had no shortage of signs that death was coming
If you lived in nineteenth-century New England and were inclined to believe the folklore, quite a lot of ordinary household events could suddenly become worrying.
A picture falling from the wall could warn of a death. So could strange cracks or breakages, certain dreams, unusual knocks and the behaviour of animals and birds. A bird getting into the house was particularly hard to shake off as a bad sign.
Clifton Johnson collected hundreds of New England signs and superstitions in the 1890s. His book, What They Say in New England, is available through the Library of Congress and includes an entire section devoted to death beliefs.
You can see why these signs lasted. If a picture fell off the wall and nothing happened, you probably forgot about it. If a relative died two days later, nobody in the family was forgetting that picture.
Newfoundland had three knocks and the mysterious “fetch”
Newfoundland folklore has its own collection of warnings, known in some traditions as forerunners: strange things that happen before a death and are only fully understood afterwards.
Three unexplained knocks are one example. You hear someone knocking at the door, go to answer it and find nobody there. Rather than assuming the visitor gave up unusually quickly, folklore could turn those knocks into notice that a death was approaching.
Then there’s the fetch. This was an apparition or double of a living person, and seeing one could be understood as a warning that the person whose likeness you had seen would soon die.
Memorial University’s Folklore and Language Archive has a collection specifically catalogued as “Forerunners, or signs of impending death”, with records involving fetches, apparitions and the three mysterious knocks.
It’s a good example of how British and Irish traditions could cross the Atlantic and then develop a life of their own in Canadian communities.
In Jamaica, don’t point at a grave
Jamaican graveyard folklore gives you a much more specific rule, and that is, keep your finger to yourself.
A well-known superstition warns against pointing at a grave, particularly at night. The usual threat is that the finger you pointed with will rot or become damaged because you’ve disturbed or disrespected the dead.
There is, fortunately, a remedy. One version tells you to bite all ten fingers after accidentally pointing. The Jamaica Observer includes the grave-pointing warning among familiar Jamaican superstitions.
Older Jamaican folklore also contains death omens involving animals. A dog howling mournfully at night could be taken as a warning of death, a belief that has close relatives in several other parts of the world.
Owls carry some very bad news in Mexican and Maya folklore
If one animal has been unfairly burdened with predicting death across a huge stretch of the world, the owl has a strong claim to the title.
In Mexico and across parts of Mesoamerica, owl calls and appearances have long been connected with illness and death. The familiar Mexican saying Cuando el tecolote canta, el indio muere links the owl’s call directly with somebody dying.
But there isn’t one “Maya owl superstition.” Different communities have recorded their own versions. Research published by the University Press of Colorado brings together accounts from across Mesoamerica. In nineteenth-century Yucatán, an owl landing on or flying over a house could supposedly predict death or disease. Among Q’eqchi’ communities, a hooting owl has been recorded as a death omen, while in some Kaqchikel traditions an owl appearing at a house could announce that someone living there would die.
Among Ch’orti’ Maya communities in Guatemala, particular birds and calls have also been treated as warnings. A black owl remaining near a home for several days could supposedly mean a family member was going to die.
These are specific community traditions, not beliefs you can apply to everybody in Mexico or Guatemala. But they show just how persistent the owl’s connection with death has been across Central America and Mesoamerica.
In Chiloé, the birds and even the tide could warn of death
Travel much further south to Chiloé, the island archipelago off southern Chile, and death omens become tied closely to the landscape.
Older Chilote folklore gives several birds the unpleasant job of announcing that somebody is going to die. The call of the nocturnal raiquén was taken as one warning. An owl calling near a house could be another. Other birds circling or facing a home were given their own predictions about a death in the family.
The sea could supposedly give its own signal. One traditional belief connected the moment of death with the falling tide, something that makes a certain kind of sense in a place where the sea has always shaped everyday life.
Memoria Chilena, the digital collection of Chile’s National Library, describes Chiloé as one of the country’s richest surviving centres of traditional belief and mythology and provides access to historical collections recording these island superstitions.
You don’t have to look very far to see why a bird appearing at the wrong moment could become memorable. If someone in the house was already sick, an unfamiliar cry outside at night was almost ready-made for an omen.
Norse folklore gave the raven a familiar job
Ravens are so strongly associated with Norse mythology that it would be odd if death folklore left them alone. It didn’t.
An early collection of Icelandic folklore explicitly describes the croaking of a raven as an omen of death. In one story, a raven lands near a house and begins calling loudly, prompting verses that connect its arrival with people who are “death-doomed” and with ravens gathering around the dead after battle.
The account appears in W. A. Craigie’s nineteenth-century study of early Icelandic folklore, drawn from medieval Icelandic sources. That makes it far more relevant here than simply listing Viking burial customs or explaining who went to Valhalla. This is a clear death omen, with the raven’s call believed to warn that someone is about to die.
Later Norwegian folklore found death warnings everywhere too
Norwegian folk belief didn’t leave death prediction entirely to the raven. Dogs, horses and several birds could supposedly notice what people couldn’t.
Store norske leksikon’s account of Norwegian death folklore describes a widespread belief that death sends warnings ahead of itself. Dreams and visions could do it, but animals were especially useful. Dogs and horses were thought capable of sensing an approaching death, while the tawny owl was known as a daudfugl, literally a “death bird.”
A dog howling at night could mean death or fire. Even the way a dog lay on the floor could be read as a warning. Norwegian folklore records a dog lying with its head between its paws and facing the door as a sign of a coming death.
So Scandinavia gives us both the older Norse raven omen and later rural beliefs where animals were still supposedly noticing death before the humans around them did.
