Following are some superstitions and folklore about death and cemeteries. See how many your students have heard of, and then have them add to the list.
| SIGNS OF DEATH |
|---|
| if a black beetle crawls up your sleeve |
| if a picture suddenly falls from the wall |
| if a cow moos after midnight |
| if you hear an owl outside your window seven days in a row |
| if a stopped clock suddenly begins to strike |
| if a bird flies into the house and sits on a bed |
| if a bird pecks at the side of a house |
| if a very ill person "picks at the bed covers" |
| if you kill a redbird or a bluebird |
| if a rooster crows in the doorway, or a hen crows |
| if you dream of a cemetery |
| if you hear 3 knocks on a door & no one’s there (signifies the sound of nails closing a coffin) |
| BAD LUCK SIGNS |
|---|
| if you step on a grave |
| if you carry anything (flowers, etc.) out of a graveyard, if the item does not belong to you |
| if you desecrate or damage a cemetery in any way |
| if a gravedigger does not stay to see the grave filled and covered |
| if you collide with a hearse or stop a funeral procession |
| if you see a funeral procession. If you count the cars, worse still |
TO FIND OUT, on New Year’s Eve at midnight, go into a dark room and look in the mirror. If you see a coffin, you will die within the next year.
OR sing this jump rope song:
Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie
How many years before I die
One year, two years, three, four
(Jump rope until you miss!)
Pioneer Superstitions, Ferne Shelton, ed., Hutcraft, High Point, NC, 1969
Telling Fortunes, Alvin Schwartz, Harper & Row, 1990
