I want to spend today talking and thinking about superstitions regarding death. Although I am an atheist, I’m not immune, no matter how jokingly I’ll say “I need to eat black-eyed peas for New Years” – I also kind of really feel this, and am already slightly panicking about the fact I’ll be at Disneyworld on New Years, and I’m uncertain how to go about acquiring black-eyed peas.
Will this likely have any impact on my actual luck for 2022? No.
Will I still blame instances of ill-fortune on not eating black-eyed peas? Probably.
I know, rationally, it’s foolish. Outgrowing and moving beyond traditions is a difficult thing, even if we don’t actively believe them.
What are superstitions around death?
Naturally, there are dreams. Dreams of death can herald the death of the person in the dream, or being a warning to yourself, some would say. Obviously, this is all just coincidence, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t unsettle us for a while after the dream.
There are also animal omens of death, including certain owls, crows, bees, butterflies, roosters, black dogs, cats, moths, vultures, and bats. Some of these may be obvious, as scavenger creatures – or opportunistic enough. Others, perhaps less so. Apparently, if a cat sleeps at the foot of a bed, death is imminent. Seeing as I have a cat that does this every night and I haven’t died, I think that can safely be crossed off the list!
Bees and roosters were also odd, and apparently it is when bees swarm around a rotted tree, there will be a death. Also, for roosters, it’s only if they crow at night.
The moth wasn’t clear to me as an omen of death – the butterfly was, given its symbolism and ties to the spirit. It appears tied most notably to the “black witch” moth, where it is believed if a moth enters and exits a home – particularly if an ill person is in the home – then there will be a death.
Adding to that, it is sometimes believed that if a moth visits all four corners of a house, that will lead to death, tying into another death superstition, the number 4. While not applicable with the moth (which is mostly an Americas, and notably, Central and Southern American like Mexico), the number four is often tied to death in East Asian nations, because of how similar Four sounds to Death in many of those languages. This goes on to the point of skipping floors that would be the 4th floor, 14th floor, and things like that. Oddly enough, I noticed a 13th floor skipped in a hotel once!
Which, while not directly related to death, 13 is considered a highly unlucky number that may bring about death, too.
If a flower blooms out of season, most notably a rose, it means doom. Speaking of plants, if a cedar tree dies in your yard, someone in your family will die.
It’s also thought that deaths can only occur when the tide ebbs.
If rain gets into an open grave, someone in that family will die in a year. But, if the sun is shining, and shines on your face at the funeral, you’ll die – there’s just no winning here.
If you arrive late, or early, to a funeral – more death.
And don’t count the cars in a funeral procession! That will only lead to your own death.
If three people look into a mirror at the same time, one of them will die. Breaking a mirror can also be an omen of death, not just bad luck!
If a picture falls off a wall, the person in that picture will die.
If you bake bread, and it splits at the top, someone in the household will die…if you ever need justification to not bake, ever again.
If you sleep with a fan running, and windows closed, you will cause your own death.
If a clock suddenly stops, your death will be sudden. Also, when someone dies, you should stop the nearby clock – letting it run is bad luck.
Opals are an evil stone, and will cause death.
Will-o-wisps or corpse candles are an omen of death – strange lights with no identifiable source.
If you light a candle, and the wax drips down towards you, then you are going to die.
If you hear three knocks, and no one is there, it is death come knocking for you…or your loved ones.
The list of superstitions related to death go on and on, and some seem even contradictory or just simply untrue. Really, they’re all untrue, but that doesn’t stop minds from worrying if something we’ve grown up with in our culture, happens.
The only death omen I tend to think about, when it occurs, are those relating to white horses, crows, or dreams. For the first two, I have to be in a rather specific mood to even notice it, and put it into that context. For dreams, well, dreams are a pain.
The main thing I like to remember is my mom’s interpretation of it, which is that death in a dream is simply something that means “change”. That, and all dreams are usually just our memories trying to organize themselves while we sleep, so it is usually just things from the day, the week, getting sorted while we rest. So it doesn’t really mean anything, and if I dream of death, it’s because I was focused on it.
None of these superstitions really mean anything other than the meaning we give them. That’s the power we’ve given over to things, in an effort to organize our lives. Likely, death followed these kinds of events in the path, and it was easy to blame the incident, and then avoid it. We humans learn like that.
Just like if we get bit by a dog, we may shun all dogs. It’s an extreme reaction to protect ourselves. That’s really what superstitions are – there was a coincidence that happened enough, or was talked about enough, that now the culture shares in the belief that it isn’t just a coincidence.
Some of these are “rational” coincidences. Carrion creatures naturally look like they bring death.
Others may be questionable, like split bread and fans. One has to wonder how that bread one began; at least the fan one I can imagine a paranoid (and unfortunately, vindicated) mother going on about that, but bread baffles me.
This is to show you how many things you may think are ordinary, or even intentional, which in some cultures may be a death omen. Hopefully, it will show you the odds of your particular death omen really being a death omen are fairly slim, and likely the result of coincidences, spread across time like wildfire.
A bad game of telephone across history, that leaves us with these trinkets to cause anxiety.
But really, if anyone has more details about the bread thing, tell me.
