At funeral homes serving the area of Everson, WA, there are often questions or concerns from people who are making funeral arrangements for their loved ones that either have superstitions about death embedded in them or are actually a superstition about death that has been around for a long time.

Here are some of the most common superstitions about death.

Some superstitions about death are directly related to what happens to the body of someone who has died. Some of these superstitions include:

• Closing all the windows in the home so that the soul of the person who died could not fly out. Some people still do this when a loved one dies, while other people open the windows in their home after a loved one dies so that their soul can be free.
• Covering all the mirrors in the home so that the dead person’s spirit wouldn’t be trapped in them. Another reason that mirrors were covered in the home was the superstition that the first person to see their reflection in the mirror after the death of a loved one would be the next person to die.
• Stopping all the clocks at the time that the loved one died to mark the time of death. The clocks would be started again after the funeral for the loved one was held.
• Closed the deceased loved one’s eyes and covering their eyes with coins. This particular superstition can be traced back to ancient Greece. When someone died, a coin was placed in their mouth so that payment could be made for their transition through the underworld.
• More recently, coins have been placed on the eyes to keep the dead loved one’s soul from leaving the body and causing harm to those who were still alive.
• Carrying the deceased loved one out of the house feet first. This superstition was carried out because people believed it kept the loved one who had died from looking into the house and getting someone else in the family to join them.
• Watching over the body from the time of death until the body was removed from the home for burial. This was both a superstitious and a practical practice. The superstitious part of watching over a body was to ensure that the deceased loved one’s soul didn’t leave their body.
• The practical part of this practice was to make sure the loved one was actually dead, so they wouldn’t be buried alive (unusually common in the 1800’s before advanced medical processes were in place to confirm death).
• When watching over a dead loved one’s body, people covered their mouths when they yawned so that the deceased’s spirit couldn’t enter their body.
• Turning all family pictures over so that the spirit of the loved one who had died could possess any of the living family members.

There are also many superstitions about death that focus on cemeteries and burials. Some of these include:

• Mourners covering their faces to protect their identities so they would be protected from those who had died.
• Pallbearers wearing gloves so that the spirit of the deceased person couldn’t enter their bodies.
• Funeral bells were rung to keep the deceased’s spirit from entering the bodies of the living mourners who were present.
• If it rained during a funeral, then that was a supernatural sign that the person who had died was going to heaven. If the rain was accompanied by thunder, that was a sign that the deceased person had actually made it to heaven.
• People should never whistle in a cemetery because it summons the devil.

For information about funerals at funeral homes serving the area of Everson, WA, our compassionate and experienced team at Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory – Greenacres Memorial Park is here to help.