Estonian funeral folklore could predict who would die next
Estonian death folklore was particularly interested in the possibility that one funeral wouldn’t be the last for long.
If a grave collapsed after it had been filled, one belief said another member of the family would soon die. An oversized coffin could carry a similar warning. There were also rules surrounding the journey to the cemetery.
You weren’t supposed to look back during the funeral procession if you wanted to avoid another death. In some versions, the first person encountered by the procession could even give a clue about the age or sex of whoever would die next.
These beliefs are recorded in the Estonian journal Folklore in a study of death customs and beliefs. The same research records precautions intended to stop the dead returning, alongside plenty of signs that supposedly predicted another death.
In Persian folklore, even a shooting star could mean someone had died
A shooting star sounds like the sort of thing that should come with a wish. Persian folk tradition could give it a much less cheerful meaning.
Encyclopaedia Iranica records shooting stars as omens that commonly presaged somebody’s death. Howling dogs, a donkey braying while sitting down and a cock crowing at an unusual time could also warn of death or serious misfortune.
That doesn’t mean every Persian household followed the same list. These are recorded folk beliefs, and local versions could differ. What’s striking is how familiar some of the signs are. The howling dog that worried people in Persia also turns up as a death warning in Jamaica, Scandinavia, Britain and North America.
Hausa folklore gave owls the same gloomy reputation
The owl’s reputation as a death messenger reaches into West Africa too. In Hausa tradition, owls have been recorded as birds of bad omen whose appearance could warn of death or catastrophe.
A study of Hausa poetry published by Cambridge University Press notes the traditional reputation of owls as harbingers of imminent death or disaster.
Again, that is Hausa tradition, not an “African belief.” Africa contains thousands of cultures and languages, and the fact that an owl has a bad reputation in one community doesn’t tell you what somebody elsewhere on the continent believes.
In Japan, hide your thumbs when a hearse passes
Japan gives you one of the more specific things to do when death passes by, and this is, hide your thumbs.
If you see a hearse or funeral procession, an old superstition tells you to tuck your thumbs inside your fists. One common explanation is connected with the Japanese word oyayubi, meaning thumb, which contains oya, the word for parent. Hiding your thumbs could therefore protect your parents from an early death.
There are older explanations too. A Japanese library investigation into the superstition traces beliefs about protecting the thumbs when encountering funerals, graves or other things associated with death. One older idea treated the area around the thumbnail as a place through which a soul or harmful influence could enter or leave.
You could follow the rule without knowing any of that, of course. Plenty of superstitions survive as “just do it” long after the original explanation has been forgotten.
In the Philippines, don’t go straight home after a funeral
If you’ve just left a Filipino wake or funeral, folklore gives you one more stop to make before you go home.
The superstition is called pagpag. Instead of travelling directly home, you stop somewhere else first: a shop, restaurant, café, mall or another ordinary place. The destination isn’t really the important part.
The point is to shake off anything that might have followed you from the funeral. If you go directly home, the spirit of the dead or another harmful influence could supposedly follow you through your own front door.
The USC Digital Folklore Archives records pagpag from a Filipino family whose members continued the practice after moving to the United States. The informant explained it very simply: you stop somewhere else so you don’t “bring death to the household.”
It’s the sort of superstition that can be surprisingly difficult to ignore even if you don’t seriously expect a ghost to come home with you. Once someone has told you not to go straight home after a funeral, doing exactly that can suddenly feel like an unnecessary experiment.
In Māori tradition, a fantail inside the house can be a death omen
New Zealand has another bird that can become bad news when it turns up in the wrong place.
The tīwaiwaka or pīwakawaka, the New Zealand fantail, has an important place in Māori tradition. In one story, the fantail causes the death of Māui when its laughter wakes Hine-nui-te-pō while Māui is attempting to overcome death.
That connection gave the bird an ominous meaning in some traditions. Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, records the fantail entering a house as a harbinger of death.
The important part is the location. Seeing a fantail outside is completely ordinary. It’s the bird coming inside the house that changes the encounter into an omen.
Why are birds and animals so often blamed for predicting death?
Once you start looking across these traditions, animals keep appearing. Ravens in Iceland, owls across Mesoamerica and West Africa, fantails in New Zealand and howling dogs in places thousands of miles apart all end up carrying messages nobody wants to receive.
There doesn’t need to be one ancient superstition connecting them. Nocturnal animals already behave in ways that can seem strange if you don’t know what they’re doing. An owl calls outside a sick person’s house. A dog starts howling when the street is otherwise silent. A bird suddenly flies into a room. If a death follows, it’s very easy to remember the animal as having known first.
The same thing happens with falling pictures, broken glass, knocks and dreams. We’re much better at remembering the eerie coincidence that was followed by bad news than all the eerie coincidences that led to absolutely nothing.
What happens if you ignore a funeral superstition?
According to the folklore, the consequences range from inconvenient to dreadful. Another family member could die. The dead person might remain in the house. A spirit could follow you home. The bees could leave. Your finger could rot. A grave could warn that another funeral was coming.
There’s no evidence that leaving a mirror uncovered, hearing an owl or forgetting to stop somewhere after a funeral can cause or predict a death. These are traditional beliefs, not reliable warnings about what is going to happen.
That hasn’t stopped some of them surviving remarkably well. You can laugh about being told not to point at a grave and still find yourself lowering your hand. You can insist that you don’t believe in ghosts and still decide there’s no harm in stopping for a coffee on the way home from a funeral.
Death seems to be particularly good at producing that reaction of “I don’t believe it, but I’m not doing it.” Sometimes that’s all a superstition needs to make it into another generation.
Explore more warnings, lucky signs and traditional beliefs in Superstitions and Omens.